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However, because comics are a purely visual medium, and because the first uses of comics were narrative, the similarity to film became so pronounced that the verbal element of comics came under scrutiny. As in early films, sound was a problem. Writing had to be incorporated into the boundaries of the picture frame, and visual equivalents for literary punctuation invented. Thus the narrating voice is sidelined into boxes at the top or bottom of frames, and speech is represented by balloons or speech bubbles - a written speech superimposed on the drawing, with a tail indicating which character is speaking. The verbal economy of this method of depicting sound visually means that overt narration - captions in boxes - can be kept to a minimum. The pictures tell the story. Characters' emotions or tone of voice are expressed through variations in the size of the lettering and the bubble as well as the shape of the bubble. "The balloon itself conditions the meaning, by showing us the kind of force the words are meant to have." (Barker, 1989, p.ll) Loud exclamations, for instance, are shown as large lettering tightly enclosed in a spiky balloon. An indication of the sound of a voice can be given through the lettering itself: squeaky voices, for instance, require thin, scratchy lettering. "It is as if, in fact, we don't READ the words at all. We hear them. We might put it that in the comic form, there is an interaction between the pictureness and the verbalness of the speech-balloon, to produce the meaning of the sound. We 'hear' with our eyes." (p.ll) Thoughts can also be written, enclosed in cloud-like bubbles. The non-verbal nature of thoughts can be expressed symbolically, by placing pictures instead of words within the thought bubble. "The most usual manifestations are in the form of a picture of a lighted electric bulb [to suggest an idea] ...[I]t may even depict entire scenes illustrating a dream or memory." (Couperie, 1968, p.179) In the use of this device, verbal and visual communication are collapsed together in the manner of hieroglyphs; these thought symbols demonstrate clearly the essentials of comic communication. 10
In addition, extraverbal sounds, or 'soundeffects', are written onomatopoeically, without bubbles. Soundeffects are incorporated directly into the matrix of the picture frame - more than any other comic convention, they bring the imitative quality of the pictures closer to that which is purely readable; words like 'zap' and 'bang' are written over the most realistic illustrations. One boy examin.ed by Dr Frederick Wertham, a vehement denouncer of comics in the 1950s, compiled a list of words such as " OWW, ARGHH, OOOHHH, WHAM, GLURG, UGH, GLHELP, KURRACK, PING, TIIUNK, BLAM, mow, UNGH, BAM, ZING, AANGH, ARRGR, OOOOOO!, HAH!, GLUG-UGH" and called it "basic American." (Wertham, p.145) Often the soundeffects are among the most inventive aspects of a comic. Japanese comics, which use a minimum of verbal narrative, incorporate sound effects for almost silent phenomena such as milk being added to coffee (SUROW), or leaves falling from trees (HIRA HIRA). "[W]hen someone's face reddens in embarrassment the sound is PO; and the sound of no sound at all is a drawn-out SHIIIN ..." (Noake, 1988, p.23) Speech bubbles and written sound effects are the most instantly recognisable aspect of comics, the most definitive, and the most important: they are what make comics comics. Any work containing speech bubbles is almost certain to be termed a comic, while comics without speech bubbles are frequently given other names in an attempt to separate them from 'real' comics. A comic frame is not simply a window onto a scene, to be viewed naturalistically. Each picture must be read, scanned for information relevant to the narrative, from details of spatial orientation to more intangible qualities such as emotion. The lettering only carries part of the story. The pictures are not merely illustrative of the captions, but active in the unfolding of the story. It follows that traditional pictorial conventions must be 11
Page 1 and 2: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF SOUTH AFRICA
Page 3 and 4: dialect differs from the language o
Page 5 and 6: "Does he paint? He fain would write
Page 7 and 8: 1. INTRODUCTION What I am attemptin
Page 9 and 10: existence ... until food gets short
Page 11 and 12: is making comics respectable in the
Page 13 and 14: Most of these comics are produced a
Page 15: 2. DEFINITIONS AND TERMINOLOGY The
Page 19 and 20: The decision as to whether visual l
Page 21 and 22: For the first two decades of the tw
Page 23 and 24: Wertham's book The Seduction of the
Page 25 and 26: Undergrounds were amoral, sexual, s
Page 27 and 28: coalesced into comics intended for
Page 29 and 30: 3. ANALYSIS Four different groups o
Page 31 and 32: incomprehensible passages are incom
Page 33 and 34: positive shapes, even or especially
Page 35 and 36: 3.2. KOMIKSOC The confessional aspe
Page 37 and 38: ,0 ::l£~) \e B . f"'CM P'!~t .....
