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Joe Sikoryak (interviewed April 2008) is one of the more interesting interviews.  If you would have pitched me on an interview with a guy who studied animation, got a job in animation, lost a job in animation a week later, and never worked in animation again, I would have told you to buzz off.  But, I met Sikoryak in a circuitous way.  If you look in your copy of Amid Amidi’s, Inside UPA, you’ll see Joe Sikoryak credited with Image Editing.  He did such an amazing job, including putting Bill Hurtz’ ear back, I wanted to meet the guy, and we ended up talking about animation for well over an hour.  This interview is basically recapturing that conversation. 

The interview was conducted at his Design Well office, in Berkeley, California.  Sikoryak is the designer and editor of ASIFA-SF’s website and a contributor to the chapter’s new animation blog, along with Ric Carrasquillo and Andrew Farago, The CableCartoon (see image to the right).  It’s quickly becoming the source for animation news in the S.F. Bay Area, but, when we did this interview, it hadn’t gone up yet. Resonating with our own site, Sikoryak feels animators need more recognition. 

Growing up outside NYC, Sikoryak shot a half dozen of his own super 8mm films, and his stop-motion short, The Playmate, took first place in an ABC-TV teen film competition. Upon graduating from the animation program at San Francisco State University, where he studied with Marty McNamara and Marcy Page, Sikoryak worked as an animator on The Mountain.  Then, he was hired as an in-betweener at Mill Valley Films … and fired a week later … thanks to an Actor’s Guild strike.

As a graphic designer and cartoonist, Sikoryak has worked on; Broderbund CD-ROMs (Kid Pix), cartoon soundtrack reissues (Tom & Jerry, Heavy Metal, Mad Monster Party), and drawing comics for Fantagraphics and other publishers. Joe and his brothers, Steve and Rob, have begun producing animation under the banner “Sikotronic”. Their Hanna-Barbera-style short, entitled, Chapter 13: Lightning Strikes Out! is due in June 2008.  He talks about it in our interview, rather secretively, since it’s premier is a surprise for a mutual friend.

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This episode is sponsored by The UPA Legacy Project

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