First Published in
Over the last 10 years or so, Bitterkomix has been (as one reviewer remarked) “consistently challenging and outrageous, undeniably brilliant, and impossible to ignore.” Internationally, the Bitterkomix duo of Anton Kannemeyer and Conrad Botes stands at the forefront of the new international expressionist comix movement. Locally, they have raised a storm of controversy through their assault on the Afrikaner cultural mainstream, which they have developed into a broader critique of South African society. The Big Bad Bitterkomix Handbook brings together the full range of Kannemeyer and Botes’ work produced from the mid-1990s till now, including published covers, postcards, posters and drawings from personal sketchbooks. Interspersed with these images, and providing both context and comment, are a number of essays and addresses by such commentators as Antjie Krog, Andy Mason, Ryk Hattingh and Gregory Kerr. The resultant book, designed by Garth Walker of Orange Juice Design, is an essential chronicle, catalogue and visual cornucopia of the work of the Bitterkomix artists.
Over the last 10 years or so, Bitterkomix has been (as one reviewer remarked) “consistently challenging and outrageous, undeniably brilliant, and impossible to ignore.” Internationally, the Bitterkomix duo of Anton Kannemeyer and Conrad Botes stands at the forefront of the new international expressionist comix movement. Locally, they have raised a storm of controversy through their assault on the Afrikaner cultural mainstream, which they have developed into a broader critique of South African society. The Big Bad Bitterkomix Handbook brings together the full range of Kannemeyer and Botes’ work produced from the mid-1990s till now, including published covers, postcards, posters and drawings from personal sketchbooks. Interspersed with these images, and providing both context and comment, are a number of essays and addresses by such commentators as Antjie Krog, Andy Mason, Ryk Hattingh and Gregory Kerr. The resultant book, designed by Garth Walker of Orange Juice Design, is an essential chronicle, catalogue and visual cornucopia of the work of the Bitterkomix artists.
