Fans of comics and artists to gather for Kids Love Comics Day

The Olympia Timberland Library has joined with Danger Room Comics to celebrate comics and the kids who love them. The day-long Kids Love Comics Day on Saturday will include appearances by two comic artists, the chance to create your own comic strip and a reader’s theater.

The guest cartoonists scheduled for the event are Dana Simpson, who does “Phoebe and Her Unicorn,” and Barry Deutsch, who does “Hereville.”

Simpson grew up in Gig Harbor, lived in Olympia and is a graduate of The Evergreen State College. She developed her comic strip, originally titled “Heavenly Nostrils,” after winning the Comic Superstar contest in 2009. The strip now runs in more than 200 newspapers around the world, including The Olympian.

“Phoebe and her Unicorn” is the story of Phoebe Howell, who as a fourth-grader discovered the unicorn Marigold Heavenly Nostrils.

Now living in Santa Barbara, California, Simpson has produced four book collections of the comic strip.

“Hereville” is a comic book about an 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl, Mirka Hirschberg. Mirka prefers to ignore the offer of knitting lessons from her stepmother and advice from her sister on finding a husband. No, she would rather match wits with a giant troll so she can win a dragon-slaying sword.

Both the writer and artist, Deutsch now lives in Portland. He has produced three “Hereville” books so far.

The two artists will do a presentation 2:30-3:45 p.m., then sign books and greet fans 3:45-5 p.m.

From 10 a.m.-2 p.m., children and families can drop in at the comic strip studio and create a comic strip.

At 2 p.m., Frank Hussey of Danger Room Comics will lead a comic book reader’s theater. Danger Room Comics also will have books for sale.

The free event will run 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, at the library, 313 Eighth Ave. SE, Olympia.

Children are encouraged to dress as their favorite comic book characters.

This event is also sponsored by the Friends of the Olympia Timberland Library. For information, call the library at 360-352-0595 or see trl.org.

This story was originally published October 12, 2016 at 1:55 AM with the headline "Fans of comics and artists to gather for Kids Love Comics Day."