This American elf

"IF LIFE'S A silly ride, Kochalka is selling tickets." So wrote one critic about the Burlington, Vt.-based cartoonist and quirk-rock front man James Kochalka, whose James Kochalka Superstar albums and innumerable graphic novels are, collectively, a study in what philosophers have called "second naivete," or self-willed guilelessness. Kochalka's simple, meandering, bittersweet comics -- including "Monkey vs. Robot," "Quit Your Job," and "Fancy Froglin's Sexy Forest" -- may not be appropriate for kids. But you might call them kids' literature for grown-ups. (In Kochalka's 2003 graphic novel "Fantastic Butterflies," for example, the superheroes of the title use their powers to play softball and bake a cake.)

The publication, later this month, of "American Elf" (Top Shelf), a collection of five years' worth of Kochalka's cartoon-strip diary of that title, published daily on the website AmericanElf.com since 1998, offers a glimpse into the frequently silly, sometimes sober mindset of the artist. Day after day, the strip chronicles the exploits of a pointy-eared, buck-toothed, elf cartoonist and musician named James Kochalka. Sometimes he works on his cartoons; other times, he performs with his band. But mostly, along with his wife, another elf named Amy, and a talking dog named Jason X-12, he procrastinates, visits friends, drinks beer, and walks to the post office. Like the novelist Nicholson Baker, whose close observations invest everyday life with a potent significance, Kochalka makes readers care about his trips to the dentist, his cat's wet nose, even his goofiest ideas -- like the one about KangaRudolph, the Red-Nosed Kangaroo. Well, maybe not that one.

Reached via telephone in Burlington, Kochalka told Ideas why he started keeping a cartoon diary. "I felt the daily strip format was one that I could put to great use for autobiographical cartooning," he said. "The daily strip format is pretty moribund -- although strips like `Peanuts,' which at its height used simple drawings to get at the full range of human emotions, were excellent -- because syndication sucked the life out of it. Besides, I thought it would be a great way to learn more about myself." And what has he learned? "The awkwardness of the elf character, James, represents how awkward I feel moving about the world -- but what the dog, mutant, robot, and fish characters mean I'm not entirely sure."