Virtual Memories Show 683:
R Sikoryak
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“By contrasting the Declaration with the Emancipation Proclamation, I was showing some of the evolution that also happens in the Constitution.”
Let’s celebrate (or commemorate) America’s independence with an amazing new double book, DECLARATION ILLUSTRATED / EMANCIPATION ILLUSTRATED (Drawn & Quarterly). R. Sikoryak rejoins the show to talk about adapting foundational American documents (verbatim!) with a mind-blowing array of comic art parodies, ranging from the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers to Jump Start to Check, Please! to Thanos! We talk about how this project spun out of his CONSTITUTION ILLUSTRATED in 2020, why he decided to include the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address alongside the Declaration of Independence, how he gave himself some pretty strict rules about which artists and characters he could and couldn’t use, including not re-using artists he used in his Constitution (which meant employing 200 different artists’ styles over the course of these books), and his goal of trying to bring the whole history of American comics into these books. We get into what it’s all taught him about America, the ways these documents show how America changed, why he doesn’t take offense at being a called a rip-off artist, and why he conceives of these books like a quilt. We also discuss whether he’s more sensitive about parodying art by living artists or dead ones, why he wants to get back to comics-parody adaptations of classic books and plays, the ways that access to comprehensive digital comics archives is both good and bad for his work, the artists he wishes could have included in these books, why he brought in many African-American artists and characters in the Emancipation portion of the book, but still found room for Barney Google & Snuffy Smith, the page that almost broke him (okay, it was his Emil Ferris parody), his series of 8-page comics stories for Tom Hanks’ first novel (!), and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read DECLARATION ILLUSTRATED / EMANCIPATION ILLUSTRATED!
“All my work is about constraints.”
“There’s so much history referenced in the grievances of the Declaration that I just didn’t know and had to learn.”
“If someone else did these books, they could have chosen entirely different artists for every single page. Anybody could do this, and they’d be different. When I was young, I thought about making the definitive parody of a certain comic, but I got over that.”
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!
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About our Guest
Cartoonist R. Sikoryak is the author of Constitution Illustrated, Masterpiece Comics, Terms and Conditions, and The Unquotable Trump. He’s adapted the classics for various anthologies, including The Graphic Canon and RAW. His comics and illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Nation, The Onion, MAD, and more. He’s done storyboards and character designs for Augenblick Studios on various animated projects. He teaches in the illustration department at Parsons School for Design and previously at The Center for Cartoon Studies. Since 1997, he’s presented his live comics performance series, Carousel, around the United States and Canada. He lives in New York City with his spouse, Kriota Willberg.
Listen to my 2012 and 2020 conversations with Bob.
Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at Bob’s home on a pair of Shure Beta 58A microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of me & Bob by me. It’s on my instagram.