Fri Mar 14, 2008 — by Rick Marshall

James Kochalka on 'Johnny Boo'

You just put one shape after another and...

From the adult-oriented Superf*ckers to the upcoming, kid-savvy Johnny Boo, James Kochalka isn't one to shy away from testing the waters of a new audience or format in his comics work. Frequent ComicMix contributor Van Jensen spoke with Kochalka recently (as well as his son, Eli) for CBR News, and their conversation shed some light on the prolific cartoonist's big plans for 2008, including the June release of Johnny Boo from Top Shelf Comics.

According to Kochalka, the simple, silly design of Johnny Boo's cast of characters is a prime example of his approach to a new story: He simply puts pencil to paper and eventually everything works itself out.

I start playing around with shapes until I get a collection of shapes that I feel can become a being on the page. If you get the right shapes together it just feels right. So that’s what I try to do. Doodle until the doodles come to life for me, then set them loose in a comic. If you’ve got some characters with some life to them, they start doing and saying what they want. That’s my favorite way to work. It’s a lot better than trying to force your characters along some kind of plot you have worked out in your mind ahead of time. The plot goes in much more surprising directions. I hope that also makes it more entertaining to read.

Read the full interview over on CBR.

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