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American Elf

CBG 2004 Picks and Roundtable

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 14, 2004 - 15:34

ADD leads a discussion ofcomic book industry types about 2004 and a little bit of looking ahead. An interesting discussion for the most part.

The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon is in on the discussion (and is where I found the link!)

Also worth noting in the spirit of good 2004 stuff is that CBG has a review of the 5 year vol. of American Elf here and a review of the wonderful McSweeney's Anthology of Comics edited by Chris Ware here.

Comixpedia's List of 25 People Of Webcomics for 2004

December 13, 2004 - 01:28

When we discussed the Year in Review issue it seemed like it would be a natural to write a list of people in webcomics for the year. But what to call it? Most of the time when media magazines talk about people in film, television, music or what-have-you, they can call their articles "The Power List..." or the "The It List..." because, well, those media have power and star power. Webcomics have those things, but alas, still in smaller quantities.

2004: A Year in Review

December 13, 2004 - 00:00 | Wednesday White and Kelly J. Cooper

As 2004 packs its bags and prepares to turn over the keys to the new year, we thought we would take this opportunity to look back at certain significant or just really amusing webcomics-related news stories throughout the year.

If we missed your favorite event, feel free to add your own thoughts.

Five Years of American Elf, Reviewed by Xaviar Xerexes

November 29, 2004 - 01:35 | Xaviar Xerexes

American Elf: The Collected Sketchbook Diaries of James Kochalka compiles five years of Kochalka's journal comic into one volume. Most narrative artforms engage in at least some bit of hyper-reality, that is condensing stories to leave out the boring or nonessential parts. What can we make of a book then, that is comprised entirely of bits and pieces, and is just as likely to leave out important events as include them?

Amicably Subversive by Colin White, reviewed by Sahsha Andrade

November 22, 2004 - 00:00 | Sahsha Andrade

There are certain webcomic genres that seem to dominate the online world as much as the superhero genre dominates print comics. Any simple search will yield a seemingly endless list of gamer comics, college life comics, fantasy comics, slice-of-life comics – the web comic genre list goes on and on. But it’s quite a different thing to search for comics that deal with the self as source – or what is more commonly described as autobiographical. Aside from examples created by well known webcomic authors (for example Scott McCloud’s My Obsession with Chess and James Kochalka’s American Elf), most webcomic creators seem to pass over this method of conveying a visual story.

There’s a very good reason for this – it’s hard to do, and you can louse it up easily.

Something to Smile About: An Interview with Raina Telgemeier

November 15, 2004 - 00:00 | Al Schroeder

Raina Telgemeier has done a lot of work in her Take-out Comics and has pursued a longer story about her dental difficulties as an adolescent in the fascinating Smile on Girlamatic. She recently consented to an interview with our interview editors...one that will get us all smiling.

I Hate You All by Dalton Wemble

November 15, 2004 - 00:00 | Dalton Wemple

Putting the 'crap' in narcicrapssism

Pull your shirt up.

I don't care if you're at work. Go for it. If you're wearing a button-up shirt, just undo the bottom couple of buttons and pull 'er open a bit. C'mon. I can wait.

(singing tira lira lura, tira lira ly, tira lira lura, it's an Irish lullaby...)

American Born Comics: An Interview with Gene Yang

November 8, 2004 - 00:00 | Al Schroeder

Gene Yang has been doing intensely personal, if not strictly autobiographical, comics for years now---with his Gordon Yamamoto stories, his Loylola Chin stories, and especially American Born Chinese, all appearing in Modern Tales (and Gordeon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks has been published as a graphic novel).

He was kind enough to grant us an interview and talk about the many aspects of his work.

American Elf Wins IGNATZ Award

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 6, 2004 - 13:46

COMICON has a run down of the Ignatz winners, including James Kochalka for American Elf, best online comic.

American Elf: Too Much Information

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on September 24, 2004 - 11:27

Usually I find the small insights into Kochalka's life he give us in American Elf a joyful experience.

Today, it's just too much information.

Nowhadimean?