Bitterkomix (Afrikaans Underground Comics)

• In Joe Dog's signature mode, borrow the even contour, flat colour and tidy panel grid of Hergé's clear line, then fill them with what the family album hid: the father's violence, the sadistic teacher, conscription, sex and white racial fear, so that the innocence of the style becomes the instrument of the satire.
• Let each author keep his own hand: beside Joe Dog's clear line, Konradski's simplified graphic line and graffiti-like edge for narratives drawn from history, religion and domestic life (the Foster gang of around 1914), and Lorcan White's absurd, almost abstract scenes of monsters and zombies after Crumb and Gary Panter; the shared thread is black ink, hand lettering and the target, not one house style.
• Exaggerate the figures grotesquely against a soberly drawn setting: caricature the patriarchs (father, teacher, clergyman, government minister and corporal), the monsters and the bodies of the powerful, never racial features, but draw the house, the veld, the township road and the living room plainly enough to place them in South Africa.
• Let the words do as much damage as the picture: hand-letter balloons and captions in even capitals, stress the worst words in bold, write in a swearing street Afrikaans (or in English), and let a rant crowd the panels until the page reads like a tirade.
• Turn the target's own forms into the vehicle (the children's alphabet primer in X is for Xenophobia, the Tintin album cover in Pappa in Afrika, the national monument under King Lizard), and put yourself in the dock too: fiction dressed as autobiography, with the artist's own bald, bespectacled caricature confessing, ranting or lying on the therapist's couch.
• Print the pages in black ink (the first thousand copies of issue 5 in grey jobbing ink), give the covers a hand-separated second colour or a silkscreen, and carry the same panels unchanged into silkscreen editions, acrylic canvases and gallery prints, keeping the comic's frame, balloons and title lettering on the wall.

Stellenbosch, South Africa, where two students at the University of Stellenbosch, Anton Kannemeyer (Joe Dog, born Cape Town, 1967) and Conrad Botes (Konradski, born Ladismith, 1969), drew their first comic together, Case no 308 (1989), a strip about conscription that Tienie du Plessis printed in the anti-establishment Afrikaans magazine Stet, and published the first issue of Bitterkomix in June 1992: Afrikaans, entirely black and white, 1,000 copies. Kannemeyer's elder brother Mark (Lorcan White) joined from issue three. It came out sporadically at first and then roughly yearly, causing controversy with explicit sex and political and cultural blasphemy while winning a national following. A side project, Gif (Hond, April 1994), was banned soon after the first free elections. After it the three began to specialise: Botes in narrative comics drawn from history, Mark in absurd scenes of monsters and zombies, Anton in sex. The first fourteen issues were summarised in The Big Bad Bitterkomix Handbook (2006), and the series continued as Bitterkomix 15 to 19 (2008–2023). The drawing also went onto gallery walls: a small Bitterkomix show at the Lambiek comics shop in Amsterdam (1993), Kannemeyer's silkscreens in Durban (1995), and from 2006 exhibitions, prints and acrylic canvases at Michael Stevenson.

