Comments on: American Elf free for all

American Elf free for all

hydrophonic — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 11:00:26 -0800

The archives of American Elf, the celebrated online comic diary of cartoonist and rocker (audio) James Kochalka, are now free. There's the occasional NSFW-ish cartoon nudity and swearing. A previous post was dominated by a debate over the wisdom of his old strategy of offering the current day free, but charging for the archives. Problem solved!

By: freem

freem — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 11:02:24 -0800

I was considering posting this myself. Yay, American Elf!

By: wendell

wendell — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 11:05:02 -0800

American Elf? What? Another Kucinich post?

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 11:12:03 -0800

You just added "-ish" to get around the trademark, didn't you.

By: ORthey

ORthey — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 11:12:27 -0800

Kickass.

By: ifjuly

ifjuly — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 11:15:30 -0800

this makes my day!! it's like early christmas. yay.

By: wsg

wsg — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 11:18:50 -0800

I'm reading them and I'm wanting to laugh, but I'm not laughing, and I really want to. He does rock well.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 11:24:29 -0800

Heh, I was just about to post a follow up about this to MetaTalk. This is so excellent. I highly recommend subscribing to the RSS feed.

By: Doohickie

Doohickie — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 11:32:05 -0800

Your favorite webcomic is not my favorite webcomic. I started at the beginning and read probably a month's worth or so... out of those there were three or four that I would call the amusing; the rest were all... huh? I'm guessing I'm not in his target demographic.

By: Pants!

Pants! — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 11:46:24 -0800

I'm with doohickie. I did spend five minutes or so trying to be interested.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 11:48:53 -0800

American Elf is not meant to be a funny, it's an autobiographical strip that's only sometimes funny in the way that life sometimes is funny. Think of it as a comicblog. I want to dredge out the Eddie Campbell quote I had as a part of my post on American Elf: "Beginning in 1998 Kochalka took the form of daily strip and imbued it with a life that has been missing from it for a long time. Since then he has made sure his daily round is not finished until a strip is done. Another thing I like about it is the way he carefully avoids any taint of 'continuity'. There is no story here, just the eternal incidentalness of life as it is lived."

By: found missing

found missing — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 12:09:06 -0800

American Elf is like eavesdropping at the mall.

By: lampoil

lampoil — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 12:13:56 -0800

I just spent the past few days reading this in its entirety. I'd only been reading it daily for a few months, so there was much I'd missed. (And, of course, I still haven't seen any of the pre-2002 stuff). Reading it en masse, I feel like I "get" it so much more than I did when I was just reading it each day, though I enjoyed it then as well. It's a disarmingly honest portrayal of the best and worst of life's small moments. I especially feel for him when he loses his temper--I have those moments, when I'm the worst version of myself. Those are the moments I want as few people as possible to know about, and he just tells the whole world. Every time I would leave it and come back, it would conjure up different things. A character would remind me so much of someone in my real life. Or I would (finally) see his influence on other people I know who draw comics. Or I'd be overcome with just how universal a single person's experience can seem sometimes. I just find it so easy to relate to.

By: doctorschlock

doctorschlock — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 12:41:41 -0800

He's also the 'Monkey VS Robot' dude. You will never get enough of that.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 12:48:48 -0800

Let's not forget his immortal Hockey Monkey song. AND IT'S 1! 2! 3! THE KIDS LOVE THE MONKEY AND 4! 5! 6! THE MONKEY'S GOT A HOCKEYSTICK 7! 8! 9! HAVING A GOOD TIME YEAH...

By: The Light Fantastic

The Light Fantastic — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:45:02 -0800

Let's not forget his immortal Hockey Monkey song. That song rocks!

By: JHarris

JHarris — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 15:12:58 -0800

American Elf? What? Another Kucinich post? (affecting cheesy Colbert sorcerer voice) He's a pocketmasta!! Dear god, the writer's strike can't end soon enough.

By: wendell

wendell — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 15:46:17 -0800

Dear god, the writer's strike can't end soon enough. And dammit, wendell's not in the union.

By: freem

freem — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:12:45 -0800

Hockey Monkey is good, but it's no Britney's Silver Can.

By: painquale

painquale — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 20:45:04 -0800

Aw, these are adorable. Thanks.

By: stavrogin

stavrogin — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 21:25:57 -0800

Kattullus helped me get this comic. It's indie-cute. It's that 30+ bald guy who hangs out with teenagers and listens to NPR and is in a band. I still don't get Lesbia. Maybe it's a different Catullus.

By: Doohickie

Doohickie — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 22:10:33 -0800

American Elf is not meant to be a funny Then.... why is it called a comic? comic: 1. of, pertaining to, or characterized by comedy: comic opera. 2. of or pertaining to a person who acts in or writes comedy: a comic actor; a comic dramatist. 3. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of comedy: comic situations; a comic sense. 4. provoking laughter; humorous; funny; laughable. FAIL

By: cazoo

cazoo — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 22:40:46 -0800

You're right, it's not a comic. Mr. Kochalka calls it a "diary strip".

By: hydrophonic

hydrophonic — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 23:49:38 -0800

Actually, he calls them "little strippers."

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 18:55:28 -0800

Good to see this. Kochalka is, to me, the very definition of "twee." In spite of this, I think it's a brilliant bunch of picto-drawings. Now I can read them all, and want to strangle Kochalka even more. KOLLLL-CHAAA-KAAAAAAGGGHH!!!! pant, pant, pant

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 23:12:52 -0800

Doohickie: Then.... why is it called a comic? I think you're not getting the crucial difference between *a funny* and *a comic.* Comic as noun has long since lost the direct association with jokes. I mean, Superman... funny? Batman... funny?! Cul de Sac? Funny! stavrogin: I still don't get Lesbia. Maybe it's a different Catullus. Goddamn Lesbia... she used be all lovey-dovey, but now she won't give me the time of day. I think I'm gonna havta write some poems saying she's a whore. Otherwise my manhood's gonna be severely compromised.

By: ZippityBuddha

ZippityBuddha — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 12:49:24 -0800

Then.... why is it called a comic? Imagine living in a world where words can have more than one meaning. It would be quite terrifying