Charles Apple

I received a care package via my overnight e-mail: A collection of World Cup pages from the South African papers I worked with last year, courtesy of my good friend Arlene Prinsloo, who is design director of die Burger in Cape Town and oversees design for the entire newspaper group.

The big national Afrikaans-language Sunday paper is Rapport — it’s the one that Peter Ong redesigned last October. Our first three pages ran in Rapport’s sports section this weekend.

The first two contain profiles of the host South African team, Bafana Bafana. A South African cartoonist — Mynderd Vosloo, who’s often illustrated sports figures for Media24 papers — did the honors (click any page today for a larger look):

The headline says:

Yes, Bafana can!

Yes, well, we’ll see about that. In fact, the South African team is not projected to move out of the opening rounds. But odder things have happened.

The next page shows players for England (left), Argentina (right) and France (bottom):

Page eight consisted of a look at the schedule (left) and the various stadiums around the country where matches will be held (right):

That one was built by Rapport artist Anton Vermeulen, who is moving over to the Sunday English-language paper, I’m told.

This next one ran in the business section of the Sunday paper and, I suppose, addresses the economic impact of the World Cup being in Africa this year. That rail to the right is an ad.

The artist on this one was Elsolet Joubert. Both Anton and Elsolet worked with me last year during my time in Africa.

Speaking of the English-language Sunday paper — City Press — it, too, was redesigned by Peter Ong just a few weeks ago.

Its front-page story Sunday focused on the huge amount of money the Fédération Internationale de Football Association has made already off of the event, even before the opening kickoff first pitch tipoff whatever.

Arlene tells us it was a

Damn good front page lead, too!

Find the story here.

Papers often print newsprint posters and distribute them around town in order to promote that day’s paper. Here is the one City Press used this past weekend:

Here’s a graphic that ran in the Sunday City Press in which the paper’s three soccer writers predicted who’d be in the starting lineup for the South African team for Friday’s opening match against Mexico:

The graphic isn’t credited, so I can’t tell who drew it. Anton hasn’t moved over quite yet. This doesn’t look like his handiwork anyway — his soccer figures look like little Lego men. Perhaps we’ll see one soon.

And finally, Arlene sent me a big batch of section fronts that feature a popular comic strip called Mama Taxi.

The strip is about two sisters who who operate a pink taxi van in Cape Town. Normally, the strip is about the size of a typical comic strip and runs daily. Here is today’s strip:

I should probably point out that Mama Taxi isn’t always about soccer. But the Cup is very much on everyone’s minds over there. So it’s not surprising it’s found its way into comic strips.

This week only — the opening week of the Cup — die Burger is using larger, Sunday-type Mama Taxi strips on its features fronts.

Arlene tells us:

Christa Smuts, head of arts and entertainment, is the brainchild of these pages. Mama Taxi is used as a regular cartoon in our supplement. The creators of the cartoon created special cartoons to link it with the theme of each supplement.

Naweek means Weekend. This was the Saturday section front:

If you’re like me, of course, you can’t read Afrikaans. Luckily for us, Arlene also sent us an English version:

The joke here is a reference to a famous incident from the championship match of the World Cup of Rugby, which was held in South Africa in 1995. An enormous South African Airways jet flew directly over the stadium, with “Go Boks” stenciled on the wings, large enough to read from the ground. If you saw the movie Invictus with Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, then you might remember the scene.

So yes, this is a bit of an “inside joke.” Visitors to South Africa won’t “get it.” But then again, not many visitors to South Africa can speak Afrikaans, which is an offshoot of Dutch. So these strips aren’t particularly aimed at visitors.

This one ran in Monday in die Burger, on the front of Jip — a section aimed at teens:

Again, here is the English version:

The idea here is that Mavis and Zandi are running a day camp for kids. But in fact, they’re dropping them off at a fan park — where you can watch the matches for free on huge TV screens. Most South Africans, unable to afford tickets, will be watching the Cup at fan parks.

There are lots of nice touches here that only locals would catch. In the background of that final, L-shaped panel are the Cape Town city hall (the clock tower with the little dome on it) and Table Mountain.

Today’s strip ran on the front of Buite, which means “outside” or “outdoors.”

