Text - Rhodes University

Sorfa's collaboration with scriptwriters continues in Meeting a Swan, a childlike, lyrical
comic written by Lisa Loewenthal. The artificiality of the language is echoed in the
surreality of the pictures, with classical architectural drawings in the background and
whimsical characters.
On the first page [fig 26) the title and text are in boxes like frames, composed and
decorated to look like pictures at first glance. This does not work technically, particularly
in the text frame because the writing is hard to read. However, it is an interesting
experiment in the construction of a page, examining the interaction between text and
pictures; it tests the limits of the conventions governing their integration.
In Mary Gets Stoned [fig 27), I manage a conventional narrative successfully. The story
is told through the character's speech and actions. It is a short anecdote in two pages
rather than a full comic. But the instant is conveyed through action; the transition to the
second page is the crux of the comic, even its point. The text is minimal, as are the
drawings, so there is no distraction from the mechanism of the story. On the last page the
text is placed so as to support the timing and pace of the transition, hence its impact.
Solid blacks and whites are used to illustrate a change in time and meaning. The
drawings are clear and bold, with little decoration.
The last comic produced by the Komiksoc group was Crisp Whores, as we
disbanded when Sorfa completed his degree in 1993.
Sididis and Cacey reach a compromise in Dolly Does Techno - he pencils and she inks.
It is a Cinderella ["Technorella! !") story, and also a fairy tale about toys coming alive.
Although still subculture oriented, the emphasis has changed to that of techno, the
emerging youth culture of the nineties.
62