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structured. Familiar sources, contemporary Afrikaans and South African culture, are used
for jokes and puns, but they are integrated into the narrative rather than being the
subject of it. The Owlhouse is the setting for the story, and details like 'vaaljapie', which
is described as a drug to subdue the slave, reveal a constant awareness of the context of
the story and the comic itself.
Missileman takes on a standard comics theme - the superhero. This genre has been
reworked continously during the 80s and 90s, and many of the first full-length graphic
novels examined the relevance of and ideology behind superheroes. Watchmen [Moore,
Gibbons, 1987], The Dark Knight Returns [Miller, 1986], and initially Love and Rockets
[Hernandez, 1987] are among some of the early examples. The main thrust of these
comics is to humanise superheroes, and explain the forces that make them so powerful,
both the forces that give them superpowers and the forces that make them popular
among readers. Bitterkomix, in their treatment of the genre, owe much to these sources.
In Forbidden Flower, Bates does more than satirize: he mocks, exposes and ridicules
superheroes. With violent, powerful, loose drawings he portrays the cosmic forces
involved, grotesquely debased [fig 10]. Characteristic slapstick humour defuses some of
the viciousness of the attack on this genre.
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Figure 10 Bates Forbidden Flower p2 104