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Quit Your Job
Jeff Smith (Bone) provides the introduction to
one of the finest new graphic novels this year. Ignatz Award winner James
Kochalka has been called "one of the brightest lights of independent comics"
and Quit Your Job is a shining example of his genius. On
his way to work at the Chinese restaurant, Magic Boy discovers an enchanted
ring and determines to make an expedition to the North Pole. He only gets
as far as the coffee shop on the next block, but his world is forever
changed in the short journey. Special cover design by Michel Vrana.
James Kochalka's work is free and spontaneous, so I won't slow you down with a long introduction.
I love his comics. There's nothing better than seeing someone uninhibitedly pushing black ink around on white paper; filling in the corners and layering objects on objects with a full understanding of the spatial depths that exist in a two dimensional world. The rendering of the snowflakes in this wonderful story offers ample evidence of Mr. Kochalka's apparent fearlessness in this area.
I love James Kochalka's comics. They pull my head in and I ride along until the end. His characters can, with perfectly natural dream-like logic, find a magical ring and use it, forget about it, and with very little amazement they can suddenly remember… "Oh, yeah! I've got a magic ring!" It's just part of life for some people, I guess.
On gets the feeling from reading Quit Your Job that James still works a day job - probably at the Peking Duck House - because there's a ring of truth to Magic Boy's attitude and rationalizations about his job. I wonder if James sometimes tires of the work-a-day world, as we all do, and longs for something different. Something new that can save him. Well, James Kochalka Superstar can remind himself that he draws comics… "Oh, yeah! I've got a magic ring!"
~ Jeff Smith, Cartoon Books (by James Kochalka)
B&W, full color covers, square bound, 6 5/8" x 6 5/8", 96 pages, $6.95
US. ISBN 1-891867-00-8; Diamond Code: STAR 16112.
Images, characters and likenesses © and TM James Kochalka