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The comic was drawn full-size on A4 rather than being reduced from AJ, both in order to work faster and to reduce my tendency to small, intricate decoration that becomes fussy when it is reduced. This accounts for some of the simplification, as well as the controlled layout. The first two pages use some of the decorative techniques found in previous comics. The narrative on each page is framed within a decorative splash panel. The splash panel acts as a background for the narrative occurring over it. On page 1 it is a purely decorative introduction of swirling stars, suggesting mood. On page 2 [fig 34] it is more informative, becoming part of the final frame, and conveying information about how the character sees her external reality. : : . . : .z:7 .. · 0 ff'e-ffo ... ? ( Figure 35 Breytenbach Who Needs Misel)'? p3 Transitions are action-to-action, compensating for lack of verbal narrative. Focus on details determines the pace of the story [fig 34], and the size of frames is related to their 72
intended impact. Closeups and cropping are used to create tension and uncertainty [fig 35], particularly through a constant swing from extreme closeup to a more distant view. The character is silent in the first two pages; the introduction of speech is linked to the overall pace of the comic, and functions as a verbal closeup mechanism. Fluctuating background tonalities, from white to grey to black, reinforce dramatic moments rather than depicting realistic lighting. Aesthetic qualities are subservient to information. In this story I have realised some of the potential of traditional comics: used particularly as a storytelling medium, they convey information differently from the way text or pictures do. Through the visual movement of the story, through the actual transitions from frame to frame that create an illusion of movement, a separate, underlying reality is suggested. The real comic is thus an illusion created by the reader as he or she reads, and exists in the relation between frames rather than in the frames themselves. In other comics I explored comic techniques or tools for their own sake, for their visual interest, not for the purposes of the story. Neither the story nor the pictures should intrude on the unity of the comic; therefore the story is integrated through efficient pruning of the text, and the pictures through coherent, simplified compositions. This is a lesson Bitterkomix learnt early in their publishing career. Nothing in Common is an earlier comic of mine that had been printed in Damn New Thing, a Johannesburg fanzine, in drastically reduced form: all four pages were fitted onto one. The justification for reprinting it in the original form was that it was designed around page to page transitions, and much was lost in the reduction. It is a verbally constructed series of very separate incidents and thoughts. <strong>Text</strong> and pictures have bearing on each other, but it is their independance that is actually exploited. 73
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A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF SOUTH AFRICA
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dialect differs from the language o
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"Does he paint? He fain would write
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1. INTRODUCTION What I am attemptin
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existence ... until food gets short
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is making comics respectable in the
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Most of these comics are produced a
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2. DEFINITIONS AND TERMINOLOGY The
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In addition, extraverbal sounds, or
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The decision as to whether visual l
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For the first two decades of the tw
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Wertham's book The Seduction of the
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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 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
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In Die Hero van die Bitch [fig 29],
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draws the reader's attention to the
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Figure 32 Bates Siembamba 128
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The Proverbs are selected and reint
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In Klapmuts Polisie Slaan Toe, Bote
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Ina van Zyl is more concerned with
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I ROSIE is NUUT deur Ina van ;Zyl I
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M y DEliO !r1OTHER H I..4NG UP I LE
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Botes is very good at acidic social
Page 148 and 149:
The second episode of Missileman, b
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In Kanker Botes' subject is again t
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coincides with the appearance of th
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closeup, then pulls away to explain
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stories in issue 1 are in English,
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4. CONCLUSION The comics are all pr
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The most common genres (my definiti
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the first generation whose world is
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ways of creating this entrance poin
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S. BIBLIOGRAPHY BARKER, M. 1989. Co
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Thames and Hudson. NEAL, C. 1987. T
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