1. Fred de Vries, 'Bitterkomix: Outrage Art from Two Laaities', translated by Nancy Forest-Flier, The Low Countries, pp. 50–57, https://the-low-countries.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/TLC-50-57-F-D-VRIES-LR.pdf (first issue June 1992, entirely black and white, 1,000 copies, in Afrikaans, by Kannemeyer and Botes as Stellenbosch students; Mark from issue three; Gif published by Hond in April 1994 and banned, 'the first book in the New South Africa to suffer that particular fate'; the Handbook summarising all fourteen issues; 'outrage art' from the Lettrists via Dada, the Situationists and the Sixties underground to punk; influences of Moebius, Steadman, Spiegelman, Crumb, Swarte, Ever Meulen and Willem, and Kannemeyer's 'it started with Tintin' and 'American comics and Heavy Metal'; Mark's heroes Crumb and Gary Panter; after Gif 'the three began to specialise': Conrad in narrative comics 'often based on historical events such as the story of the notorious Foster gang' of around 1914, Mark in 'absurd, almost abstract situations full of monsters and zombies'; the 'five-headed patriarch: father, teacher, clergyman, government minister and corporal'; King Lizard at the Voortrekker Monument; Boetie in Bitterkomix 5, 1995; the silkscreen Boerenooientjies; Danie Marais on Tintin as 'a white African trapped in his own incriminating skin'; Pappa in Afrika as a parody of the Tintin in the Congo cover; it gives Anton's birth year as 1965, against 1967 in Wikipedia, Lambiek and MoMA)
2. Jillian Steinhauer, 'Without Mercy: The Bitter Comix of Anton Kannemeyer', Hyperallergic (4 August 2012), https://hyperallergic.com/the-bitter-comix-of-anton-kannemeyer (the 1989 strip mocking a macho Afrikaner character from a popular war magazine, which 'first appeared in an anti-establishment Afrikaner literary journal'; Bitterkomix founded in 1992; Joe Dog, Konradski and Lorcan White; sporadic, then yearly; controversy over explicit sexuality and political and cultural blasphemy and a national following; targets including Afrikaner children's books and J. C. Kannemeyer; the clear line 'emphasizes strong, clean lines over crosshatching and shading'; influences of Justin Green, Harvey Pekar and Art Spiegelman; captioned reproductions of 'Die Hemel Help Ons', 2002, silkscreen, edition of 15 (2000 in the body text), 'Five-headed monster of my youth', 2008, 'Pappa and the black hands', 2009, 'The Liberals', 2010, 'X is for Xenophobia', 2010, the cover of Bitterkomix 15 and a spread of Kannemeyer's 'More Death Wish' in it, its title panel signed 'By Joe Dog 2007', examined for line, lettering, colour and layout)
3. A. O. I. Rheeder, Bitterkomix: teks, konteks, interteks, en die literêre strokies van Conrad Botes en Anton Kannemeyer (M.Phil thesis, University of Stellenbosch, 2000), https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/930 (abstract: a South African underground comics magazine attacking South African and specifically Afrikaans culture; 'employment of the drawing styles and narrative contents of artists like Robert Crumb, S. Clay Wilson' and of Hergé)
4. Leonora van Staden, Bitterkomix en Stripshow: pornografie en satire in Afrikaanse ondergrondse strippe (MA thesis, University of Stellenbosch, 2006), https://scholar.sun.ac.za/items/7a357630-75ca-4d3b-9069-b411d643e54c/full (abstract: Bitterkomix 1992–2004 as Afrikaans underground comics using sexual explicitness in the service of social commentary; supervised by Anton Kannemeyer)
5. Basler Afrika Bibliographien, Kaboom! online exhibition, 'Underground', https://map.baslerafrika.ch/overview/underground/ (published by Kannemeyer and Botes since 1992; 'Kannemeyer repeatedly uses the Ligne-claire style developed by the Tintin illustrator Hergé'; 'the strong contrast of black and white and the straightforward divisions of space'; 'iconographically exaggerated figures that contrast with the naturalistic background'; autobiographical self-criticism; later targets including the ANC government; the cover of Bitterkomix 17, Cape Town, 2016, alluding to #FeesMustFall)
6. Wikipedia: 'Anton Kannemeyer', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Kannemeyer (born 30 October 1967 in Cape Town; studied graphic design and illustration at Stellenbosch; co-founded Bitterkomix in 1992 with Conrad Botes; bibliography including The Big Bad Bitterkomix Handbook, 2006, Bitterkomix 15–19, 2008–2023, Alphabet of Democracy and Pappa in Afrika, 2010; appropriates Hergé's Tintin in the Congo; 'X is for Xenophobia' on Ernesto Nhamwavane; criticised for 'offensive, racist imagery'; The Liberals)
