A Conversation With Richard Sirgiovanni

At an early age, Richard Sirgiovanni knew he wanted to be a cartoonist. "I think I needed an escape and fell heavily into this magical world of imagination and cartoons. I was a big comic book reader and began drawing and copying my favorite super heroes. I went on to starting to create my own characters at an early age and started creating my own comic strips. I continued through grammar and high school as the cartoonist for the school newspaper. In my teens I started having my own comic strips published in local newspapers. I went on to college at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and studied cartooning with Harvey Kurtzman who is the creator of Mad Magazine. From there I have continued freelancing in newspapers, book covers and advertisements."

He is also a musician. "I started playing drums and singing at fourteen. Like most, I played in bands as a teen at high school dances and parties. Later I was in a original band playing in the NYC club circuit. At one point, we were playing the circuit that Cyndi Lauper, Madonna and Bon Jovi were as they were all coming up."

Most recently, Richard has created an animated show called The Grimps. "I started developing the thought about making the story something magical and fun for kids. I came up with the idea about these minstrels that lived 500 years ago. They were wonderful musicians and local celebrities. The evil wizard (Spectar) was jealous of them and cursed and banished them for eternity in the Forest of Dingle. Until 500 years later, their friend and wizard, who was also cursed, named magic Alex finds a reverse spell that turns them back to humans. But only from sunset to sunrise. So now they can resurface as this pop rock group called The Grimps. The other part of the inspiration was to be able to present The Grimps to the public as a legitimate rock n roll band by creating original music."