The Horrible Truth About Comics is that comics are good and you can’t stop thinking about them.
(Fun fact: the first ever mp3s I downloaded were James Kochalka recordings. Some of his songs lived rent free in my head for years.)
I like James Kochalka. An arrogant, abrasive braggart whose grasp exceeds his reach perhaps to some, but goddamn he was right to call craft is the enemy. There’s still no greater advice than what he gave in that original letter to The Comics Journal:
What every creator should do, must do, is use the skills they have right now. A great masterpiece is within reach if only your will power is strong enough (just like Green Lantern). Just look within yourself and say what you have to say.
It’s exactly what he does with his comics and music. He doesn’t worry about whether his singing or art is good enough, he puts pen to paper and puts it out there. A very punk attitude that has worked well for him over the years. But that same attitude also meant that this simple message led to a years long controversy in the pages of The Comics Journal with people like Jeff Devine and Jim Woodring no less coming down on the side of craft being essential. Reading it back, you feel that they completely misread what Kochalka was arguing but also that he was deliberately fanning this misunderstanding in his follow-up messages. It became a flamewar all over alternative comics space, where to be honest the fight was more interesting than the outcome because obviously both sides had good points.
The Horrible Truth About Comics came out in 1999 and is a 32 page monologue about Kochalka’s views on art and comics making, which repeats some of the points made in “craft is the enemy” but more coherent and less obnoxiously. I think it was advertised at the time as being Kochalka’s ultimate statement on these themes, a final rebuttal to his enemies. At heart though it’s a glorious celebration of the possibilities of making comics, something that gives me joy every time I read it.
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