As part of its mission to disseminate information about deafness, deaf and their culture, Manila Christian Computer Institute for the Deaf has put up a project of publishing a comic strip depicting a Filipino Deaf.
The comic strip, the first of its kind in the Philippines, describes the Deaf’s everyday experiences in a light, entertaining and humorous way. This is also another opportunity for the Deaf to inform the public about the challenges they are continually facing and how they were able to cope up with their impairment.
The strip was published for two months from September to October 2005. Three strips appeared every Sunday for a total of six comic strips.
MCCID is very grateful for the assistance and approval of Mr. RONI SANTIAGO, the Editor of the Comics Department of Manila Bulletin. He is famous for his creations like the Miss Tapia character in Baltic & Co., Kuyug and Funny Comics. He provided the Deaf cartoonist some tips and tricks on how to make the frames look funny and draw better punch lines. He also agreed to conduct seminar-workshops for the deaf students on proper cartooning.
For every comic strip published, Manila Bulletin pays Php 120 ($2.15). It’s not that substantial but the benefits of advocacy far outweighs the monetary component.
As part of Diploma in Arts and Computer Design Technology program of MCCID, students learn how to draw using pen and paper which will later be transferred to the computer. You can view the weekly Silent World deaf comics published at the “Weekly Comics” bar on the left side of this page.
Here are the links to the comics arranged according to date published and their corresponding dialogue/explanation: