An Interview With American Elf Author James Kochalka
The Comics Journal - An Interview With American Elf Author James KochalkaFor the past 10 years, he has brought his life and his art together in stories and a personal diary strip published by Highwater Books, Alternative Comics, Top Shelf Productions, and online at his website, americanelf.com. Each strip can be taken on its own merits, as silly, profound, confessional, dumb, or unimportant, but the real beauty is in the body of work, especially that first big collection from Top Shelf, where his whole life can be pieced together from a moment here, a moment there....
You freely document tantrums, illness, mood swings and cat puke on the carpet. Is there a limit to your honesty? Do you sometimes regret what you reveal?
There have been moments in my life that the diary strip has made more difficult. For instance, between the birth of Eli and the birth of Oliver, my wife had a pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. It's not fun to mourn in public. But still, there was a part of me that was excited to make art from the experience. My life has still not yet really experienced any great tragedy, this was a minor one. But I know that every life will experience some tragedy, and when mine does, I want to be ready to fully experience it and write about it. I'm not going to let my embarrassment get in the way of my art.
