Today, James Kochalka is known primarily as an author of humorous children’s comics. Series like Glork Patrol, Johnny Boo, and Dragon Puncher have been known to coax giggles and belly laughs even out of some of the most resistant young readers. However, there’s a lot more to Kochalka’s work: this Eisner-award-winning artist drew one of the most influential webcomics in the history of the form with American Elf, and he is also a prolific songwriter. We caught up with Kochalka briefly to find out a little bit about what it’s like to be the man with a seemingly endless vault of creative ideas.
After reading American Elf, I feel like I know you and your whole family. Does that ever become a problem, when fans are too familiar with you because of how personal your comics are?
I would say that it used to be more of a problem. I think at its height I had a couple hundred thousand readers a month? Plus it used to run in my local newspaper, so a lot of readers in my town had direct access to me if I was walking down the street or eating in a restaurant or something. But things have settled down a lot since that heady, confusing time.
After about a decade off, you’ve returned to drawing American Elf. What does it feel like to go back to diary comics after such a long break?
It feels a little surreal. Quitting the strip really kinda felt like I had “died.” And it took me a few years of not drawing it to realize that feeling was a total fiction. I’m careful now to keep my relationship with the strip a little more sane. For me, that just means drawing it less often, so I don’t get totally subsumed into my cartoon avatar.
Also, all the new strips are behind a Patreon paywall. I could be wrong, but it feels safer to me. All the readers now are people who treat me kindly. I really didn’t understand the dangers of laying your life bare on the internet, when I began. I know a little better now.
Your creative output is amazing, music as well as comics. What is a typical day like when you’re creating (if there can be such a thing)?
I’d like to be able to describe my creative schedule, but I think it varies often. If I don’t have a deadline, my typical day is pretty casual. I wake up at 7:00am but sometimes don’t get started drawing & writing until noon. I try to draw at a relaxed pace, and wrap it up around 3:00pm or 4:00pm. Earlier in my career I was so desperate to make my mark that I’d push myself to draw as hard and long as I possibly could, but now I’m secure enough that I can give myself a bit of breathing room. Which is a lot better for my mind and body.
I still get a hell of a lot of work done. One thing I did was teach myself to work fast and efficiently. I just love creating and I want to make the most cool stuff I possibly can, but I need to do it at the right pace where I don’t wipe myself out. I want to stay physically strong and mentally sharp so I can spend a lifetime making everything I want to make.
I try to go for a walk every day… walking is a great time to think about story ideas and to write songs.
Songwriting really never stops. It begins in the morning, and continues throughout the day. I even write songs while drawing. I guess that might be kind of odd, but once I’m past the rough draft writing phase of a comic, the drawing really doesn’t take any active brain power at all, so I can do both at once.
I even write songs and work on graphic novels in my dreams. I have several graphic novels I hope to draw over the next couple years that came from stories I was working on in my dreams.
How does creating your music influence your comic work (or vice versa?)
There’s a lot of back and forth. Writing a song might give me an idea for a graphic novel, or writing a graphic novel might give me an idea for a song.
I wrote the song Monkey Vs. Robot at a late night after-rock-show house party and that inspired me to draw the graphic novel. Banana Fox also started as a song, one that I wrote to amuse my family while we were camping one summer. While working on the Glorkian Warrior video game and graphic novel I was inspired to write a bunch of songs based on that character… so the game (Glorkian Warrior: The Trials of Glork), the first graphic novel (Glorkian Warrior Delivers a Pizza), and the music album (Good Morning Glorkian Warrior) all released the same month. I’ve written a bunch of songs based on Johnny Boo but I don’t think I’ve released any of them yet.
If you want to be creative, you gotta nurture that creativity by letting your mind be playful and follow ideas wherever they may lead. And that means a lot of messing around. One idea inspires another, which inspires the next, on and on and on.
I remember reading an interview with you in The Comics Journal, many years ago. In that interview you were very critical of the kind of hyper-detailed drawing style that became popular in mainstream comics in the ‘90s; instead, you championed a simple drawing style. Do you see your success as a kind of vindication of those beliefs?
Yes, I absolutely do. And then a whole generation followed my lead and took over publishing, as well tv animation, and transformed the culture. I won!
There’s still plenty of hyper-detailed comics art, though. It still exists. That new Fantastic Four: Full Circle book by Alex Ross is one of the most visually dense things I’ve ever seen. And you know what, it looks awesome. I think there’s room for everything. I can say that now, because I already won.
In the Glork Patrol books, Baby Gonk talks in baby talk. Do you ever get pushback from parents concerned about their kids copying Baby Gonk and not speaking properly?
I actually have heard from parents that their kids obsessively copied Gonk’s baby talk, although they weren’t exactly complaining about it. Probably just glad that their kid was reading at all.
However, the kids who copy Gonk’s baby talk are actually exercising their brains in a fun and creative way. It’s really really important, in fact. Don’t stifle them! I strongly believe that playing with language like that is making them smarter. I’m proud that I’ve inspired them and lit a creative fire in their brains.
The Glork Patrol books are delightfully silly. Do you have anything you have to do to get into that child’s mindset, or does it just come naturally?
My kids aren’t little anymore (age 15 and 19) but when they were little they were my test audience. I worked hard to write the best stories I could for them. I would read them the rough drafts over and over, as bedtime stories, and tweak them each day to try to maximize the laughs, maximize their emotional engagement with the stories. And now I’m fully trained…I can do it on demand whenever I need to. I was already pretty good at it straight out the gate, but now I’m an expert.
Can you share a little bit about what projects you’re working on now?
I’m putting the finishing touches on a new book for Top Shelf called Jimmy’s Elbow.
Basically, I was feeling overwhelmed by having too many good ideas for projects so I gave up and decided to draw my worst idea, the story of a boy who has an elbow! The idea was basically a big fat zero, it was nothing, which really allowed me freedom to do whatever, go wild and risk everything, because there was nothing to lose.
And it’s coming out awesome. I’m currently serializing Jimmy’s Elbow on my Patreon. We don’t have a release date for the finished graphic novel, but the story is almost complete. https://www.patreon.com/kochalka
