Text - Rhodes University

4. CONCLUSION
The comics are all printed in black and white; this is a choice dictated by the expense of
colour printing. Only Bitterkomix have used one-colour covers.
Almost all work is pen and ink, some brush and ink featuring occasionally; Bitterkomix
have experimented only briefly with charcoal and pencil. This tendency is as much for
reasons of reproduction and costs as for simplicity. To choose an easily reproducible
medium from the beginning (ink rather than charcoal) sidesteps some printing
requirements, like bromiding. In addition, and this is a consideration for many artists
restricted by a small budget, artwork and lettering will remain legible even if copied on
a poor quality photocopy machine. Pen and ink is simply the most efficient and costeffective
medium to work in.
Clarity in the original drawing is also important because much of the artwork is drawn
to A3 proportions, then reduced photographically to A4 sizes for printing. This is done
partly because such a reduction process facilitates detailed reproductions, partly because
that is simply the way "real" comics are done. Despite the artists' often self-concious
denials of aspiration to professional status, there is still a common understanding that all
are working within an already established medium with clear rules and conventions.
Underground comics rebel against their perceived genre, not the comic medium itself.
Reducing drawings prior to printing does take practice, and several artists have struggled
with this. Although reduction improves the intracacy of a work, it can also remove some
of its force. An original layout or composition will seem clear and ordered until it is
reduced, when it becomes murky and cluttered. Bold lines become tentative and lettering
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