Text - Rhodes University

Figure 53 Dog Jeugweerbaarheid pl (reduced)
This is the third Max Plant adventure; he serves the same function as the narrator in A
Boy Called Julia, but that narrator was a self-portrait. Plant is a portrait. The comics are
ostensibly accounts of his experiences, rather than those of the artist. He is a real person
(in the comic sense) with consistent and particular attributes.
In this comic Dog is concerned with more than the mechanics of comics. Although he still
uses many references to and quotations from other sources to support his argument, these
are subtly inserted into an account of reality, rather than a comic construction. The
overall effect is that of conventional illustration.
What Goes Around by Botes is pure scatalogical humour. The comic is a crude yet
sophisticated critique of society. Botes uses the techniques of American underground
comics of the 1960s, in which the deliberate crudity is part of the critique, being a refusal
to engage with the object of derision on its terms.
The narration is purely visual, with panoramic views and closeups and peeks through
windows. The plot is constructed like a classic argument, with thesis, expansion, and
closing statement similar to thesis but more comprehensive. This is partially achieved
through layout, specifically by changes in frame size emphasizing particular moments. But
the greater part of the structure is articulated through viewpoint. The story begins in
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