When Alexa Kitchen says that she started drawing at age three, but didn’t start to get good until she was six or seven, you don’t need to take her word for it. Her first book, Drawing Comics Is Easy! (Except When It’s Hard) was composed of illustrations done when she was just seven years old. Published by her father’s company, Denis Kitchen Publishing, when she was nine, the book has been praised by R. Crumb, Patrick McDonnell and Neil Gaiman, and Alexa has been nominated for both a Harvey Award and an Eisner Award, making her the youngest nominee ever for either.
Alexa’s new book, Grown-Ups Are Dumb (No Offense), comes out from Disney-Hyperion this month. Now 12 and about to start seventh grade, Alexa says that the book is “basically about kids and how adults frustrate them.” Senior editor Tamson Weston, who worked with Alexa on the new book, says that she was initially drawn not only to Alexa’s talent, but to her uniquely childlike vision. “Her visual storytelling is really sophisticated, but the work still looks like a kid created it. A lot of books out there are written from a child’s perspective, like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but this is authentic.”
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| Alexa Kitchen. Photo: Stacy Kitchen. |
Weston does admit that, at first, she had a few concerns about editing the work of someone so young. “I wondered how the revision process would work, and how she would respond to things,” she says. “Usually the agent and the creator have something pretty specific in mind. Alexa is a kid and doesn’t have a real professional life yet. She’s just drawing because it’s fun.”
The drawings that would eventually became Grown-Ups Are Dumb (No Offense) were selected from “tons and tons,” Weston recalls, that were submitted in a large binder. “This was neither a proposal, nor a complete project.” Weston, along with Alexa, her father and a designer, went through the material piece by piece, deciding which would work best, how they would fit together, and what the overall shape of the book would be. “Luckily [Alexa] produces so much it’s easy to pull the best stuff,” Weston says.
That “best stuff” includes pieces that explore the experience of childhood—rides home on that “moving avalanche of noise” (the school bus), cleaning one’s room, and putting up with clueless parents and annoying little brothers. “I like to draw people and they ways they interact with each other,” says Alexa. “I find it pretty amusing.”
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| Kitchen's first book sold 5,000 copies. |
Alexa believes that her humor has gotten more sophisticated since the publication of her first book. “Also my drawing style has improved a bit,” she says. Weston agrees. “She still has a good sense of putting a picture together, but she’s gotten better at details. It’s interesting to see how Alexa has changed , both in terms of style and preferred subject matter.”
To promote Grown-Ups Are Dumb (No Offense), Disney sent Alexa to Comic Con in San Diego, created promotional buttons for giveaways at schools and library events, and will launch an advertising campaign on CartoonNetwork.com this month. Alexa will also be making appearances at bookstores throughout September and October.
All that excitement can be overwhelming for someone so young, and although she may be a star at comic conventions, Alexa says that, in her personal life, no one has treated her any differently since she became a published cartoonist. “I don’t really like being treated like a celebrity,” she says. “I’m kind of an introvert.”
So what’s next for the self-proclaimed “World’s Youngest Professional Cartoonist,” when she’s not traveling around the country? “I read a lot,” Alexa says. “I spend time on the computer and I go outside sometimes.” She pauses, then giggles. “It’s not like my whole life is centered around drawing, you know.”
Grown-Ups Are Dumb (No Offense) by Alexa Kitchen. Disney-Hyperion, paper $8.99 ISBN 978-1-4231-1331-7
