Some of the best web comics lend themselves very well to becoming awesome collected works when publishers pick 'em up and redress them in shiny new clothes. Top Shelf Comics have been doing this with "American Elf" by James Kochalka for a while now so when they hit the magic price point on a recent ComiXology sale, I couldn't resist picking up as many as I could grab.
Anyone who uses ComiXology knows you've got a straight choice when it comes to their sales. Grab everything in a series / title / publisher sale when you can because you just know they're going to jack up the prices if you don't. I've been bitten so many times by these sales in the past (most notably by the Initial D comics - which were once on sale for 79p per volume and have never EVER dropped below £8 subsequently, ARRGHHH!)
But I digress. I'm here to talk about American Elf, James' long-eared slightly grumpy but ultimately wistful alter-ego, drawn a day at a time by the very talented fella himself, chronicling snapshots of his life in the late 90s / early noughties.
So far I've blitzed through three volumes (1999, 2000 and 2001) and as a late night read I'm finding them horribly addictive, to the point where I'm beginning to be more than a little envious of this life I see before me.
The strips are often beautifully simple 3-4 panel layouts like the one above. The sort of web comic that takes mere moments to read but thematically which plays on your mind for the rest of the day. Most of the incidents are fairly mundane and easy to identify with, but there are also moments where James bears his soul in ways that show he's a sensitive soul at heart, and has a keen knack for observation that - a lot of the time - had me nodding along in recognition.
Most of all I envy, and I do mean TRULY envy the relationship he has with his wife Amy. Amy is the sort of woman that any self-respecting nerd wants and indeed needs in their life. At times a stable influence and a sensible voice. At others, beautifully and intricately nuanced. I kept thinking of the term "spontaneously intimate" and the interactions between James and Amy are the sort of thing you would dearly wish upon yourself in any relationship, married or otherwise.
One of the most poignant moments I read so far was James' comic for September 11th 2001. I'm pretty sure I don't need to spell out what happened that day and how easy it would have been to have drawn or expressed something slightly crass or distasteful about the fall of the twin towers in New York on that fateful day. In the strip for that day, and in further strips following, there's a rawness to the feelings expressed yet interspersed with those moments are the usual run of gags about cats, bodily functions, sex, drugs, bad food, health concerns and all the other themes James expertly explores in his strips - like some thumbprint for 'life goes on' and, essentially, a truthful discourse on how we humans (or elves) react to catastrophic events while simultaneously living our normal everyday lives.
Kochalka has since been made a comics laureate and has gone from strength to strength in his storytelling and strips, spawning many other projects such as Johnny Boo and SuperFuckers, which are very much next on my list to track down and read.
I'm hooked, I don't mind admitting. Some strips are the sort of thing you could imagine drawing on a late night when you can't be arsed. Others are just breathtakingly poignant. I had always fancied the look of these collections but urge you to check them out if you can, pick up one or two at first and I guarantee you'll want them all. The good thing is that this time round I picked up 20 years worth, so let's see what this pointy-eared urchin gets up to in a couple of decades worth of strips.
"American Elf" by James Kochalka is available from all good comic outlets, published by Top Shelf Comics
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