Constitution Illustrated R. Sikoryak
Drawn & Quarterly
July 2020
How many artists have created their own genres? Robert Sikoryak may stand among few, especially for genres within the comics form.
He has an eloquently simple concept: combine a set of words with incongruous drawings in the styles of famous comics. For his first 2009 graphic novel, Masterpiece Comics, Sikoryak retold classic works of literature, such as The Scarlet Letter, Doctor Faustus, and Crime and Punishment, featuring Little Lulu as Hawthorne's Pearl, Garfield as Marlowe's Mephistopheles, and Batman as Dostoyevsky's homicidal protagonist.
In 2017, Terms and Conditions earned Sikoryak greater attention for an even stranger premise: the complete, unabridged iTunes user agreement with Steve Jobs drawn in 94 pages of constantly changing styles. For The Unquotable Trump, released later the same year, he applied his formula to political satire, inserting Donald Trump cartoon images and verbatim quotes into comic book covers, with an appropriate emphasis on supervillains.
Now Sikoryak delves even deeper into American politics by adapting the most central US text. Constitution Illustrated provides the complete, unaltered Articles and Amendments in 114 cartoon vignettes. The book is both Sikoryak's widest range of comics homages yet and, more oddly, his most practical. Where the iTunes contract was a comically absurd choice because so few people have ever bothered to read it, the Constitution is, of course, a keystone of US law and culture. Sikoryak even evokes a pocket-sized edition, that ubiquitous prop used by politicians and pundits in need of something to clench and wave above their heads.
I just used my copy to check whether the 19th Amendment established the right of women to both vote and hold office or just to vote. The page features a spot-on imitation of H. G. Peter, the first but uncredited Wonder Woman artist. That pairing is a good illustration of Sikoryak's logic and humor. Though unlike the adaptions in The Unquotable Trump, the page isn't an exact recreation (like John Romita's 1975 The Hulk on the Rampage cover), but a formally freer combination of style and subject. (The 19th Amendment, by the way, is just for the right to vote.)
If you're a comics aficionado, Constitution Illustrated is also the ultimate pop quiz. I didn't keep score as I flipped through the first time, but I chuckled when I recognized the logic behind each discordant pairing, especially the superhero motif. For Article I, Section I describing the division of Congress into the Senate and the House, Sikoryak draws two muscular and oppositely colored patriots sprinting in a mirrored pose cribbed from the 1976 cover of The Greatest Race of All Time! Superman vs. the Flash. The two DC heroes are allies on the same team, but they still compete against each other all too often. That antagonism increases when the House's Super Friends face a row of Senate supervillains in an illustration of the House's sole power to create tax-raising bills and the Senate's power to amend them.
Instead of Spider-Man's antagonists Prowler and J. Jonah Jameson watching Peter Parker fall from a window, Sikoryak draws a presiding Chief Justice and a Senator watching the President in the same posean apt illustration for the protocols for trying an impeachment. President Parker bears no resemblance to either Donald Trump or Bill CIinton, but Sikoryak kindly adds tingling spider senses emanata as a helpful clue (something artist Romita did not include on the original 1969 cover).
A 1943-based colonial Captain America blocks a spray of musket bulletsmetaphorically blocking the states' ability to wage war, a power exclusive to the federal government. Sikoryak leaps to 1992 for Article II, Section 2's description of the President's role as Commander in Chief. I admit I didn't recognize Jim Lee's Wild C.A.T.s cover, just the decade-defining style which I took for Rob Liefeld. Happily, Sikoryak provides a cheat sheet in the appendixes, listing the source for each of adaption.
The list of comics artists that get a respectful nod in Sikoryak's Constitution Illustrated is dizzyingly eclectic. It includes Alison Bechdel, Garry Trudeau, Roz Chast, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Charles Schultz, Frank Miller, Scott McCloud, Adrian Tomine, and many more. This book could be used in courses in comics and cartoon history, as it features some of the earliest creators, like Richard Outcault (The Yellow Kid) and Windsor McCay (Little Nemo), and some of the most recent, like Noelle Stevenson (Lumberjanes) and Bianca Xunise (Six Chix).
