Bittercomix: A South African Comic as an Indigenous Ethnography

Bittercomix: A South African Comic as an Indigenous Ethnography by Anne-Line Hannesen New York: Peter Lang, 2007. 140 pages. 61 illustrations. $32.95, paper

This book is divided into six "compartments," all of which, with the exception of "Introduction" and "Conclusion," have subsections. The subsections in the four compartments are numbered consecutively, as in 2.1 through 2.4. Using compartments as a classificatory nomenclature instead of the traditional chapter is intended to convey the peculiar nature of Bittercomix, a project that emanated from the authors thesis project. Published as a European University Studies title, this slim publication is shorn of any fanciful cover design. Perhaps it is this inattention to design that affects the poor layout of some of the illustrations. One expects a study of comics to devote more space and consideration to the drawings as vectors of the ideas being analyzed. They are as powerful a communication medium as the prose in which their import, signification, and analyses are couched. They appear to be used by Hannesen more as appendages or explicatory devices rather than as the raison d'etre for the book.

Bittercomix is constructed as an exegesis of South African comics exemplified in the work of two pioneers of this genre: Conrad Botes (a.k.a. Joe Dog) and Anton Kannemeyer (a.k.a. Konradski), both of whom studied graphic design at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa and began their careers as comic artists in 1989. In this book, Hannesen's interest is ethnographic. Through artist interviews, secondary research, and first-hand study of the comics, Hannesen presents a narrative that contextualizes the comics within a post-apartheid South Africa.

After a brisk introduction in which the probable confluence of ethnography and visual culture is discussed, the author uses compartment 2 to offer a history of indigenous comics in South Africa. An itemized itinerary of her research is then presented. The next section of the book develops the work further, as we are introduced to Anton Kannemeyer and Conrad Botes through excerpts from their comics and lengthy interviews. It is in compartment 4 that the subversive rage of the artists comes to the fore, with sexually explicit and what may be considered as socially abrasive comics. Racially uncomfortable truths and brutally graphic depiction of coitus and masturbation are woven...