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etween form and content, but also play with the limits of what can be communicated via
this connection, and appear to find it very limiting indeed. They are bitter because
conventional means of expression are closed to what they want to express. Their greatest
achievement thus is found in later issues, when they manage to come to terms, at least
partially, with the artificiality of the medium, and allow the comic a greater space in
which to live while maintaining their (and the reader's) awareness ofits construction. The
example below, from Bitterkomix 4, is from A Short And Feeble Affair [fig 6], in which
Dog maintains a tense balance between the story and the mechanics of the comic.
SAMH (,./OULD DI?OP EY
F~O/rl Tf/E BATHROOM WINDOW
WHEN HE AAt'lG THE BEt./...
Figure 6 Dog A Short and Feeble Affair p2
In An Occurrence [fig 7], Dog starts to deconstruct comics, playing with non-sequitur of
caption and picture. The comic seems to make sense, but also seems inconsequential;
therefore it is arresting. This is a device used in the longer stories to add sparkle and
relief, and more importantly, as discussed above, to express what is possibly inexpressable.
It alerts readers to the structure of comics.
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