MANIFESTO

for simple digital comics

With the idea that creativity emerges from constraint, here are the SILENT COMICS project constraints:

1. Wordless

Strip the strips from text1 to let the drawings do the talking.

2. One Frame Fits All

The story reads a single panel2 at a time on any device, filling the screen or the page. Each frame must have the same ratio throughout the whole story to ease online viewing.

3. Long Form

Long stories divided into small chunks3.

4. Freestyle Graphics

Any4 graphic styles or techniques will do as long as pictures tell a story in sequences.

5. Add Music

In the spirit of silent films, you can watch SILENT COMICS with accompanying music5.

6. No advertising

Advertising-based revenue is not a viable model for webcomics. Nor should it be.

SILENT COMICS is like silent films for comics.

The result is SILENT COMICS, a collection of visual stories in the making.

Watch books.

Comics, Stripped of Words!

A reading-free experience! Perfect for people who can’t be bothered to read comics.

Love comics, but don’t feel like reading? — Silent comics are for you.

Not fond of comics but like picture books? — Silent comics are coming to you on any device, in the universal language of pictures.

Not the wordy type? — Watch Silent Comics.

Version 3.3.2 - June 2020

  1. Remove all dialogues, captions, and onomatopoeia. Elements of text visible in the setting of a scene are fine. For instance, letters painted on a wall, or a graffiti in the background in a particular story are ok as visual elements. Chapter numbers, subtitles, ISBN, text identifying the book title and its author are acceptable. ↩

  2. By design, the online version uses the panel as the smallest unit. The panel ratio is also the base for the grid of future print version. ↩

  3. Each post tells a chapter or episode in 12 to 24 panels, very much unlike the three or four panels cartoons of daily strips. Daily strips are a format apart and different. Brevity makes them perfect for the web. Long-form requires more attention and effort from the audience. ↩

  4. Traditional tools can give a touch of human fallibility to seamless digital interfaces. Original artwork on paper could be a good idea, but there are no rules. ↩

  5. Better yet, pick and share your own musical choice for each story or even compose an original soundtrack yourself. ↩