Text - Rhodes University

In Die Hero van die Bitch [fig 29], Dog has taken an advertising comic and altered the
text. This is a classic satirical technique, widely used in underground comics. The original
strip frequently appears in mainstream American comics, and is therefore immediately
associated with trashy comics, to the extent that it is virtually shorthand for these comics.
Dog reduces the plot, such as it is, to nonsense, which is in itself a comment on
mainstream comics, ridiculing them by association. The altered text is completely selfreferential.
In the fourth frame, a character comments on his own seemingly implausible
actions, making them even more ludicrous. Die Hero van die Bitch is a bad comic made
interesting, exploring just how bad a comic can be by examining what comics are.
Subversion of a very familiar text forces the reader to notice the structure of the comic,
rather than to believe in its reality. It is a joke within a joke, and a joke about a joke too.
With the subtitle of Alcohol [fig 30], Dog states explicitly how this comic is constructed,
and why it is constructed in this way. It is a visual poem, which is not the same as an
illustrated poem. The difference, however, does lie in the illustrations: the comic starts
with text which is ostensibly illustrated, and then loses the text and turns into pure
illustration. The first three frames could be construed as representations of reality, but
the last two are collages, constructed from a combination of photograph and drawing.
Each is composed of various disparate elements thrown together, and such meaning as
they have is generated by their context and especially their juxtaposition.
Unlike Dog's other non-narrative comics, this one is not merely a visual list. The frames
are clearly sequential, with each one containing elements from the preceding one.
Dog also includes instructions to read the comic to background music, in other words, to
a soundtrack. This kind of note is common in comics like Love and Rockets and Tankgirl,
where the 'soundtrack' is often listed after the drawing and writing credits. It
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