Call For Translations

Silent Comics are for everyone, regardless of their language and country of origin. Images are universal and need no translation. Except for the title. Translating the series title would help the project break the language barrier even further. In this spirit, this is a call for native speakers to translate “Silent Comics” in their language.

Want to help to translate these two words in your native tongue? Please send a line to hoa / at / silent-comics / dot / com or a tweet to @SilentComics.

The Brief

In English, the name SILENT COMICS is more or less self-explanatory. It draws a parallel with silent films so we understand at once that it is either about wordless comic book stories or maybe even about mime. The main idea here is returning to a simpler form than what comics have become. Going back to the original simplicity of the medium as a visual narrative. Without text¹, without dialogues, just pictures in sequences.

The long tradition of picture books from the origin of comics and before is also an inspiration. Hokusai Manga, in Japan, then Rodolphe Töpffer’s Estampes, in Europe and German wordless novels during the 20’ and 30’.

How would this idea translates in your native language?

The title’s translation doesn’t have to be literal. But it should convey the same feel it has in English, and it should sound pleasing.

List of languages

Translations are welcome for the following languages (pick yours):

A

Abkhazian, Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic: الحكايات الصامتة Armenian, Aymara, Azerbaijani

B

Belarusian, Bengali, Berber, Bislama, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Burmese

C

Cantonese, Catalan, Chinese Mandarin, Chichewa, Croatian, Czech

D

Danish, Dari, Dhivehi, Dutch, Dzongkha

E

English: SILENT COMICS, Estonian

F

Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French:

• “Bande Dessinée Muette”
• ”BD Muette”
• ”BD Silencieuses”

G

Georgian, German: Stummcomic, Greek, Guaraní

H

Haitian Creole, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hiri Motu, Hungarian

I

Ibo, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian

J

Japanese:

• kanji + hiragana 静かな漫画

• Kanji + katakana 静かなマンガ

• hiragana + kanji しずかな漫画

K

Kazakh, Khmer, Kinyarwanda, Kikongo, Kirundi, Kituba, Korean, Kurdish, Kyrgyz

L

Lao, Latin, Latvian, Lingala, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish

M

Macedonian, Malagasy, Malay, Maltese, Manx Gaelic, Māori, Moldovan, Mongolian, Montenegrin

N

Ndebele, Nepali, New Zealand Sign Language, Northern Sotho, Norwegian

O

Ossetian

P

Punjabi, Papiamento, Pashtu, Persian, Polish, Portuguese: QUADRINHOS SILENCIOSOS

Q

Quechua

R

Romanian, Romansh, Russian

S

Sango, Serbian, Seychellois Creole, Shona, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovene, Somali, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swati, Swedish

T

Tajik, Tagalog, Tamil, Tetum, Thai, Tigrinya, Tok Pisin, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Turkish, Turkmen

U

Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek

V

Venda, Vietnamese: Truyện tranh câm (?)²

X

Xhosa

Y

Yoruba

Z

Zulu

source — List of official languages - Wikipedia

Found your language missing? Want to improve upon or suggest an alternative translation? Get in touch with @SilentComics or send a line to hoa / at / silent-comics / dot / com.

Existing translations:

English, Arabic, Japanese, German, French (could be improved?), Portuguese

SILENT COMICS script

Translated into Arabic

Japanese translations

Samples above use M+ fonts.

Thanks

Warm Thank You to Soraya, Yoshihiro and Andre for their help translating Silent Comics into Arabic, Japanese and Portuguese. You are most kind!

1. See the SILENT COMICS manifesto. ↩

2. My own tentative Vietnamese translation, please improve if you are a native Vietnamese speaker 😀 ↩