{{Short description|South African comics artist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox comics creator | image = | caption = | alt = | birth_name = Anton Kannemeyer | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1967|10|30|df=y}} | birth_place = Cape Town, South Africa | death_date = | death_place = | spouse = | nationality = South African | cartoonist = y | signature = | signature_alt = | alias = Joe Dog | notable works = | awards = | website = | sortkey = | subcat = | nonUS = }} '''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.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref name="artthrob">[http://www.artthrob.co.za/03nov/reviews/michaelis_lecture.html The profane world of Anton Kannemeyer - ArtThrob]</ref>
==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.<ref>[http://lambiek.net/artists/d/dog.htm Comic creator: Joe Dog<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Together with Conrad Botes, he co-founded the magazine ''Bitterkomix'' in 1992 and has become revered for its subversive stance and dark humor.<ref>[http://www.stevenson.info/exhibitionsbs/kannemeyer/index.htm Brodie/Stevenson - Anton Kannemeyer<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120203010722/http://www.stevenson.info/exhibitionsbs/kannemeyer/index.htm |date=February 3, 2012 }}</ref> He has been criticized for making use of "offensive, racist imagery".<ref name="mg">[http://mg.co.za/article/2010-08-27-denying-the-privileged-a-voice Denying the privileged a voice - Arts - Mail & Guardian Online<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Kannemeyer himself said that he gets "lots of hate mail from white Afrikaners".<ref name="artthrob" />
His works challenge the rigid image of Afrikaners promoted under Apartheid, and depict Afrikaners having nasty sex and mangling their Afrikaans.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/magazine/die-antwoord.html The Brilliant Weirdness of Die Antwoord - NYTimes.com]</ref> “X is for Xenophobia”, part of his "Alphabet of Democracy", depicts Ernesto Nhamwavane, a Mozambican immigrant who was burnt alive in Johannesburg in 2008.<ref>[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<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> 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''.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/arts/design/09gall.html Anton Kannemeyer - The Haunt of Fears - New York Times]</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref>[http://mg.co.za/article/2010-08-23-pappa-in-afrika Pappa in Afrika -The M&G Online<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> 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!'<ref>[http://www.artthrob.co.za/08dec/reviews/stevenson.html Anton Kannemeyer: Fear of a Black Planet at Michael Stevenson - ArtThrob]</ref> 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".<ref name="mg" />
==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) * ''Bitterkomix 18'' (2020) * ''Bitterkomix 19'' (2023) * ''Bitterkomix Sketchbooks and Journals'' (2025)
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== * [http://ionmagazine.ca/culture/books/anton-kannemeyer Anton Kannemeyer - White Fright | ION MAGAZINE]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kannemeyer, Anton}} Category:South African comics artists Category:South African satirists Category:South African parodists Category:1967 births Category:Living people Category:Artists from Cape Town Category:White South African people