Black artists George Herriman, Jackie Ormes, Matt Baker, Barbara Brandon-Croft, and Aaron McGruder are represented, as well as the presentation of Black characters by non-Black artists. The Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez tribute is the most diverse, implying a hope that the Electoral College, which it describes should reflect the same level of diversity. Less subtlety, Sikoryak draws a chain-breaking Luke Cage to illustrate the slavery-ending 13th Amendment. His 25th Amendment depicts a Black vice-president assuming the presidencyjust as the Black character John Stewart assumed the role of Green Lantern in DC comics.
My favorite, though it's disturbing, is Mandrake the Magician turning his African servant Lothar partially invisible beneath the census directive to count only "three fifths of all other persons", meaning, of course, slaves. The image unites the racism of the Article with the racism of the 1930s characters. It also highlights how any contemporary analysis of the Constitution must address its deep flaws too. Sikoryak's satirical pairings breathe new and sometimes uncomfortable life into the United States' most living document.
From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
Read more:
Sikoryak's 'Constitution Illustrated' Pay Homage to Comics and the Constitution - PopMatters
- wage slavery - Why Work - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- Pudzer isn't looking at the big picture - Las Vegas Sun - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Scheme for fishing crews is 'legitimising slavery' - Irish Times - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Living off the grid: Neo-peasants in Daylesford, Victoria take on ... - NEWS.com.au - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Attending College Doesn't Close the Wage Gap and Other Myths Exposed in New 'Asset Value of Whiteness' Report - The Root - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Why Do We Take Pride in Working for a Paycheck? - JSTOR Daily - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- An interesting life through the eyes of a slave driver - Irish Independent - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Attending College Doesn't Close Racial Wage Gap, Says New Report - Post News Group (blog) - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- The Rule of Law and The Working Class - Anarkismo.net - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Wolf budget proposal calls for $12 minimum wage - Scranton Times-Tribune - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Where did capitalism come from? - Socialist Worker Online - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Aussies working too hard and we're headed for disaster - Bundaberg News Mail - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- The Two Types of Campus Leftists - National Review - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Month of the Presidents - PrimePublishers.com - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Believing is seeing - Arkansas Times - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Uncomfortable truths: The role of slavery and the slave trade in building northern wealth - Daily Kos - February 17th, 2017 [February 17th, 2017]
- Point/Counterpoint: On Liberal Capitalism - The Free Weekly - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- To make Trump's America ungovernable, African American struggles are key - Green Left Weekly - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians against fascism: continuing the culture of resistance - Straight.com - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- What Chaos? The Trump Steam Roller has it Under Control - AmmoLand Shooting Sports News - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- 31 Life Lessons After 30 Years - The Good Men Project (blog) - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- No Room for Compromise on Lower Tipped Minimum - Eater Twin Cities (blog) - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Netflix is Allowing 13th to be Shown to the Public Without a Subscription - The Urban Twist - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Mayor Betsy Hodges says tip credits are bad for women - City Pages - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Washington State Rep Endorsed Slavery When Confronted by Voter - The Pacific Tribune - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Tesla warns that 'thousands' of Model 3 reservations holders will go outside of Connecticut to buy without direct sales - Electrek - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- National Prison Strike Exposes Need for Labor Rights Behind Bars - Toward Freedom - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- New: Berkeley's New Ideology: A critique of the Strategic Plan - Berkeley Daily Planet - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Column: Farmworkers, immigration and local food - GazetteNET - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Forced to work? 60000 undocumented immigrants may sue detention center - Christian Science Monitor - March 2nd, 2017 [March 2nd, 2017]
