Anton Kannemeyer
{{Short description|South African comics artist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox comics creator
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| birth_name = Anton Kannemeyer
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1967|10|30|df=y}}
| birth_place = Cape Town, South Africa
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| nationality = South African
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| alias = Joe Dog
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Anton Kannemeyer (born 1967) is a South African comics artist, who sometimes goes by the pseudonym Joe Dog. Kannemeyer has lectured the University of Pretoria, Technikon Witwatersrand, and was also a senior lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch.{{Cite book|title=The Big Bad Bitterkomix handbook |last=Kannemeyer |first=Anton |last2=Botes |first2=Conrad |publisher=Jacanda Media |year=2006 |isbn=1-77009-303-6 |location=Johannesburg, South Africa |pages=214}}[http://www.artthrob.co.za/03nov/reviews/michaelis_lecture.html The profane world of Anton Kannemeyer - ArtThrob]
Biography
Anton Kannemeyer was born in Cape Town. He studied graphic design and illustration at the University of Stellenbosch, and did a Master of Arts degree in illustration after graduating.[http://lambiek.net/artists/d/dog.htm Comic creator: Joe Dog] Together with Conrad Botes, he co-founded the magazine Bitterkomix in 1992 and has become revered for its subversive stance and dark humor.[http://www.stevenson.info/exhibitionsbs/kannemeyer/index.htm Brodie/Stevenson - Anton Kannemeyer] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120203010722/http://www.stevenson.info/exhibitionsbs/kannemeyer/index.htm |date=February 3, 2012 }} He has been criticized for making use of "offensive, racist imagery".[http://mg.co.za/article/2010-08-27-denying-the-privileged-a-voice Denying the privileged a voice - Arts - Mail & Guardian Online] Kannemeyer himself said that he gets "lots of hate mail from white Afrikaners".
His works challenge the rigid image of Afrikaners promoted under Apartheid, and depict Afrikaners having nasty sex and mangling their Afrikaans.[https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/magazine/die-antwoord.html The Brilliant Weirdness of Die Antwoord - NYTimes.com] “X is for Xenophobia”, part of his "Alphabet of Democracy", depicts Ernesto Nhamwavane, a Mozambican immigrant who was burnt alive in Johannesburg in 2008.[https://archive.today/20120903232802/http://www.citypress.co.za/Lifestyle/News/Book-Review-As-sharp-as-a-sushi-knife-20110115 Book Review – As sharp as a sushi knife | City Press] Some of Kannemeyer's works deal with the issues of race relations and colonialism, by appropriating the style of Hergé’s comics, namely from Tintin in the Congo.[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/arts/design/09gall.html Anton Kannemeyer - The Haunt of Fears - New York Times]{{cite journal|last=Heller|first=Maxwell|title=What a (Self) Portrait Can Do: Picturing South Africa in New York|journal=The Brooklyn Rail|date=January 2012|url=http://brooklynrail.org/2011/12/artseen/what-a-self-portrait-can-do-picturing-south-africa-in-new-york}} In "Pappa in Afrika", Tintin becomes a white African, depicted either as a white liberal or as a racist white imperialist in Africa. In this stereotyped satire, the whites are superior, literate and civilised, and the blacks are savage and dumb.[http://mg.co.za/article/2010-08-23-pappa-in-afrika Pappa in Afrika -The M&G Online] In "Peekaboo", a large acrylic work, the white African is jumping up in alarm as a black man figure pokes his head out of the jungle shouting an innocuous 'peekaboo!'[http://www.artthrob.co.za/08dec/reviews/stevenson.html Anton Kannemeyer: Fear of a Black Planet at Michael Stevenson - ArtThrob] A cartoon called "The Liberals" has been interpreted as an attack on white fear, bigotry and political correctness: a group of anonymous black people (who look like golliwogs) are about to rape a white lady, who calls her attackers "historically disadvantaged men".
Bibliography
- The Big Bad Bitterkomix Handbook (2006)
- Fear of a Black Planet (2008)
- Bitterkomix 15 (2008)
- Alphabet of Democracy (2010)
- Pappa in Afrika (2010)
- Bitterkomix 16 (2013)
- Bitterkomix 17 (2016)
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- [http://ionmagazine.ca/culture/books/anton-kannemeyer Anton Kannemeyer - White Fright | ION MAGAZINE]
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Category:South African comics artists
Category:South African satirists
Category:South African parodists