Literally two decades in the making, here is a book that lives up to its name! There are levels of irony upon irony and then within and in between these there lurks hints and glimmers of more. There is militant subversion and blatant transgression of the exact same material for which is simultaneously exhibited the deepest respect and greatest empathy. R. Sikoryak is a truly singular master of comics who knows its classical forms and major practitioners inside out to a degree that is simply unparalleled. His work contained here will trigger a panoply of associations to anyone devoted to the form of comics and this is then squared for those who are on equally familiar terms with the literary classics that are adapted. Sikoryak's achievment in successfully splicing together classic literature and classic comics at the deep level of their respective genetic codes is such that the reading of this collection will, for some, spark a revolution in their perceptual apparatus that will topple the reigning dominant ideology and force a reordering of priorities. We have here the Book of Genesis as a series of Blondie Sunday pages; Dante's Inferno imagined as Bazooka Gum insert comics; Shakespeare's Macbeth as a Mary Worth sub-plot; Voltaire's Candide imagined as Ziggy; Marlowe's Faust as a series of Garfield dailies; Wuthering Heights as an EC horror comic; The Scarlet Letter as acted out by Little Lulu and Tubby; Kafka's "Metamorphosis" starring Charlie Brown; The Portrait of Dorian Gray as a sequence from Little Nemo in Slumberland; Waiting for Godot starring Beavis and Butthead; and, finally the piece de resistance, Crime and Punishment as a 1950s Detective Comics featuring Batman & Robin and the Joker followed by the encore of Camus's L'Etranger condensed into a series of Action Comics covers circa the same era. No self-respecting comics fan can hold their head high without having this volume in their library. Please take a moment to feast your eyes on this
PDF sneak peek. And then take a few moments to read this
3-part interview with Sikoryak.