- Slavery 'lieutenant' jailed for 'heinous offences' - Bradford Telegraph and Argus - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- The Confederacy was a con job on whites. And still is. - News & Observer - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- VIDEO: Street cleaners fight for London Living Wage from ... - Wandsworth Guardian - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- VIDEO: Street cleaners fight for London Living Wage from Continental Landscapes - Your Local Guardian - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Restaurant-backed campaign enters minimum wage debate - Southwest Journal - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- VIDEO: Street cleaners fight for London Living Wage from ... - Your Local Guardian - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- Erica Armstrong Dunbar Talks Never Caught, the True Story of George Washington's Runaway Slave - Paste Magazine - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- Fountain pen prices 'write' out there - Sault Star - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- Role of servers' tips fires up Minneapolis debate over $15-an-hour ... - Minneapolis Star Tribune - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- Carson receives backlash after appearing to compare slaves to immigrants - WCVB Boston - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Wash Post: At Least 60000 Immigrants Were Forced to Work for $1 or Less Per Day - Newsmax - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Italian Nationalists Vent Fury Following Migrant Camp Fire - Breitbart News - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Ben Carson Says Slaves In America Were Just Low Wage Immigrants - The Ring of Fire Network - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Child labor in Seattle: Mexican girl kept in near slavery - seattlepi.com - seattlepi.com - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- 10 Ways American Crime Season 3 Exposes Modern Slavery - Rotten Tomatoes - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- Daily Reads: Trump Fills Government with Lobbyists; It's Been a Hot Winter, Blame Climate Change - BillMoyers.com - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- America the Ahistorical: Ben Carson and the Dangers of Willful Ignorance - Rewire - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- How a Mini-Retirement Brought Meaning to My Life - Entrepreneur - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Capitalist Globalization of Labor is Modern Colonialism - Truth-Out - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Gumtree pulls 'slave labour' domestic worker advert - Times LIVE - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Reese vs. Nicole vs. Bette vs. Joan? It's Not Too Early to Get Psyched for Best Actress at the Emmys - Decider - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Readers sound off on slavery, the CIA and Mike Francesa - New York Daily News - March 12th, 2017 [March 12th, 2017]
- Raped, beaten, exploited: the 21st-century slavery propping up Sicilian farming - The Guardian - March 12th, 2017 [March 12th, 2017]
- It's Alive! It's Alive!: Our Film Critic Previews The 60th San Francisco International Film Festival - East Bay Express - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- LETTER: Getting our history wrong - Leavenworth Times - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Small World: Ranking the rank - The Bridgton News - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Is Passover Broken Beyond Repair? - Forward - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Caribbean Reparations Movement Must Put Capitalism on Trial - teleSUR English - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Two Democratic hopefuls for Va. governor on schools, Metro and the minimum wage - Washington Post - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- The Myth of the Kindly General Lee - The Atlantic - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Big business backs Labor call for new anti-slavery legislation - The Sydney Morning Herald - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Paying Inmates Minimum Wages Helps the Working Class ... - Bloomberg - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Slavery law to protect supply chains backed by big companies - The Australian Financial Review - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Filipino Women Against Modern Day Slavery - Workers World - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Paying minimum wage to inmates helps the working class - Chicago ... - Chicago Tribune - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Nova Ruth Wants To Free Us From The Bondage Of Wage Slavery - Village Voice - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- A Myopic View Of Robert E. Lee - National Review - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- Jeff Sessions Says Social Media, Encrypted Apps Hamper War on 'Modern Slavery' - Reason (blog) - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- Modern-day slavery alive in Cambridge as couple refuses wages to domestic worker: AG - Metro US - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- Education & Wage Slavery | The Middle Finger Project - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- 21 sad and shocking facts ahead of World Day Against Child Labour - ReliefWeb - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Australia: Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Inquiry into ... - Human Rights Watch (press release) - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- 4 Signs You are a Slave to Your Job | The Unbounded Spirit - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- It's True: Black Women Are Working Harder And Getting Less In Return - Essence.com - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- Taxi drivers are hit by '21st century slavery' in Uber row over fares - expressandstar.com - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- The eco guide to prison labour - The Guardian - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Fashion doesn't empower all women - The Guardian - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Slave wages in Zimbabwe farms - The Standard - The Zimbabwe Standard - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Exeter car wash owner in court accused of posing modern slavery risk - Devon Live - June 12th, 2017 [June 12th, 2017]
- The scout system at Oxford must be scrapped - Cherwell Online - June 12th, 2017 [June 12th, 2017]