Constitution Illustrated
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The master of the visual mash-up returns with his signature idiosyncratic take on the constitution
R. Sikoryak is the master of the pop culture pastiche. In Masterpiece Comics, he interpreted classic literature with defining twentieth-century comics. With Terms and Conditions, he made the unreadable contract that everyone signs, and no one reads, readable. He employs his magic yet again to investigate the very framework of the country with Constitution Illustrated. By visually interpreting the complete text of the supreme law of the land with more than a century of American pop culture icons, Sikoryak distills the very essence of the government legalese from the abstract to the tangible, the historical to the contemporary.
Among Sikoryak’s spot-on unions of government articles and amendments with famous comic-book characters: the Eighteenth Amendment that instituted prohibition is articulated with Homer Simpson running from Chief Wiggum; the Fourteenth Amendment that solidifies citizenship to all people born and naturalized in the United States is personified by Ms. Marvel; and, of course, the Nineteenth Amendment offering women the right to vote is a glorious depiction of Wonder Woman breaking free from her chains. American artists from George Herriman (Krazy Kat) and Charles Schulz (Peanuts) to Raina Telgemeier (Sisters) and Alison Bechdel (Dykes to Watch Out For) are homaged, with their characters reimagined in historical costumes and situations.
We the People has never been more apt.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sikoryak (Terms and Conditions) returns to his arch comics treatment of classic works with this amusing and enlightening illustrated version of the U.S. Constitution as enacted by famous cartoon characters. He captures the look and spirit of the original characters (each bedecked in colonial garb) with uncanny accuracy, while wittily matching them to appropriate sections of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and amendments added subsequently. Some particularly inspired choices include Carl Barks's Scrooge McDuck limning Section Eight's outline of tax and duties collection, Jack Davis's ghoulish Crypt-Keeper explaining protocols of replacing a president who has died in office, and H.G. Peter's version of Wonder Woman breaking free of chains to illustrate women's right to vote. Sikoryak's use of the Muppet Babies and the Super Friends to represent a fractious congress has a distinctly mocking edge, while characters from creators of color such as Barbara Brandon, Aaron McGruder, and Gene Luen Yang, as well as LGBTQ cartoonists Alison Bechdel and Howard Cruse, speak eloquently to American diversity. Sikoryak's love of the cartoon form and its visual language radiates throughout. This pastiche of comics and politics is a cleverly educational and irresistible way to engage with this foundational text.