Here is the English version:

The joke here is that the long plastic horns that South Africans blow during soccer matches — vuvuzelas — can be mistaken by tourists for the call of elephants. Perhaps.

Those things are so loud and so annoying — and so pervasive, reportedly — that the nation’s government today urged fans to not blow their vuvuzelas during the national anthems.

Said a government spokesman:

Government urges audiences not to move around, hold conversations or blow vuvuzelas during performances of the anthem.

Respect for the anthem is part of the total experience of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Heh. Find the story here.

I’m a little unclear about this last one — I suspect it may, in fact, be Wednesday’s strip. Given that it’s shortly after 11 p.m. over there as I post this, I’ll include it anyway:

And again, you see fan parks referenced.

This is fun stuff from the folks in Cape Town, South Africa. Find Mama Taxi’s web site here. The first-ever collection of Mama Taxi strips was published a year ago. Order a copy here.

As you’d imagine, the Media24 papers have set up an elaborate web site with which to cover the World Cup and all the activities associated with it. And, thankfully, that site is in English. Find it here — and bookmark it, please, if you have any interest at all in the Cup.

The new Bad Reporter cartoon by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Don Asmussen:

Find the Bad Reporter home on the web here.

Famed comic book artist Chris Ware was commissioned this spring to illustrate the cover to Fortune magazine’s May issue.

A blogger who attended Ware’s presentation at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo last weekend writes:

He also showed a cover he did for Fortune magazine which was supposed to be on the Fortune 500 issue. He accepted the job because it would be like doing the 1929 issue of the magazine, and he filled the image with tons of satirical imagery, like the U.S. Treasuring being raided by Wall Street, China dumping money into the ocean, homes being flooded, homes being foreclosed, and CEOs dancing a jig while society devolves into chaos. The cover , needless to say, was rejected.

Here’s the cover (click for a much larger view):

One can see right away why the piece was rejected. Can you imagine the cry of anguish from readers of Fortune had this published? Hell, can you imagine the cry of anguish from the editors of Fortune when they saw the finished piece?

Did someone approve a rough sketch or idea by Ware before the piece was pushed this far?

To a subversive mind, of course, the piece is — as they say — full of win.

I’ll point out a few details…

Helicopters scoop money out of the U.S. Treasury Dept. Note the empty Greek treasury building in the distance.

The helicopters then dump the cash on top of the skyscrapers where, presumably, business executives rejoice in the rain of dollars.

The merriment is aided by a nice wet bar. Note more dancing execs on the building at left. I wonder of Ware is aware (heh) that the dancing motions he draws look a lot like a Wifi icon.

On the west coast, you see Hollywood filmmakers shooting scenes of death and violence. Behind them, you see the Chinese exporting goods to the U.S. and, sure enough, throwing their surplus dollars into the ocean.

To the south, Mexican citizens work in a sweatshop, carefully fenced off from the U.S. with barbed wire and armed guards.

And in Cuba, orange jumpsuit-clad political prisoners sit bound and blindfolded.

Throughout the country, things are falling apart. Farms are turned into housing developments that no one wants.

Falling property values are addressed…

…as are the loss of retirement funds. Note that Ware misspelled “cemetery.”

Domestic oil is in shambles.

The goods shipped from China are hauled into giant “big box” retail stores.

Wall Street has apparently relocated to Vegas.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation bails out the bank but leaves homes and homeowners underwater.

In the cities, folks are shot in the streets while others stuff themselves with fast food and trade bad credit as if it were used golf shoes.

I’m not sure about the reference to “Greenspan Lube Pro.” I mean, I get it, I think. I just don’t want to know if my guess is correct.

Meanwhile, tea partiers do their thing. I don’t know which I find more amusing: the elephant-shaped tea kettle or the red-dressed speaker atop the kettle.

And, in the Rockies, extremist armageddon-types camp out with their guns and provisions.

See MediaBistro’s take on the cover here. The Chicagoist sounds off here. Find Gawker’s story here.

Earlier this year, Ware illustrated a cover for the New Yorker:

Find a bibliography of Chris Ware’s comic book work here. Find an archive of all his work here.

Book designer and illustrator Chip Kidd interviewed Chris for Print magazine. Find that Q&A here.

Thanks to Nicole Bogdas for the tip.