James Kochalka

NOTE: This site is not run by James himself.



James Kochalka is a cartoonist and rock musician who was born in 1968 and grew up in Springfield, Vermont. He currently lives in Burlington, Vermont. He attended the Maryland Institute College of Art and holds an MFA in painting. His first published comics work was around 1994. He has cited Eightball by cartoonist Daniel Clowes as being a key inspiration in leading him "towards a whole world of comics that [he] never knew existed." Kochalka strongly believes that "Craft is the enemy," and has had public debates in print and online with other cartoonists who disagree with his position. Kochalka spent six years working in a Chinese restaurant in Winooski, Vermont and eventually left that job to devote his full energy to cartooning and music. In January of 2006, Kochalka announced that the song "Hockey Monkey," recorded with the band The Zambonis, had been chosen as the theme song to the upcoming Fox TV series The Loop. If the series is a success, this seems likely to bring new levels of awareness about Kochalka and his music, and in recognition of that fact Rykodisc decided to re-release Kochalka's Greatest Hits CD Our Most Beloved. He appears in a documentary film called Adventures Into Digital Comics, soon to be released.