____ochalka, yet again

k






I've been reading the most recent of the American Elf books published by Topshelf and it occurred to me that the sketchbook diaries, as he's been calling his daily strip, recently marked its tenth year. This was the very first cartoon:
And here's the most recent as I write this:


The whole archive is available at his site, linked above, but you should do like I did and go out and buy it.

Actually, It was more complicated than that. I was on my way to get one last week after my pal White reminded me of it, but then he phoned me to say, 'Oi, you haven't gone and bought that yet, have you, no? because I accidentally bought two." He was going to write it off as stupidity tax, but i was there to take it off his hands, so all's well that ends. While we were having lunch, Whitey reminded me that he was one of the first, if not THE first, to publish a selection from the Kochalka dailies, way back in DeeVee around ten years ago. Who would have thought then that we were looking at the first step in such a significant piece of work? At the same time he was serializing my How to be an Artist. Who would have thought there was all that happening in a quiet little book like Deevee? It goes to show you never can tell. You need to pay attention

speaking of Michael Jackson:

Michael Jackson's death sparks bus brawl
MIAMI (Reuters) – A fight broke out on a Florida bus when news of Michael Jackson's death sparked debate over whether he should be remembered as a great musical talent. The bus was moving through the city of North Lauderdale on Thursday when passenger James Kiernan received a text message about Jackson's death on his cell phone, and he read it aloud on the bus. The unidentified bus driver opined that "Michael Jackson should have been in jail long ago," prompting Kiernan, 60, to retort that "the world just lost a great musical talent." The last remark enraged another passenger, Henry Wideman, who started a swearing match with Kiernan, then pulled out a knife... .

my previous Kochalka post