Text - Rhodes University

In the first issue the stories are printed chronologically, appearing initially naive,
deliberately awkward and stilted. In subsequent issues the artists try to work towards
greater clarity and economy, but also happen to create an impression of greater austerity.
In the first story, Case No. 308, which is a collaboration between Botes and Dog, there
is much that is forcefully realistic, and little elegance. The story is strongly political; the
main character, a musician called Tommy, is captured and brainwashed by the security
forces, becoming an inhuman killer. In the process of narrating these events, the artists
viciously lampoon both military and police forces.
The overall style is deliberately crude, raw and nervous. The drawings are reminiscent
of many underground comics: flat, simplistic and tentative [fig 1]. There are long gaps of
time between the crammed frames, so that each stands as an isolated moment that does
not completely describe events. The text is in stilted English.
;0 )'
~ AFTER HIS ARRE5T
:'-OI'lHY, FA~oUS FOR HIS
'\.JELLPUE,LIQ2ED DEIlUN­
\S-IAl1cN OFTI1E SA DEiFENCE
fORCf ,VIA,;) TAKEN
iTO T\iE CENTRAL PRISON
(IN PRETOR.IA. BEINE>A VER'i
I
'uNSTABLE PE~N ANI)
~ PAR.TL,( PS,(C.HOPATH)
!liE WAS NoT (ONt'INED
To THE PRIVACY OF A
iDARK PRISON CELL, BUT
?- SEN1 ENC.ED ..•
\~~~
I Q .q
Figure 1 Botes, Dog Case No. 308 p2
93