ABSTRACT
Human development is “a process of enlarging people’s choices. The most critical ones are to lead a long and healthy life, to be educated and to enjoy a decent standard of living. Additional choices include political freedom, guaran - teed human rights and self-respect” (Human Development Report, 1990, p. 10). Led by non-for-profits, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), govern - ment outreach agencies, or corporations, human development projects address issues such as poverty, health, gender inequality, diversity, and environment. Comics have proven to be a useful communication and outreach method for these projects. Figure 1 from the Barangay Nutrition Manual, created by the Nutrition Center of the Philippines in 1977, is an example. In 1978, a presidential decree (Malacanang, 1978) mandated that every barangay in the Philippines should have one Nutrition Center extension worker, known as the barangay nutrition scholar (BNS), to monitor and deliver nutrition services and related activ ities such as community health, environmental sanitation, and family planning. According to the Center’s founder and director Dr. Florentino Solon (per sonal communication, April 2013), the manual was a very useful tool for the BNS to learn and help the community learn about development topics. According to Parlato, Parlato, and Cain’s (1980) study, similar comics have been used by development projects in various countries over the years. In this book, I refer to these comics as development comics, which are (for the most part) non-for-profit giveaways developed for underprivileged (or “at risk”) audi - ences and have a pronounced focus on their social welfare. Although develop - ment comics may contain instructions, because of their specific audience and purpose, they are generally different from instructional comics discussed in Chapter 5, which focus on conveying profession-, product-, or task-specific directions and assume a more general audience. The origin of development comics may well be entertainment comics that happened to address development issues, especially health issues. Sofalvi and Drolet (1986), in a content analysis of Sunday comic strips published in the
Figure 1. Planning balanced meals (The Nutrition Center of the Philippines, p. 89). Copyright of the Nutrition Center of the Philippines.
