This post was updated Oct. 26 at 7:27 p.m.

Most book talks hinge on their words. But for Jillian Tamaki, sharing her work was all about the slideshow.

On Tuesday, the English and gender studies departments hosted a talk from Tamaki, a graphic novelist, in collaboration with the Asian American Studies Center. The talk, which was held at the Charles E. Young Research Library, saw the Caldecott Medal-winning graphic novelist describe her process for co-writing her recent novel, “Roaming.” In her lecture, Tamaki said a key part of her creative process for her recent books has been collaborating with her cousin Mariko, whom she has never lived in the same city with. She added that the novel was originally conceived when the two sent emails containing parts of the dialogue to each other before she started sketching the panels of the graphic novel.

“She really is very open to me bringing my own sensibilities and visual ideas to the book,” Tamaki said. “I feel like writing is very puzzle-like, and then she would pass it back to me and then I would try to work out the kinks.”

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Tamaki also said her process for designing her graphic novels heavily centers sensory details, especially since she trained as a graphic artist. When writing a graphic novel, she often visits some of the places that serve as the setting for her characters and takes pictures of the scenery to ensure continuity, she said.

“I needed to go to those places to really get the details correct, including some not-so-picturesque details,” Tamaki said.

To find inspiration for her designs, Tamaki said she looked through Google Rewind, photos from tourists and obscure YouTube videos to find inspiration for her designs. Research has been a particularly important part of her process, she said, because of the way that modern landscapes have changed since she lived in New York in 2015. When writing “Roaming,” Tamaki said she focused on ensuring that scenes captured the chaotic busyness of its New York setting by including weird compositions and occasionally blurry scenes.

One of the things Tamaki said she found difficult when writing was ensuring factual consistency, including with clothing and locations. She added that she had to work with a continuity reader to ensure the consistency of details, such as which fingers a character wore her rings on.

Before writing “Roaming,” Tamaki also received acclaim for writing “This One Summer,” a coming-of-age graphic novel. When asked about censorship of “This One Summer,” such as it being banned from schools in Minnesota and Florida, Tamaki said she felt one of the reasons why her work has received criticism is because of its exposure.

“That book (‘This One Summer’) got banned a lot because it had visibility, because it won some awards,” Tamaki said. “The more people that know about your work, the more people are not going to like the work.”

Doctoral student Rae Kuruhara, who helped plan and host the event, said they felt the event was an important opportunity for students of all disciplines to learn more about the process of creating comic books and graphic novels. They added that the talk was a valuable opportunity to engage with a published cartoonist such as Tamaki, whose work is studied at UCLA.

“One of the most popular classes in the English department is 91D, which is the intro to comics and graphic media course,” Kuruhara said. “It introduces critical thinking, scholarship and creativity into reading comics, which for most people can be seen as childish or just a pastime that they’ve done throughout their lives.”

[Related: Doctoral student Rae Kuruhara illustrates Indigenous representations in comics]

Bennee Abad, a fourth-year linguistics student who attended the event, said they felt it was inspirational to be able to interact with a professional graphic novel creator. After studying comic books in class, the lecture provided a valuable insight into the artistic process, they said.

“Being able to incorporate this into class was very cool,” Abad said. “It was inspirational to understand how things are made and also how to direct my own process with art as well.”

When asked about the reception of her work, Tamaki said she was initially upset to find that a significant portion of her audience consumes her novels in a single afternoon. However, she said she has since learned to take the quick reading time of her work as a compliment.

“People’s attention spans are so short now,” Tamaki said. “If somebody sits with something for a whole afternoon and reads it front to back, that’s actually pretty good.”