Tagged: Wimpy Kid

Charles Kochman was recently named Executive Editor of Abrams ComicArts, a new imprint at Harry N. Abrams.  The publisher rewarded Kochman with the promotion and imprint in recognition of his successful efforts to celebrate comic books and graphic storytelling with best-selling books.  Kochman, a former book editor at DC Comics, joined Abrams several years back and has published a wide variety works that have garnered reviews and award nominations starting with Mom’s Cancer. His Diary of a Wimpy Kid has earned a place atop The New York Times best seller list and merited national acclaim.

Recently, Kochman sat dfown with ComicMix to review his career and where things are headed next.

CMix: How did you first get involved with publishing?

Charles Kochman: After an internship at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, my first paid job in publishing was at PlayValue Books, the licensing division of the Putnam Publishing Group. I started there right after graduation from Brooklyn College, in July 1985, working with my mentor and now friend Michael Teitelbaum. Everything I know about editing, and being an editor, I learned working at his side. Besides being a great guy, Mike and I shared a lot of common interests in music and movies and comics. Together we created a modest publishing program for our parent company, MCA Universal.

The first book I edited with Mike was a Back to the Future movie storybook, adapted by Bob Fleming. In addition, we published books on licenses like Photon, The Bionic Six, and An American Tale. I also got to write many coloring and activity books, including ones on dinosaurs, unicorns, and the Universal monsters. It was good training. The dinosaurs coloring book actually hit the B. Dalton bestseller list for some reason, which shocked all of us, including our president. I still have the note he sent me where he wrote “Holy shit! Bravo!” on a copy of the list.

After PlayValue I worked at Bantam Doubleday Dell [from 1987–93], where I edited the Choose Your Own Adventure series. There I also edited books with LucasFilm on Star Wars and Young Indiana Jones, Encyclopedia Brown, and a great karate series called Dojo Rats. Given the complexity of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, which I edited on a monthly schedule for five years, I got to sharpen my editorial skills in a way that I otherwise couldn’t have had I been working on other less “interactive” titles. The books were also successful, so it raised my profile in the industry, attracting the attention of some executives at DC Comics.

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