Peter Sis the master had a father who was a filmaker, traveller and a storyteller...and my mother who was a gifted, patient artist. There was no television or internet so I just drew stories of my parents.
I was a quiet kid and grew up in the city of Prague. It all started to change with the news of the Beatles and the pop culture...oh, and there were other influences: a collection of the Sunday Comics from the Chicago newspapers in the '30's. My grandfather brought them from America where he was a railway architect. He designed railways in Cleveland and Chicago. There were also books from America, magazines, records my father brought from his travels. I do remember seeing the art of Saul Steinberg from an early age. I still love it. Your style is very unique. Did you work on a style or is that what naturally came out of you? I never worked on my style. In the High School for The Arts I did not compare well with the students drawing in the "classic realistic" style. The teachers wedre putting me down, which together with adolescence was "deadly". Luckily after that in Art College I had a professor, a great freeform illustrator who took me under his wing.
When did you first think about art as something you wanted to do? Were you encouraged or discouraged by family, friends, teachers, mentors? I drew and doodled ever since I was a young boy. I was surprised when my father said "You probably want to go to art school" or something like that. I was always encouraged by my parents – they were artists and had artist friends who became mentors of mine. The teachers at school were without imagination...I was in a communist country after all. What kind of kid were you? Where did you grow up? What were your influences? I grew up in a dull and grey communist country. But, I
