Text - Rhodes University

The preference for illustration and styling disappears as he finds that standard comic
tools can be used effectively to explain things that before he had sought to find new
vocabularies for. Strangeness is contained coherently within a story and stream-ofconciousness
is not used merely for its own sake. Idiosyncracies that convey mood are
kept relevant to the story. At first the artists played with various possibilities; now they
refine and limit themselves to more concise and efficient communication.
Figure 15 Botes A Perfect Little Consumer p5 (reduced)
A Perfect Little Consumer by Botes satirizes advertising. This kind of theme is most
suited to Bitterkomix's work, which is analytical and de constructive in essence and intent.
The message is not explicitly stated, but carried through the development of the story.
The discrepancy between the caption and the picture is slight, but in the context of the
story it explains their fanatical use and enjoyment of this device elsewhere. Figure 15
from this comic explores this tool more visually, using David's portrait of the French
revolutionary Marat. Appropriating the portrait of a heroic martyr turns the main
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