Blog Archives
Kochalka, James – Sketchbook Diaries Volume 4
Sketchbook Diaries Volume 4
In this volume James stumbles on the cure for cancer and has to race against the evil government agents to get it to the people in time… oh wait, this is just another edition of his sketchbook diaries. Whoops. Not that I mean that in a bad way, but you could really pick up any one of these volumes and get the hang of his life in a few pages. He’s a man who enjoys his simple pleasures and I still love his take on the world. In this one (for real) his wife gets pregnant, James goes to many conventions, play video games and talks to all kinds of people. Vaguest description for something this big ever? Maybe, but if you’ve read the other volumes of this you get the idea. If you haven’t, why are you reading a review of #4 before you’ve read the other ones? And why is it that this page has (as of this writing) only gotten 19 hits since I put the new site up at the start of ’05? Just curious. It’s $7.95, chock full of comics and, still, some of his best work, although it is starting to get a bit repetitious…
Kochalka, James – Sketchbook Diares Volume Three
Sketchbook Diaries Volume Three
Ah, life will be good as long as Top Shelf continues to put these books out. This one is primarily about 2001, so it also includes James’ reaction to 9/11. Not that you would care, but I thought it worth mentioning. If I have one complaint from reading a bunch of these it’s that if he has nothing at all to say in a day (and that could be argued for weeks, I’m sure), then he should really just wait until the next day and do two strips. I’m mostly talking about the times when he just obviously throws something together at the last minute because he’s exhausted/wasted. That’s fine, but I’d rather see a recap the next day of the previous night’s events. A minor quibble, as most of his “quick” strips are at least kind of funny too, but I thought I should complain about something. Other than that, his daily strips have never failed to cheer me up. The man has an optimism about life that just can’t be destroyed. You can read these daily for free at his website, or you could just spend $1.95 a month and check out the archives too. Make him independently wealthy! But not too rich that he stops drawing comics…
Kochalka, James – Sketchbook Diaries Volume 2
How do you follow up what has been called the best book of your career? With more of the same, apparently. I really thought that the first Sketchbook Diaries was probably the best thing that he had done for the sheer openness and honesty involved in it. This one followed that up, but it also made me realize that his life borders on dull. He’d often tell something in the four panels that would make me curious about the rest of the day, or about the thing that he chose not to write about it. The four panel structure was more than a little bit restrictive, but maybe that’s what he had in mind. There was also an extremely dull patch there right before he quit for a few months (he was obviously burnt out creatively and came back stronger than ever), but past that it was a solid work. His outlook on life is incredible and is something that simultaneously annoys and fascinates me. I’ll wonder for pages how Amy (his wife) could possibly put up with him and then I’ll go for pages wondering how she could ever possibly leave him. Whether that’s because of his strips or my own schizophrenia is up for you to decide. Anyway, both of these books are cheap (this one is $7.95 and it’s a much longer read than the rest of his books) and they’re both incredible. He’s right, if he spent more time drawing than he does playing video games he probably would be even more famous by now…
