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The Cute Manifesto
One disgruntled former comics creator is even on record as saying Kochalka's work is a waste of
paper, but it was instructive to me last year to meet someone who
quite sincerely and convincingly recounted to me how Deadbear
Detective -- one of Kochalka's earliest and most primitive works
-- was a landmark moment in his comics-reading life that made him a
lifelong devotee of the cartoonist's work.
If there's one thing I've learned in my seven years or so as a comics
critic, it's that personal, passionately created comics will reach and
oftentimes profoundly affect an audience despite any perceived
technical flaws, poor production values or a failure to check one's
spelling. So while a closed mind or an embittered heart might dismiss
Kochalka's seeming simplicity of line or overarching narrative
concerns, the loyal and increasing audience he has built in the years
I have watched his career is proof that craft may not be the enemy,
but when unaccompanied by sincerity or passion, one should hide the
silver and lock up
one's daughters while it's hanging around.
The Cute Manifesto arrives as a sort of accidental primer on
Kochalka. Many of his storytelling styles and moods are on display in
this thick little book, from the pensive naturalism of Sunburn
to the playful but impassioned inquiries of The Horrible Truth
About Comics. His Craft is the Enemy essays are here, too,
and if they aren't a solid model advice for every single person who
wants to pick up an artist's tools and begin a lifetime of
self-expression, they certainly provide more valuable, honest
nutritive value than, say How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way.
One of Kochalka's undeniably best-conceived works is here, too. Reinventing Everything started out as two
mini-comics, outlining how Kochalka saw his life and his world after
the paradigm-shifting events of 11 September 2001. Among other things,
Reinventing Everything is an explanation of and rumination on
his and his wife's decision to bring new life
into the world. It is at times as light and insubstantial as the
blinking lights of a videogame screen, and then in the same story
deeply humanistic, powerfully immediate and heart-stoppingly honest.
It's impossible to think that the boy at the heart of this story, Eli
Kochalka, won't someday read it and be singularly moved that his
father felt so much and was so unafraid to share his feelings about
his child with the small part of the world that cares what he has to
say. It is just that, James Kochalka's unashamed and unmodulated love
of life and all its complexity and contradiction, that makes his
cartooning so valuable, so immediate, and so moving. I remain in awe
of the achievement of Reinventing Everything, and I'm glad
those two mini-comics have found new life in this more permanent
form.
I wasn't altogether taken with the format and design of this book; I'd
have liked it in larger dimensions, somewhere between here and the
format of the Fancy Froglin volume. There's also perhaps a bit
too much white space, which could have been used to feature the covers
of many of the comics collected herein. Those are technical quibbles,
though, and only impacted my enjoyment a bit. Ironically, probably the
least affecting piece in this volume is the title story The Cute
Manifesto. While obviously sincere and even factually accurate
about both the universal cuteness of new life and the power of holding
that life you've created in your arms, at just eight pages I
sympathize with its intentions more than I can fully invest myself in
its execution. That said, if I find it the weakest element of this
volume, at eight pages it's hard to be terribly put out when so much
excellence surrounds and outnumbers it. And hell, as my experience
meeting that Deadbear Detective afficianado last year taught
me, I could be all wet: You might think it's the best thing in
this volume which contains so many good things.
For me, though, the real creative heart of this book is The
Horrible Truth About Comics. It's not of terribly recent vintage
-- Magic Boy's ears are longer and his hair is thicker than newcomers
to Kochalka's work will expect -- but it is a long,
thoughtful essay-in-comics-form that does that most magical magic
trick of cartooning. The reader is utterly immersed and invested in
the cartoonist's committment to exploring his own thoughts and ideas
on the page, seemingly learing along with the reader what he believes
and what he knows and pondering what still lies ahead in this most
powerful artistic medium. "The biggest insult is a comic that sucks,"
Magic Boy says at one point, and we've all felt that sting of
disappointment. "I don't mind a slap in the face if the result is a
good comic," though, Kochalka notes; as one of the most forthright,
emotional and observational of cartoonists, he certainly has suffered
that -- at the hands of obsessive superhero hobbyists, jealous
also-rans and confused
readers who think every comic strip ever created has to have an
easily digested punchline and eschew self-examination.
For my money, though, anyone who can't find meaning in Kochalka's work
either doesn't have the life experience to appreciate the bravery with
which the cartoonist explores the universes within and without him, or
is deeply afraid to face the ultimate revelation such self-examination
might result in. In any case, The Cute Manifesto is a powerful,
compact and convincing case for the enduring and increasing popularity
of one of team.artcomix's Most Valued Players, a love letter to
comics, to his son, and most gratifyingly to us, his readers. "Resolve
to put the skills you do hgave to work now," he says, "and pick up
more along the way." Kochalka knows the true enemy is not craft, but
time, and the insidious manner in which it ticks away whether we
choose to use it wisely or not. Create every day, with passion and
honesty, and your craft will improve by necessity and by nature.
Kochalka's work over the years is an undeniable testament to this
idea, and The Cute Manifesto is a wondrous documentation of his
magical journey. Grade: 4.5/5
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James Kochalka is a guy who just can't stop thinking about comics. He
thinks about comics so much that other people who think a lot about
comics have even