Text - Rhodes University

Some verbal comic conventions are mocked as lofty narration is contrasted with
colloquial dialogue [Fig 11]. Furthermore, captions. are in English and speech in
-.
Afrikaans. The implication is that the comic format is simply a transparent disguise;
telling the story in conventional, unimaginative "comics" English is merely a way to
present events that occur in an untranslatable real language.
The use of two languages reflects an aspect of comics that will be examined in more
detail below, as the Bitterkornix artists themselves confront it: the fact that the comic
medium itself is an intergration of two languages, the visual and the verbal.
Botes' In die Arms van 'n Apokalips continues the subversive stance adopted in the first
issue. Mockery or deconstruction of other media is incorporated, but not centrally, in the
form of visual puns or jokes. That the story is a commentary on the paranoia and
limitations of Afrikaner nationalism in general and institutions like the National Party
and the Broederbond in particular, is less important in defining its originality than noting
that the metaphor set up for reality is extended to the point at which it has its own reality
and can be read as a story in itself. Drawing the main character· as a caricature of FW
de Klerk is sufficient as a pointer to the intentions of the artist, but the character is given
a life of its own; this carries the story beyond a mere parable or simple joke.
Figure 12 Bates In die Arms van 'n Apokalips p9
106