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James Kochalka Interviews

April, 1997
Wizard #69
Palmer's Picks
By Tom Palmer Jr.

Cartoonist James Kochalka refuses to grow up. But why would he want to? The multitalented comic book creator of Magic Boy is a fine artist who has had several gallery showings. He's a magazine illustrator published in places like Pulse and Seattle's The Stranger. He's the lead singer for the band appropriately named James Kochalka Superstar. He's a waiter at a local Chinese restaurant. (Love them leftovers!) And he also manages to find time to crank out some damn fine mini-comics and graphic novels in between all of that other stuff. So why give that all up and face adulthood?

Since Kochalka has his fingers in so many things at once, you might wonder why he sticks with comics. For the 29-year-old Vermont resident, the answer is pretty simple: "Comics are really personal. You make a comic and then you can send it out all across the country and have a direct connection between you and whoever reads the thing, as opposed to painting, where chances are your painting's not going to go all over the world and people aren't going to see it."

It's easy for Kochalka to have an instant rapport with his readers, because his cartooning style is instantly likable and personable. Even though he sometimes tackles some heavy issues like religion and maturation in his work, he draws in a simple thick-lines style and populates his comics with goofy characters (like talking squirrels, robot elves and gren aliens that pee on people) that help keep his strips fun and interesting. "I'm always trying to get at some deeper meaning about existence in my comics, but I enjoy life and I have a lot of fun in my own life, so I want to get at these deeper issues in a fun way. I don't want people to be bored reading my comics."

It's almost impossible to be bored reading Kochalka's books. Take his latest project, for example. It's a graphic novel called Paradise Sucks, and it features two distinct stories that intersect at various points. Kochalk's sometimes stand-in, Magic Boy, stars in one of the stories as a geometric painter struggling to find the spark of creativity in his work that he's long since lost. The other half of the story is Kochalka's distinctive take on the creation story with Adam and Eve. "You get a little bit of one stroy and a little bit of the other, [going] back and forth for a while until eventually they merge into one story."

Even though he's trying to reach a lot of people with his art — which is ususally very cartoony and therefore highly accessible -- some might be a little put off by the fact that Kochalka pays so much attention to himself. His mini-comic series and band are both named James Kochalka Superstar, and a recent comic featured his photo on the cover instead of regular artwork. iBut you have to realize that it's all part of the fun and also part of Kochalka's grand scheme. "I've always felt that I should be famous just for being me, not for anything I've done or anything I've created," he says.

Kochalka rationalizes this idea by recalling the way he was taught in school. "When I was a kid, teachers tarted praising kids just for their individuality. We all grew up thinking that [we] were special. Whether you're special or not, everyone thinks they're special, so you start to think that everyone else is not special you think, 'Everyone can't be special, so if I'm special, that means the other people can't possibly be special.' Then you walk around looking at other people, thikning what idiots they are."

It's no mistake that Kochalka looks to his childhood to explain the way he lives his life as an adult. In fact, the process of growing up is the basis for just about all of Kochalka's comics. Magic Boy, the main character in the majority of Kochalka's stories, is a young buck-toothed elf that usually finds himself in all sorts of teenage mischief like drinking beer in the woods, torturing defenseless insects and skinny-dipping.

The change from child to adult is a subject that Kochalka finds endlessly fascinating. "I'm still trying to figure uot how in the hell I grew up, because I promised myself I would never grow up when I was a little kid, but it happened anyway. I think I held on pretty well to childhood, to the awe and wonder, but there are definitely ways that I've changed. I'm just trying to think about the process. You start out formless and then eventually you learn more and more about the world, and it changes you; you become a person. That process of becoming a person is really interesting to me."

Even though Kochalka swore he would never grow up, he admits there are a few things about being a grown-up. "I think it was a great decision to grow up, but [you should] try to hold onto some things about being a kid, because there's a lot of power in being an adult. You have the power to control your life. Many of my friends will tell you that I'm really immature and barely an adult at all, but I support myself and make a living. I do fine as an adult. I think working and making a living is a good feeling in a way, to know that you can actually make it in the world in some way.