Terms and Conditions Paperback by R. Sikoryak

Product Details

• Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly (2017-03-07)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 108 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781770462748
• Item Weight: 334.53 grams
• Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.87 x 0.99 cm

Master satirist tackles the contract everyone agrees to but no one reads

“Mischievous, pastiche-heavy artist Robert Sikoryak…upped the difficulty level for his long-term conceptual project: Instead of abridging a book, he lifted the complete text of Apple’s mind-numbing corporate boilerplate, which users must agree to before accessing iTunes, and mashed it up with art invoking more than a century of comics.”—New York Times

For his newest project, R. Sikoryak tackles the monstrously and infamously dense legal document, iTunes Terms and Conditions, the contract everyone agrees to but no one reads. In a word for word 94-page adaptation, Sikoryak hilariously turns the agreement on its head—each page features an avatar of Apple cofounder and legendary visionary Steve Jobs juxtaposed with a different classic strip such as Mort Walker’s Beatle Bailey, or a contemporary graphic novel such as Craig Thompson’s Blankets or Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.

Adapting the legalese of the iTunes Terms and Conditions into another medium seems like an unfathomable undertaking, yet Sikoryak creates a surprisingly readable document, far different from its original, purely textual incarnation and thus proving the accessibility and flexibility of comics. When Sikoryak parodies Kate Beaton’s Hark A Vagrant peasant comics with Steve Jobs discussing objectionable material or Homer Simpson as Steve Jobs warning of the penalties of copyright infringement, Terms and Conditions serves as a surreal record of our modern digital age where technology competes with enduringly ironclad mediums.

About the Author

R. Sikoryak is the cartoonist of Masterpiece Comics, Terms and Conditions, and The Unquotable Trump. His comics and illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Nation, The Onion, and MAD, as well as on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Sikoryak teaches in the illustration department at Parsons School of Design and previously at the Center for Cartoon Studies. Since 1997, he has presented his live cartoon slide show series, Carousel, around the United States and Canada. He lives in New York City with his wife, Kriota Willberg.