FINE PRINT: Bitterkomix at the Print Center

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FINE PRINT: Bitterkomix at the Print Center

POSTED: Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 10:00 PM

Photo | Bitterkomix

Bringing you more Philagrafika 2010 coverage.

Longtime friends and South-African natives Anton Kannemeyer (aka Joe Dog) and Conrad Botes publish the annual satirical fiction Bitterkomix. The art in their comic books drips from the page. It's luscious, dense and very reminiscent of famed cartoonist Robert Crumb (who contributed his talents in Bitterkomix No. 9).

The subject matter in each piece is equally as massive and impressive, railing against everything from Apartheid to racism, sexism, depression and alcoholism. These ain't no kids' books. Simultaneously raunchy and heavy, Kannemeyer and Botes create artwork that stems from South-African culture and is rarely published in anything other than Afrikaans. Their exhibit will be up at the Print Center (1614 Latimer St., 215-735-6090) through April 11.

City Paper: Can you tell me how and why Bitterkomix began?
Anton Kannemeyer: Conrad Botes and I started drawing a comic together in our second year at university. Both of us were eligible for conscription in the SADF, Apartheid's SA Defense Force; as we were studying we were temporarily exempted. So we made an anti-conscription comic, which was published in a very alternative Afrikaans magazine in 1989 — I think it had a print run of about 600 copies. In the end we both did quite well in our studies and we both studied for 10 years — avoided conscription altogether. By the time we were finished with our MA's, it was discontinued. In 1992 we selected the best comics of our undergraduate years and put it together in a magazine we called Bitterkomix.
CP: Why did you name it Bitterkomix? And for that matter, why do you go by "Joe Dog"?
AK: Well, both of us were quite "bitter" I guess, about a lot of aspects in our childhoods: the Dutch Reformed Church, our parents, schools — Christian National Education was what we had, not dissimilar to the Nazi Youth Education — and of course this knowledge that you have to go and fight against "communists" one day. Conscription was for a 2-year period with subsequent call-ups. Our focus of attack was therefore the Afrikaans community where we came from. In that sense, especially from GIF (Afrikaner Sekskomix), our attack became quite iconoclastic. I used the pseudonym "Joe Dog" as I was very influenced by punk music, and a name similar to, say, Sid Vicious or Johnny Rotten or Iggy Pop was very appealing to me. Once I started it I couldn't stop — it really stuck in people's heads.

CP: Did youmake anything specifically for Philagrafika?
AK: No, we just submitted our publications. I think there was also space concerns from the curators.

CP: The Bitterkomix Web site describes a "dark, perverted atmosphere" as the backdrop for each comic. What outside elements are influencing this?
AK: You found a Bitterkomix Web site? Cool! We are so snowed under with work and so uninterested in the Internet that we have made a minimal effort so far to get ourselves "out there" digitally. I'm really interested in print. But to get back to your question: I think the atmosphere in a lot of the older comics are rather something that we felt is truthful to experiences from our youth, or an atmosphere of moral corruption that we experienced as children and young adults under apartheid. A lot of our stories and images are also very ironic — maybe people experience it as "dark," I would rather say a lot of the work exposed the hypocrisy of the Afrikaans community where we come from.

CP: Why do comics? Is it a conscious decision to share your art this way, or is it the type of thing that you and Conrad just can't shake?
AK: Well, I was obsessed with comics from a very young age. And I've always been a big movie fan and reader of fiction. For me it was really the right way to express my ideas. It's quite strange though, as I knew right from the start that this art form does not really exist in South Africa. And there's no market for comics. The people who buy our comic books — and yes, we have some fans — were or are people who are interested in alternative culture, alternative music, art and literature.

CP: Have you ever been to Philly before? What's your impression of the art community here?
AK: No! I would have loved to come, but it didn't work out this time. Hopefully in the near future!

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