Masterpiece Comics adapts a variety of classic literary works with the most iconic visual idioms of twentieth-century comics. Dense with exclamation marks and lurid colors, R. Sikoryak’s parodies remind us of the sensational excesses of the canon, or, if you prefer, of the economical expressiveness of classic comics from Batman to Garfield. In “Blond Eve,” Dagwood and Blondie are ejected from the Garden of Eden into their archetypal suburban home; Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray is reimagined as a foppish Little Nemo; and Camus’s Stranger becomes a brooding, chain-smoking Golden Age Superman. Other source material includes Dante, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, bubblegum wrappers, superhero comics, kid cartoons, and more.
Sikoryak, clearly a man who enjoys a challenge, not only finds astonishing parallels between characters from highbrow literature and pop culture, but he paintstakingly draws each cartoon parody in a line-perfect recreation of the original’s style, right down to the flat, four-color palette that comics were stuck with in the pre-computer era. It’s a virtuoso performance.
“Blonde Eve” — Mr. Dithers creates the world and appoints Dagwood and Blondie caretakers of the Garden of Eden. Things don’t go very well.
“Inferno Joe” — Bazooka Joe tours the nine circles of Hell in thirty-one bubblegum-wrapper-sized panels.
“Mephistofield” — Jon Faustus makes a deal with the devil to become lord of all the Earth. His constant companion is a fat, lazy, unflappable feline demon who’s clearly the brains of the operation.
“MacWorth” — Mary Worth advises her husband, Rex (Mac) Morgan, to murder his boss, Mr. Duncan, and take his place at the head of the firm. No one counted on Mac’s feverish imagination working overtime.
“Candiggy” — Voltaire’s innocent nebbish trudges through a world of horrors while clinging to his indefatigable optimism.
“The Crypt of Bronte” — The wildly melodramatic tale of Heathcliff and Cathy and their doomed love is given the EC horror comics treatment, complete with narration by “the House-Keeper.”
“Hester’s Little Pearl” — Little Lulu is cast as the all-seeing innocent at the heart of America’s weirdest allegorical novel, with her mom and pop in the roles of Hester Prynne and the Rev. Dimmesdale.
“Dostoevsky Comics” — The arrogant, impoverished student Raskol dons his cape, cowl, and hatchet to take the law into his own hands. He is aided on the arduous road to redemption by Sonny, the boy prostitute wonder, and Commissioner Porfiry Petrovich, all drawn in Dick Sprang’s noir-influenced style.
“Little Dori in Pictureland” — Oscar Wilde meets Winsor McCay. Cruelty, selfishness and murder make up the dream life from which Little Dori will awake…at a cost.
“Good ol’ Gregor Brown” — The little round-headed guy awakes from uneasy dreams to find himself transformed into a gigantic insect. Good grief!
“Action Camus” — The Stranger, with cruel words and actions far beyond those of conventional morality, can’t bear to live in a world as absurd as this one. The existential anti-hero is drawn to look a lot like Wayne Boring’s version of a certain Strange Visitor from Another Planet.
“Waiting to Go” — Beavis and Butt-head, as imagined by Samuel Beckett. One page, to be re-read ad infinitum.
