Kochalka spent six years working in a Chinese restaurant in Winooski, Vermont before leaving to devote his full energy to cartooning and music. His song "Hockey Monkey", recorded with the band The Zambonis, was the theme song for the Fox series The Loop.
Comics and graphic novels
Comic book writer/artist Frank Miller told SuicideGirls that he is a "big fan of James Kochalka," predicting Kochalka is "going to become more important and it’s going to be fun watching that happen. He reminds me of me when I was six years old and I came into my mother’s kitchen with a bunch of sheets of typing paper folded over and stapled in the middle that were covered with drawings and I said 'Mom this is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life.' I’ve learned a lot from people like Kochalka because they do stuff that shouldn’t work but does."
Kochalka is prolific in his comics work. He told an interviewer in 2002 that he had created 2,000 pages of comics by the time he completed high school. His comics have earned him four Ignatz Awards (Outstanding Minicomic 1997, Outstanding Series 2002, Outstanding Online Comic 2003 and 2004), a Harvey Award (Best Online Comic 2006), and multiple nominations for the Eisner Award. His work is characterized by a simple drawing style, bright colors, and frequent appearances by cats, robots, elves, and monkeys.
Among his most widely disseminated works is a four-page story, "Hulk vs. The Rain," that originally appeared in black-and-white in an unauthorized alternative comic called Coober Skeber. The story was later redrawn in color by Kochalka for inclusion in Marvel's Incredible Hulk 2001 Annual. The first issue of his comic Super-F*ckers sold approximately 2,500 copies through Diamond Distributing. In 2002, Kochalka said that all 5,000 copies of the first printing of the Monkey vs. Robot graphic novel had sold out. There has since been a second printing, and in an interview in August 2006 Kochalka said that over 10,000 copies of Monkey vs. Robot have been sold to date.
Since October 26, 1998, Kochalka has kept a daily diary comic strip. These strips have been published by Top Shelf Productions, first as The Sketchbook Diaries and then in collected form as American Elf. The complete archive of daily strips is now available as a webcomic, American Elf. The strip marked its tenth anniversary in 2008. Kochalka told The Onion that he wrote the first diary entry while traveling by plane to the San Diego Comic-Con. Kochalka's friend and fellow cartoonist Brian Ralph was working on his comics on the flight, and Kochalka was inspired to begin cartooning on the plane as well. Kochalka created diary strips during the week of the convention, and committed to doing a diary strip every day.
Beginning in December 2007, Kochalka made all of his daily diary strip archives free for all readers; previously the archives had only been accessible to paying subscribers, with only the newest strip available for free. Under the relaunched "American Elf Supersite," all the archived strips dating back to 2002 were free for all readers, while paying subscribers receive access to other comics and MP3s. Kochalka reported on his blog that the site had received around 200,000 hits as a result of the change. Subsequently he opened the archives all the way back to the strip's beginning in 1998.
The book American Elf is a collection of Kochalka's daily diary strips, released in a large edition by Top Shelf Productions in Summer 2004, compiling five years of the daily diary strips and other supplemental material. A second volume was released in early 2007, collecting years six and seven of the daily strips in full color. A third volume followed in November 2008, collecting the years 2006 and 2007 in color.
Kochalka's two primary publishers are Top Shelf Productions and Alternative Comics. He has also published numerous short stories in comics anthologies, self-published his own mini-comics, and published graphic novels through other publishers such as Black Eye, Slave Labor Graphics, and Highwater Books.
Kochalka created the comic Impy And Wormer, which appears in Nickelodeon Magazine.
Teaching
Kochalka is an instructor at the Center for Cartoon Studies, a cartooning school in White River Junction, Vermont that was founded by cartoonist James Sturm. Kochalka is part of the "Little Idiot Collective," a group of artists assembled by the musician Moby.
Music
Kochalka's band, James Kochalka Superstar, has released nine albums.
Spread Your Evil Wings and Fly was completed some time before its release in the fall of 2005; an online petition was launched to convince Kochalka's record label Rykodisc to release the CD. Over 500 people signed the petition demanding the album's release.
Virtually all of Kochalka's CDs come packaged with his cartoons in the accompanying pamphlets, in some cases using the pamphlet as a full-length mini-comic.
Kochalka's best-known musical works are probably the songs "Pizza Rocket" and "Hockey Monkey", the music videos for which were shown on Nickelodeon's animation showcase series KaBlam!.
Rolling Stone named "Britney's Silver Can" one of "The 100 Best Songs of 2006".
The song "Hockey Monkey", which James co-authored with the Zambonis, was used as theme song of the Fox comedy, The Loop.
Kochalka was also in the band Jazzin' Hell, and contributed vocals as the character Frank Poole in the rock opera CD, ODYSSEY!
Moby sang back-up vocals on a seven inch single from Kochalka's former band Jazzin' Hell, an outtake of which resurfaced on Kochalka's album Don't Trust Whitey.
