Text - Rhodes University

Walkin~ on Water by Botes is also narrated in a conventional style, but carries its theme
through to the end. Botes is becoming concerned with the meaning he can communicate,
not just the vehicle. The story is complete over three pages, and ambiguity is due to lack
of explicit comment from the artist in terms of editorial or narrative text, not to
subversions of the structure. The story is also not explicitly personal. Missileman is in a
sense a personal cornic because it is very much about comics. Walkin~ on Water has a
wider frame of reference.
Realistic Romances are three cynical one page stories by Dog. They read like exercises
in cornicmaking, a judgement that could extend to more of Dog's work. The first two are
like edited cornics; the drawings show isolated moments of action, snapshots illustrating
a text [fig 50]. The third is more cinematic. This seems to be a major dichotomy in Dog's
cornics, as he wavers between literary or cinematic approaches. It is even a major
difference between Botes and Dog. Dog errs on the literary side, while Botes is more
traditionally cinematic. Dog's stories tend to be contemplative, dwelling on silent
significant moments, and texts tend to be narrator oriented. Botes is story and character
oriented, trying to create the illusion of a selfsufficient world that is only partially
revealed through description in his cornic. Dog's cornic world exists only for the comic.
Figure 50 Dog Realistic Romances pI
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