7. Lambiek Comiclopedia: 'Anton Kannemeyer', https://www.lambiek.net/artists/k/kannemeyer_anton.htm (Bitterkomix founded in 1992 with Conrad Botes; Pappa in Afrika as a parody of Tintin in Africa; appearances in Lapin and the Comix 2000 anthology; exhibitions with Botes in Amsterdam, Zürich and Bristol; it says the magazine 'ran until 2002', which issues 15 to 19 contradict)
8. Nechama Brodie, 'Bitter bites the hand that feeds', Mail & Guardian (28 August 2013), https://mg.co.za/article/2013-08-28-bitter-bites-the-hand-that-feeds (the 1989 university strip about conscription; first proper issue in 1992; Bitterkomix 16 published by Jacana in 800 copies at R150; 'fiction dressed as autobiography'; Lorcan White's story; Botes's Jacob's Ladder in 56 oil-on-reverse-glass panels)
9. Theresa Smith, 'Bitter magazine cuts to the bone', Daily News (2016), https://dailynews.co.za/2016-05-26-bitter-magazine-cuts-to-the-bone/ (Bitterkomix 17 dedicated to Tienie du Plessis, 'the Stet editor who published their first Bitterkomix', which the article dates to 1989, meaning the 1989 strip rather than the 1992 magazine; issues 14–15 half English and half Afrikaans, 17 back in Afrikaans; Afrikaans as 'a street language')
10. Stevenson, 'Anton Kannemeyer: Exhibitions' and 'Publications', https://www.stevenson.info/artist/anton-kannemeyer/exhibitions and https://www.stevenson.info/artist/anton-kannemeyer/publications (Conrad Botes and Anton Kannemeyer, Bitterkomix, 24 October–25 November 2006; Fear of a Black Planet, 16 October–22 November 2008, Catalogue 37; Alphabet of Democracy, 2 December 2010–15 January 2011; Pappa in Afrika and Alphabet of Democracy, Jacana, 2010)
11. Africanah.org, 'Conrad Botes', https://africanah.org/conrad-botes/ (born 1969 in Ladismith, Western Cape; MA Fine Arts, Stellenbosch, 1997; comics in the Bitterkomix series with Kannemeyer since the early 1990s; satire directed at South African society, politics and religion)
12. Colophon, 'iJusi', https://colophon.co.za/ijusi/ (i-Komix/Bitterjusi no. 13, 2000, and Bitterjusi/iKomix no. 21, 2004: full-colour printing, large format, with Conrad Botes, Anton Kannemeyer (Joe Dog), Mark Kannemeyer (Lorcan White), Karlien de Villiers, Joe Daly and others)
13. Colophon, 'Bitterkomix', https://colophon.co.za/portfolio/bitterkomix/ (launched in 1992, 19 issues; no. 1, 1992: 60 pages, 1,000 copies, A4, 'black & white silkscreened cover'; nos. 2, 3, 4 and 6: 'two-colour cover, hand separated'; no. 5: 'first 1000 copies in grey ink (jobbing ink)'; no. 7, 1997: 'first full colour cover'; no. 15, 2008: 100 pages 'with 32 colour pages'; no. 17, 2016: 96 pages, 1,000 copies; Lorcan White in nos. 3–11 and the 2002 Special Edition, with a silkscreen-printed cover and end papers, 80 copies; Lag-Lag 1 with a silkscreen-printed cover; Gif, 'Afrikaner Sekskomix', with the first full-colour cover, 'banned on December 15, 1994'; Die Forster Bende, 2000, 61 pages, 1,200 copies, 'graphic novel written by Ryk Hattingh and illustrated by Conrad Botes'; Bitterkomix as 'an important branch of contemporary expressionism')
14. Edcat, 'Bitterkomix 17' (publisher's note), https://edcat.net/item/bitterkomix-17 (dedicated to Tienie du Plessis, 1949–2015, publisher with Taurus and then Hond, who 'was responsible for publishing the first comic drawn by Kannemeyer and Botes, Case no 308, in STET magazine'; 96 pages, 2016)
15. Museum of Modern Art, Impressions from South Africa, 1965 to Now (2011), 'Bitterkomix' and 'Secret Language II', https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/impressions_from_south_africa/works/bitterkomix/index.html and https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/impressions_from_south_africa/works/secret-language-ii/index.html (read through the Internet Archive, the live pages returning 403; Bitterkomix Special Edition, 2002, edition of 80, the Best of Bitterkomix vols. 1 and 2, and i-komix no. 13; the comic 'continues to combine eroticism, violence, and the absurd'; Botes's work 'characterized by simplified graphic lines and a graffiti-like sensibility', depicting 'characters drawn from religion, domestic life, and social interactions'; Botes born 1969, Kannemeyer born 1967)

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