In June, Ignatz Award-winning creator James Kochalka will release his latest work for children, Johnny Boo: The Best Little Ghost in the World. The book follows the whimsical adventures of a young ghost and his best friend, Squiggle, and will be published by Top Shelf. A second Johnny Boo book, Twinkle Power, follows in December. The third volume of his Web comic, American Elf, and Little Paintings, a 48-page hardcover of 2"x2" images, are both slated for November from Top Shelf. Kochalka talked with PWCW recently about the deliciousness of Johnny Boo, his return to Superf*ckers and his secret love of Chris Ware.
PW Comics Week : Why did you choose a ghost as the main character for a children's book?
James Kochalka : I always liked Casper the Friendly Ghost, but I could never figure out how to draw him. [Now] Casper is kind of a goody two-shoes, and Johnny Boo is kind of self-centered and egotistical. He thinks everything he does is special and wonderful. It’s probably a comment on the artist in me and my own ego. No matter how crappy a thing I do, I think it’s special.
PWCW : Did you vet Johnny Boo with your two kids?
JK: I finished the two Johnny Boo books before Oliver was born, but Eli is four and a half, and I did test out the Johnny Boo stories on him. I’d do a rough draft of the chapter during the day while he was at preschool, and for a bedtime story I’d read it to him. And then based on his reaction—if he didn’t laugh at a page, I’d go back and rewrite it.
PWCW: So it’s primarily a humorous book?
JK : It's humorous, but one of the things Johnny Boo and Squiggle do a lot is accidentally, or on purpose, hurt each other’s feelings, and then they have to repair their relationships. So those parts when they’re arguing or fighting is actually fairly stressful for the kids. But I never let that last too long before they patch things up. There are also parts that are so sugary sweet that it borders on satire of children’s work. But at the same time, there’s a real pathos in the characters and their interactions that takes it away from any parody or satire and makes it a real thing.
PWCW: The coloring is particularly vivid. What was your approach?
JK : Basically, I was trying to make it look like candy. I was drawing with exuberance. It was easy and fun to draw, and it was a fun story to create for my son. There was a lot of joy in the story, and I think the reader won’t be able to help being caught up in that.
PWCW: You’ve said before that "craft is the enemy." How does that influence the way you create?
JK : I argue about it as a rhetorical position, but I have a fair amount of respect for dazzlingly well-made things. But for the vast majority of people in the world, a dazzlingly well-made thing is an impediment to creativity. You see something so good you think you could never possibly match it, and you just feel bad, so you don’t make anything. I think more people should make things. For one thing, the more people just get started and make things, especially art, the more people discover that they like art, and that they’re good at it. And then there’ll be more art for me.
PWCW: What other comics do you read?
JK : One of my absolute favorites is in every way the opposite of what I say I’m interested in. I really love Chris Ware’s comics. They’re meticulously crafted. It’s the backbone of the entire work. I really do like to be dazzled by the craft, and I think it suits the story so well. His work is about a guy who is so dedicated to meticulously crafting something that it’s killing him. In that way, it's a brilliantly made great work that violates all the principles I hold dear. But at the same time, it asserts that my principles are indeed correct.
PWCW: Would you be interested in having your works become films or cartoons?
JK: Yeah, definitely, I would love to do that. My book Pinky and Stinky,about two pigs exploring the moon, has been optioned several times, but it never [got] made. It’s fun to option something, but it’s also not fun. It’s nice to make money from it. I certainly made more optioning Pinky and Stinky to Hollywood than I made selling the Pinky and Stinky books, but it’s just frustrating for it not to get made. It’s more fun to make art than to make money.
PWCW: Will there only be two Johnny Boo books?
JK : There could be more. I have an idea for a third story, but right now I've started working on another Superf*ckers [Kochalka's parody of teen superhero comics]. More than anything, that’s the one thing that everyone asks for every time I do a signing somewhere or an interview. If they want it, I guess I'll do it! I could write that book forever except that it’s ridiculously difficult. Coloring the pages is ridiculously hard and time consuming. And to juggle all those characters so it reads smoothly and effortlessly.
PWCW: Do you have any other adult-oriented work coming up?
JK : I have Little Paintings coming out in November. I had a big, successful show at Giant Robot of 2"x2" paintings. The book is a collection of the best little paintings, laid out in a six-panel grid. There's nothing happening panel to panel, but emotionally they tell a story about what the country went through after the attacks on 9/11, told through little paintings of cute little elves and monsters. It's a non-narrative narrative.
It's like when I did this book signing with [indie comics artists] Megan Kelso, Tom Hart, and Dylan Horrocks. We’re really into comics, so there’d be three rocks on the sidewalk and we’d be like, “Look! Comics!” Put more than two of anything together and it was comics.
