Text - Rhodes University

In Kanker Botes' subject is again the psyche of the Afrikaner. His drawings have become
progessively more primitive, violent, and grotesque. The lushness and sensuality of heavy,
flowing black lines contrasts with the bleakness of the story, and suggests a kind of black
humour underlying the tragedy. Depictions of characters are almost caricatures, and
farcical expressions and details emphasize the grimness of the plot [fig 51].
In Dog's de constructive comics, pace tends to be uniform throughout, as befits an
academic exercise. Pace is the visual equivalent of narrative tone, and cinematic pacing
makes the story more realistic. In Kanker Botes is trying to convey meaning through a
narrative of events, and the pace changes rapidly following the demands of the plot.
(Photographic cropping further enhances the illusion of realism). As the climax is
reached, action is condensed, and the pace increases. On page 4 of the comic [fig 51],
tension is built through slow, step by step action; the time depicted almost corresponds
to the time it takes to read these frames. In the last dramatic frame, more than one
action is depicted in the same frame; fewer frames correspond to the same reading time.
Pace increases and drama is heightened.
Thus the events of the story create its reality and its message visually.
Surprisingly, A Short and Feeble Affair by Dog is similar to Van Zyl's stories in spirit
and mood. Dog employs the same spareness of drawing as Van Zyl; while Botes'
drawings sometimes have an almost hallucinatory intensity of detail, Dog and Van Zyl
concentrate only on the necessary.
A Short and Feeble Affair has the same structure as Kanker, with a prolo~e and ending
and an action-packed middle. However, the transition from one section to the next is not
indicated by a change of pace. Instead, the entire method of storytelling changes. This
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