Text - Rhodes University

is making comics respectable in the eyes of cultural critics is that "comics are attracting
ever more serious artists ready to apply sequential art to the spectrum of literary genres."
(p.53) The difference with undergrounds is that of approach: instead of viewing comics
from a literary angle, the artists are grounded in a tradition that accepts comics
unapologetically as comics, so that the problem of respectability, or lack of it, is not
applicable. The age of the artists is a determining factor; all are still younger than 25 at
the time of publication of their most recent work, still part of a generation for whom
popular 'lowbrow' culture is the dominant culture. To people immersed in pop culture,
demystification is at best irrelevant and at worst destructive.
"Pop that unravels its own workings, undoes itself. Pop, by definition, must
mystify. Marc Bolan ... said it best: 'pop should be a spell.'" (Reynolds, 1990,
p.105)
The concomitant lack of reverence for the medium is a function of this youthfulness. To
most of the artists, work on comics represents an escape from more serious projects. This
accounts, furthermore, for the frivolous, yet literate, quality of some of the work.
South African underground comic artists create largely for an audience of peers. The
confusion that exists in the marketing of more professional comics, as to whether the
audience is composed of adults or children, is not present here. While a few publications
are available in specialist comic shops in Johannesburg and Cape Town, most advertising
is done by word-of-mouth; further publicity is generated through advertisements in music
magazines and other comics, and posters in nightclubs and music shops. Sales are
arranged on a mailorder basis by the artists and writers. The entire process of production
is informal and individually supervised.
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