Rich Sigberman Art & Illustration

My autobiographical comic strip didn’t start out to be such. It grew organically from that “POW!” center section of Barney Google getting a fist in his face, which came from a very beat up 1924 Sunday comic section. It was only then that I asked myself, “What has had that “POW affect” on me?”, and the answer was “when I first saw comic book and comic strip art.

Then I began the narrative in the upper left, but wanted to keep the format fluid, so I have characters in different sizes moving from one panel overlapping to the next, and used depth, especially in the upper right corner panel, that shows 7 year old me flying over a geometric field of comic strip panels vanishing into the horizon. Lastly, I go back and forth from a child to an adult twice, adding to the expanse of time. (there’s also a reference to 21st century, of which this style of art is decidedly not)

All the memories are true, and I think that shows. Having my parents holding me back was a throwaway to fill up a small space, or so I thought, only to realize that for me it was the psychologically most complex part.

The piece is a collage, using the yellowed newspaper to visually tie things together (it amazed me how well this old paper held up to paste and water color!). I also used my polka-dot blue pajamas as a repeat motif to visually add cohesion. But, the eye keeps going back to “POW!” and the green burst around it, as those are the most intense colors on the page and the basic idea.