Page 39: Figure 2 Franklin After the Plagues
Page 42 and 43: Sididis's Tripping uses comic conve
Page 44 and 45: example of how the appearance of a
Page 46 and 47: M\..I.A i H !lVIE ou~ rut", """" ""
Page 48 and 49: The artist only solves this problem
Page 50 and 51: text. Yet the frames function in su
Page 52 and 53: of the text, which is the reason fo
Page 54 and 55: omb) are lost in an attempt at pers
Page 56 and 57: a single emotion, depicting various
Page 58 and 59: Figure 19 Breytenbach Eddie Jumped
Page 60 and 61: Content is sometimes allowed to esc
Page 62 and 63: Sorfa's technique saves, lives up t
Page 64 and 65: Figure 23 Casey Showcase: Item 1 pI
Page 66 and 67:
Two people, a scriptwriter and an a
Page 68 and 69:
Sorfa's collaboration with scriptwr
Page 70 and 71:
Casey's understanding of blacks and
Page 72 and 73:
From the whimsical, poetic scripts
Page 74 and 75:
This same regularity forces pace to
Page 76 and 77:
In previous comics, my 'visual writ
Page 78 and 79:
The comic was drawn full-size on A4
Page 80 and 81:
Text shifts between narrative, spee
Page 82 and 83:
Teo iNTE.N5E · Figure 38 Sorfa Spi
Page 84 and 85:
' .. Figure 1 T. Begg The Battle of
Page 86 and 87:
The text of Bone Staircase, by Freu
Page 88 and 89:
of solid blacks and a subjective vi
Page 90 and 91:
Rue, by Sididis, begins well. The f
Page 92 and 93:
completely resolved. Possibly his p
Page 94 and 95:
seems to pick out elements, without
Page 96 and 97:
The awkwardness of this comic is a
Page 98 and 99:
3.4. BI'ITERKOMIX Bitterkomix start
Page 100 and 101:
From Case No. 308, the story of Tom
Page 102 and 103:
Figure 3 Botes, Dog The Tommy Saga:
Page 104 and 105:
'Tj ~. (1) ..,. tj o OQ ;l ,(1) VEI
Page 106 and 107:
etween form and content, but also p
Page 108 and 109:
Another example is figure 8, from A
Page 110 and 111:
structured. Familiar sources, conte
Page 112 and 113:
Some verbal comic conventions are m
Page 114 and 115:
Both artists make use of a great va
Page 116 and 117:
character, Chico D, into a martyr a
Page 118 and 119:
Figure 17 Van Zyl Die Besoek p5 112
Page 120 and 121:
The transitions between panels are
Page 122 and 123:
simply by its silence and inexplica
Page 124 and 125:
Figure 22 Botes Die Mens 118
Page 126 and 127:
Verdwaalde Harte [fig 23J, also by
Page 128 and 129:
Figure 27 Dog, Winterbach Rewerie p
Page 130 and 131:
In Die Hero van die Bitch [fig 29],
Page 132 and 133:
draws the reader's attention to the
Page 134 and 135:
Figure 32 Bates Siembamba 128
Page 136 and 137:
The Proverbs are selected and reint
Page 138 and 139:
In Klapmuts Polisie Slaan Toe, Bote
Page 140 and 141:
Ina van Zyl is more concerned with
Page 142 and 143:
I ROSIE is NUUT deur Ina van ;Zyl I
Page 144 and 145:
M y DEliO !r1OTHER H I..4NG UP I LE
Page 146 and 147:
Botes is very good at acidic social
Page 148 and 149:
The second episode of Missileman, b
Page 150 and 151:
In Kanker Botes' subject is again t
Page 152 and 153:
coincides with the appearance of th
Page 154 and 155:
closeup, then pulls away to explain
Page 156 and 157:
stories in issue 1 are in English,
Page 158 and 159:
4. CONCLUSION The comics are all pr
Page 160 and 161:
The most common genres (my definiti
Page 162 and 163:
the first generation whose world is
Page 164 and 165:
ways of creating this entrance poin
Page 166 and 167:
S. BIBLIOGRAPHY BARKER, M. 1989. Co
Page 168:
Thames and Hudson. NEAL, C. 1987. T
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