Robert Sikoryak (born 1964) is an American artist whose work is usually signed R. Sikoryak. He specializes in making comic adaptations of literature classics. Under the series title ''Masterpiece Comics'', these include ''

Crime and Punishment ''Crime and Punishment'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Преступление и наказание, Prestupléniye i nakazániye, prʲɪstʊˈplʲenʲɪje ɪ nəkɐˈzanʲɪje) is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. ...

'' rendered in

Bob Kane Robert Kane (born Robert Kahn ; October 24, 1915 – November 3, 1998) was an American comic book writer, animator and artist who co-created Batman (with Bill Finger) and most early related characters for DC comics. He was inducted into the comi ...

–era

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

style, becoming ''Dostoyevsky Comics'', starring Raskol; and '' Waiting for Godot'' mixed with ''

Beavis and Butt-Head ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' is an American adult animated series created by Mike Judge. The series follows Beavis and Butt-Head, both voiced by Judge, a pair of teenage slackers characterized by their apathy, lack of intelligence, lowbrow humor, ...

'', becoming ''Waiting to Go''.

Early life

Sikoryak was born in 1964. He is originally from

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

"Rob Sikoryak"

Lambiek Comiclopedia Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum, ), though since 2007, his son Boris Kousemaker is the current owner. From 1968 to 2015, it was located ...

. Retrieved January 22, 2017. and graduated from

Manville High School Manville High School is a four-year comprehensive community public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Manville in Somerset County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as the lone secondary school of ...

as the

salutatorian Salutatorian is an academic title given in the United States, Armenia, and the Philippines to the second-highest-ranked graduate of the entire graduating class of a specific discipline. Only the valedictorian is ranked higher. This honor is tradi ...

of the class of 1983. He earned his BFA from the Parsons School of Design in 1987, and is on staff at the school."Robert Sikoryak"
Parsons School of Design. Retrieved January 20, 2017.

Career

Shortly after graduating from Parsons, Sikoryak worked on staff at ''

Raw Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...

'', before embarking on a freelance cartooning career. He co-edited with

Art Spiegelman Art Spiegelman (; born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman on February 15, 1948) is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel ''Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines ''Arcade (comics maga ...

, and contributed to, the

comic jam A comic jam is a creative process where one or more comics artists collaborates on drawing or painting one single comic. Often the process is that one artist creates the first page, and then another artist creates the second, and a third does the ...

The Narrative Corpse ''The Narrative Corpse'' is a chain story, or comic jam, by 69 all-star cartoonists based on ''Le Cadavre Exquis'' (see Exquisite corpse), a popular game played by André Breton and his surrealist friends to break free from the constraints of ra ...

'', published in 1995. Sikoryak's cartoons and illustrations have appeared in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', ''

Drawn & Quarterly Drawn & Quarterly is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic content, ...

'',Flamming, E.C. (January 19, 2017)
"Check Out These Horrifying and Amazing ''The Unquotable Trump'' Comic Book Covers by R. Sikoryak"
'' Paste''. ''

Nickelodeon Magazine ''Nickelodeon Magazine'' is a defunct American children's magazine inspired by the children's television network Nickelodeon. Its first incarnation appeared in 1990 and was distributed at participating Pizza Hut restaurants; the version of the ma ...

'', ''

World War 3 Illustrated ''World War 3 Illustrated'' is an American comics anthology magazine with a left-wing political focus, founded in 1979 (though the first issue was published in 1980) by New York City comic book artists Peter Kuper and Seth Tobocman,Neil Gaiman, ed ...

'' and ''RAW''; and on ''

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. Sikoryak is also known for his ''

Carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...

'' series of multimedia comics slide shows, featuring cartoonists such as Lauren Weinstein,

Michael Kupperman Michael Kupperman (born April 26, 1966), also known by the pseudonym P. Revess,Spurgeon, Tom"A Short Interview With Michael Kupperman,"The Comics Reporter (August 7, 2005). is an American cartoonist and illustrator. He created the comic strips '' ...

, Jason Little and himself, which have been presented in various venues in the United States and Canada since 1997. In 2017, Sikoryak published ''The Unquotable Trump'', a collection of parody comic book covers depicting

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

, illustrated in the style of iconic comic book covers from the

Golden Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall * Golden Cap, Dorset *Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershi ...

Silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

Bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

, and

Modern Age of Comic Books The Modern Age of Comic Books is a period in the history of American superhero American comic book, comic books which began in 1985 and continues through the present day. During approximately the first 15 years of this period, many comic book cha ...

. Each illustration is patterned after the a specific classic cover from series like '' The Walking Dead'' and '' Richie Rich'', and drawn in the style of the original artists, who include

Jack Kirby Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comic book artist, writer and editor, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He gr ...

Jerry Robinson Sherrill David Robinson (January 1, 1922 – December 7, 2011), known as Jerry Robinson, was an American comic book artist known for his work on DC Comics' Batman line of comics during the 1940s. He is best known as the co-creator of Robin and ...

, John Romita and

Jim Lee Jim Lee (Korean 이용철; born August 11, 1964) is a Korean American comic-book artist, writer, editor, and publisher. He is currently the Publisher and Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics. In recognition of his work, Lee has received a Harvey ...

. Each illustration is also thematically connected to the line of dialogue spoken by the Trump character, each of which is taken from controversial or otherwise notable comments the real-life Trump made at public events or in interviews during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, such as his comments on Mexico, black voters and torture.Couch, Aaron (January 18, 2017)
"Artist Turns Donald Trump Into Classic Comic Book Villains"
''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

''. March 7, 2017 saw the publication of ''

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

Terms and Conditions A contractual term is "any provision forming part of a contract". Each term gives rise to a contractual obligation, the breach of which may give rise to litigation. Not all terms are stated expressly and some terms carry less legal gravity as t ...

: The Graphic Novel'', which satirizes Steve Jobs and

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

Like ''The Unquotable Trump'', each page of the graphic novel is patterned after a page from an seminal comics storyline, and drawn in the style of the original artist, with a caricature of Jobs taking the place of a man character in the sequence, and the dialogue and narration taken entirely from the eponymous contractual terms of Apple's iTunes media player.Sikoryak, Robert
''iTunes Terms and Conditions: The Graphic Novel''

tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...

. Retrieved January 22, 2017.

Personal life

As of 2017, Sikoryak is based in New York City.

Bibliography

* ''Raw'' (1989–91) * ''Snake Eyes'' (1990–93) * ''The New Comics Anthology'' (1991) * ''The New Yorker'' (1994–99) * ''Drawn & Quarterly'' (2000) * ''Masterpiece Comics'' (Drawn & Quarterly, 2009) * ''Terms and Conditions'' (Drawn & Quarterly, 2017) * ''The Unquotable Trump'' (Drawn & Quarterly, 2017) * ''Constitution Illustrated'' (Drawn & Quarterly, 2020)

References

General references

Inline citations

External links

* * * Montero, Patrick. (September 20, 2009
"Comics Meet Literature in the Work of R. Sikoryak"
''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'' (New York) * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sikoryak, Robert American comics artists American satirists 1964 births Living people Alternative cartoonists American parodists The New Yorker people People from New York City People from Middlesex County, New Jersey