special to Newsarama by Daniel Robert Epstein

There are weird comic books and then there are James Kolchaka comics. In the past decade more autobiographical comic books have popped up than any other time in history. But probably no artist has been so raw and honest about what's really going on inside of them. His stories take fantasy and reality, mix them together and somehow come up with stories that lay bare to his soul just as much as anything Harvey Pekar has done in American Splendor.

Alternative Comics has just re-released James' first graphic novel Magic Boy and Robot Elf and as James and I talk about it, it is probably one of his darker works. But no worries, there is a cat in a spaceship.

Newsarama: The subject matter of Magic Boy and Robot Elf and the fact that Magic Boy's wife is named Amy seems to make this a more personal story. What made you decide to do that?

James Kochalka: The book was written in 1995 and I had done a bunch of mini-comics using the Magic Boy character before then. Amy was in them as well. They were pretty personal. I guess the big difference with this one is that is starts off with Magic Boy as an old man.

NRAMA: What was going on in your life during the making of this story?

JK: Most of my stories are personal and autobiographical.

NRAMA: I just felt that this story was little more direct in its autobiography. In real independent comics there seems to be two ways to do autobiographical comics, the straight story way and then the way you do them which can be even more personal.

JK: It's a little strange in that I combine a lot of weird science fiction elements into my autobiography. I pretty much always do that. A lot of time travel and the robot of course. The really strange thing about this book is that there are certain sections which are supposed to be real then others which are fantasy. But then it keeps switching back and forth. The things that used to be real become fantasy and vice versa.

NRAMA: It seems to be stream of consciousness.

JK: I can't quite remember what it was with this book. I thought I had planned it out. Looking at it now the only way to describe it is stream of consciousness [laughs]. This was my first graphic novel I had drawn as an adult. I had done some graphic novels going back to fifth grade. It takes a long time to do a graphic novel, months and months if not longer. I had so many different ideas and thoughts at the time and I really tried to cram everything into the book. Which is probably its flaw [laughs]. I'm afraid that's it terrible and awful however I've reread it several times and it holds my interest.

NRAMA: But it's about you. I hope it hold your interest.

JK: [laughs] I guess the fact that it holds my interest isn't very telling at all.

NRAMA: You have a cat. Why does Robot Elf smash the cat?

JK: Because the cat tries to stop him.

NRAMA: This book is a lot less joyful than your other books especially Quit your Job.

JK: Yeah, this book is pretty dark.

NRAMA: Were you married when you did this book?

JK: The book is kind of about getting married. I started working on it right after we got married and I put the wedding in the book. I guess I was trying to imagine what life would be like if I lost Amy or if things had turned out differently. That's why it's so dark. I did plenty of more joyful books since then so it's okay that this one is dark.

NRAMA: Do you regress when you do these stories? Do you become childlike?

JK: Well no, but if I draw something smiling then I'm usually smiling when I'm drawing. If I'm drawing someone frowning then I'm usually frowning or scowling. It's not even conscious. I didn't even know that I did it until Amy pointed it out.

NRAMA: I really loved the matchstick tinfoil rocket.

JK: That is fantastic. I used to do that all the time when I was a kid. It's really fun. Those two pages that are instructions on making the matchhead rocket are my favorite in the book and as good as anything I've done. There's another section I think is good when we get married is well done. It's rough to look back on your old work without feeling twinges of pain. That was another interesting thing about working on this book. I decided to do a new ending because I wasn't happy with the original ending. So I had to go back and try to draw the way I used to. It was difficult but fun to try it and I think it matches well. I don't think people can tell.

NRAMA: Magic Boy sees his mom naked and you handle that so well. You never forget when that happened to you.

JK: [laughs] In the book it's just the tiniest event. Then it's not mentioned again. But it definitely affects the whole story.

NRAMA: I've heard some of your music. Is everything you do really weird?

JK: [laughs] It's all a little bit weird. Even some of my mainstream stuff like the Monkey vs. Robot books are still pretty weird.

NRAMA: Are you conscious of your weirdness at all?

JK: I'm actually trying to make the work as appealing as I can, I just happen to be weird.

NRAMA: Did you ever do a lot of drugs?

JK: In college, yeah definitely.

NRAMA: What was your drug of choice?

JK: LSD I guess was my choice in college. I stopped when I started really getting into art. I had always made art. But when I started to get serious about it I stopped doing drugs because it takes like five days to recover and I didn't want to lose any of that time I could be working on my art. I haven't done any in over a decade.

NRAMA: So the art triggers similar things that drugs do.

JK: I guess that's true. But I think what I liked most about LSD was the fantasy element of it. It made the world seem magical. I've realized the world is magical without it. It's just how you interpret it.

NRAMA: What keeps you in Burlington, Vermont? Is it boring there?

JK: No it's not boring at all. There's a great art and music scene. Then of course we've got this huge lake. Lake Champlain is the next biggest lake in North America after the Great Lakes. It's just so fabulous to swim in. This winter it froze over and you can walk all the way across it from Vermont to New York State. I was trying to walk to this island in the middle of the lake, I walked for 45 minutes and the island never got any closer [laughs]. I finally gave up.

NRAMA: What's your most disturbing memory from childhood besides seeing your mother naked?

JK: [laughs] I don't even want to say. As open as I've been in my work revealing different details of my life there's still certain things that I think I would have to take to my grave.

NRAMA: Have you thought about doing straight children's books?

JK: Well I've been doing children's comics for a while. There's the Peanutbutter and Jeremy comic books.

NRAMA: Sure, but does that get into kid's hands?

JK: Very few [laughs]. Mostly read by kids in their twenties. But issue #4 of Peanutbutter and Jeremy is for Free Comic Book Day. A lot of kids go to stores then. I hope they get it then. We have orders for over 20,000 copies right now.

NRAMA: That's amazing.

JK: My books usually only sell a couple of thousand.

NRAMA: What's happening with the Monkey vs. Robot TV series?

JK: It's definitely possible. There are quite a few people interested in making it a TV series, a full length feature film or a video game.

NRAMA: Like a Street Fighter type game of fighting.

JK: I would really like it to be a Legend of Zelda type game.

NRAMA: Would you design the whole story and all that?

JK: I'd love to but no one would let me do that. I'd be lucky if they let me consult on it.

NRAMA: What comic strips in the newspaper do you read now?

JK: I don't buy the newspaper. My favorite daily strip is called Achewood and it's at achewood.com. He's got some guest artists coming in and I'm doing one. I think it's the best strip there ever was. He basically took his stuffed animals and did a strip about them being nasty little guys.

NRAMA: So since you're a part of Free Comic Book day, are you going to see X-Men 2?

JK: Probably. I didn't like the first one that much.

NRAMA: Did you ever like X-Men comic books?

JK: No I've never been a fan of X-Men comic books. I do like superhero comics but I find it very hard to find a superhero comic I enjoy reading. I like reading the old ones when I was kid. I did pick up X-Men about three years ago but it didn't make any sense.

The only thing I didn't like about the X-Men movie was when a character would jump through the air they looked like they were on wires. They just weren't moving at the right speed. I like action as much as anybody.

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