A Graphic Novel about the iTunes Terms and Conditions. Yes. Really.

Every once in a while, creators make something that is a little wonky. I’ve found another one of those oddball items.

Comic artist and satirist Robert Sikoryak has illustrated a graphic novel that is filled with the text of the iTunes terms and conditions legal contract that everyone has to agree to before using the service. The comic book, simply titled Terms and Conditions, is 94 pages long and juxtaposes images of Apple and iTunes founder Steve Jobs with panels from classic comic books. You may have noticed that the cover image, for example, resembles several comics featuring X-Men character Wolverine. The full graphic novel also draws from The Simpson, Hark A Vagrant, Beatle Bailey, Persepolis, and more.

Sikoryak has experience with off-the-wall graphic novels; he transformed Crime and Punishment into a Batman-esque comic and is currently working on a version of Moby Dick. In an interview with Entertainment, Sikoryak explains that he chose to adapt the terms and conditions contract because in some ways, it is similar to those works of classic literature. “[The books] are famously really long. And everyone feels like they should read them, but they haven’t read them.”

Despite the odd nature of the project, its development went fairly well for Sikoryak until disaster struck; Apple updated the terms and conditions. For the most part, the changes were minimal. Sikoryak had to add  new panels and adjust fonts, but the overall structure of the text remained unchanged. He also discovered that Apple prohibited users from incorporating iTunes into the “development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, missile, or chemical, or biological weapons.”

I’m not sure how Apple came up with that particular line, but it sounds like there is quite the story behind it.

To see a few more pages from the graphic novel and to read more of Sikoryak’s thoughts on the subject, check out the full write up in Entertainment. It highlights just how interesting, and how strange, the creation of comics can be.

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Image Attribution: All images from R. Sikoryak, Terms and Conditions, Drawn and Quarterly, 2017.