People You Should Know-The Grimps’ Richard Sirgiovanni

Art and Design, Entertainment, Film Reviews, News — By Buddy Sampson on June 3, 2022 at 4:28 pm

Creating a New Dimension of Cartoon Imagery

By Buddy Sampson

Animators are creative, artistic sorts that bring characters to life in very distinctive ways. From the Warner cartoons that feature lovable characters, such as Daffy Duck, Porky the Pig and Road Runner to modern cartoon characters such as the Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles, animators and cartoons have captivated the global viewing public from kids to adults alike.

Animator, artist, master musician and drummer Richard Sirgiovanni is continuing in the artistic cartoon paradigm with his project, The Grimps, a group of four musicians transformed by an evil wizard into hideous troll creatures for all eternity. With the help from a sorceress, they find a way to live as human rock stars again – but only at night. Together they form a band, touring the world and searching for a way to lift the curse so they can once again live as humans forever.

But what’s behind the creative process? How did Richard become an animator?

Music and cartoons were always forefront for Richard Sirgiovanni. Among the musical groups he admired were studio musicians, which include The Funk Brothers, featuring James Jamerson.  “They played with the best artists for all those years and they were on some many great, great records,” said Richard Sirgiovanni. The drummers that caught his eye included John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Keith Moon of The Who, Carl Palmer of Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones.

However, one of his all- time favorite drummers was from the group that influenced him the most, The Beatles. “I liked the backbeat bottom of Ringo Starr,” he said.  At a very early age Richard saw The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. The impact was life altering. Richard, was already an avid reader of comics, but now at seven years old began playing drums and drawing.

These parallel roads created a self-taught drummer/cartoonist who whilst listening to rock n roll music copied everything, he saw from newspaper comic strips to Marvel/DC comic books. Richard’s interest in popular music and drawing continued as he was accepted to the prestigious School of Visual Arts in Manhattan where he studied cartooning and storytelling under Harvey Kurtzman (co-founder of Mad Magazine) and Will Eisner, (creator of The Spirit comics). “As a young kid I was hooked on music and artwork, probably about at 10 years old or so,” said Richard. “I got hooked on The British Invasion when that came in when I was a kid. I just loved drawing and writing my own stories and I pursued it as I got older, both of them, music and artwork. I knew I wanted to be in the creative field.” He started doing comics for local newspapers and began to discover his footing as an artist. “I always knew that I was a cartoonist, rather than a fine artist,” he said.

Simultaneously, Richard played drums in an original rock band in New York City. The band was voted one of the top original acts by The Soho News. He crossed paths on the club scene with Madonna, Jon Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, Cyndi Lauper and The Stray Cats. Richard continued freelancing in art and music as a cartoonist becoming an award-winning Creative Director in the advertising field.  “My hands were always in the creative field but I was always freelancing as a cartoonist, and still playing in musical groups as I was going along,” said Richard.

Having this deep passion for storytelling and music he thought to create an original idea combing rock n roll and cartoons…. Something magical and fun for kids with a positive message. Out of that spirit he created The Grimps. “I first sketched the characters out,” Richard explained. “I’m still a traditional artist where I do it with pencil on paper until I kind of work it out.” Many artists and story tellers base their stories on much of their own lives. Which are the characters are similar to Richard Sirgiovanni? “Maybe a little bit of each one of them,” he laughed. “For instance, the character Winston, I made him very dynamic, sort of the leader, a little bit sarcastic but very honest and I think I have a little bit of that in me.”

The series, produced by Suzanne DeLaurentiis and Richard Sirgiovanni is in development and hopefully will be on screens soon.  For continuing the tradition of sensational animation and great storytelling, The Grimps and Richard Sirgiovanni are People You Should Know.

For more information about this amazing project, e-mail richardrsirg@gmail.com.

 

Tags: Cartoons, Richard Sirgiovanni, Suzanne DeLaurentiis, TheScoopLA.