The Unimpeachable R. Sikoryak And “The Impeachable Trump”

With his long-awaited Constitution Illustrated  having just been released by Drawn+Quarterly (which I would expect you’ll be able to see a critique of here on this site in the near future, given that I already reviewed the “preview” Constitution Illustrated Sampler mini), you’d think cartoonist R. Sikoryak would be busy enough, but apparently not — and hey, who doesn’t have a few spare minutes to trash our repugnant and incompetent current president, anyway? Here’s the rub, though — are you really “trashing” old, fat, syphilitic, orange, impotent, misogynist, and bigoted if you’re just quoting his own words?

Like his large-format (and also D+Q-published) The Unquotable Trump, Sikoryak isn’t “making anything up” but the illustrations in his new follow-up mini The Impeachable Trump, which he self-published in the “early days” of this pathetically mismanaged coronavirus pandemic. As the cover itself states, these are more of Donnie Dumbshit’s “best words” re-contextualized by means of transposing them onto several (nine, to be precise) faux comic book covers that ape the style and design of various eras and titles, with a particular emphasis on Marvel “Bronze Age” stuff. So you know what you’re getting into with this thing right off the bat, and that’s as it should be, since if you want somebody to lie to you — well, hey, we already have a president for that.

As with all these Sikoryak projects, this one is a showcase for his multi-faceted and endlessly adaptable artistic skills, but what those skills often overshadow by dint of their technical proficiency is just how straight-up imaginative this guy is — after all, it’s one thing to rip words right out of Trump’s mouth, but quite another to think up some batshit-crazy scenario that both lampoons and exposes the reality of whatever it is he’s saying in equal measure. So while it’s fair to say that you know exactly where Sikoryak’s getting all this material from, it’s just as fair to wonder “where does he come up with this stuff?” But then, the same is also true for the subject of this comic, as well — I mean, damn, the Space Force? Where the hell did that come from — and why?

Actually, that’s a question that Sikoryak sort of “answers” here, in roundabout fashion, but at the end of the day — as with so much these days — there’s ultimately no rational explanation of it. We have an absurd excuse for a leader who’s ushered in an absurd era where a significant portion of the population is so bereft of real reasons for believing that they’re on the side of right and good that they’ve concocted a sick narrative that posits that their guy Trump, a friend of notorious sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, is actually fighting a secret war against a worldwide network of Satanic pedophiles who drink the blood of children — and who are all, just by coincidence I’m sure, Democrats. You really can’t make this stuff up — but they have anyway. And the fact that they’ve done so is proof positive of how fucking impossible it is to come with a legitimate rationale for liking and supporting this guy.

Now, look, I’ll be the first to admit that taking a break to have a few laughs is hardly the most productive response to what very well could prove to be the death of democracy itself at the hands of a would-be tinpot dictator — but it’s also true that without humor, life isn’t really worth living, so I don’t feel too terribly guilty about getting a kick out of a book like this, nor should you. And at least this is the kind of humor that compels you to get off your ass and do something about the current situation by painting (okay, drawing) into stark relief just how dumb and dangerous this motherfucker (okay, in Trump’s case maybe that should be daughterfucker) is, and how present and immediate the danger he represents is, rather than the kind of escapist comedy that too many people are indulging in rather than facing the dark nature of reality as it is today. It’ll help you feel good for a short period, and that’s great, but it’s not “feel-good” material in and of itself, and that’s even better.

So, yeah, we are where we are, and it’s too bad the world situation is what it is and that we even have a president Trump and, by extension, a comic like this at all. But reality denial is strictly the province of the “QAnon” crowd and the Republican party, which are essentially one and the same thing at this point, and those of us who haven’t completely lost our goddamned minds will appreciate what Sikoryak has done here even as we find ourselves dismayed by the fact that, despite appearances, he really isn’t really exaggerating anything in these pages at all. Gallows humor, indeed.

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The Impeachable Trump is available for $3.00 from J.T. Yost’s Birdcage Bottom books distro at https://birdcagebottombooks.com/collections/comic-books/products/the-impeachable-trump

Review wrist check – today I broke out the Farer Universal “Beagle II” and put it on a Hirsch “Arne” sailcloth effect strap from their “Performance” series. Nice combo, although this watch looks really nice on brown and tan color straps, as well. Still, anybody can wear a brown or tan strap anytime, why not stand out from the crowd?