James Kochalka – “Craft is Not a Friend”

Okay, I will say it again in a different way for the idiots who couldn’t understand me the first time.

When you are shooting for immortality, anything less than a stunning achievement is a failure. Creating a powerful work of art is like running and leaping across a chasm. It takes all of your strength and you’ll be dashed on the rocks and fall to your death. Being a craftsman is like sitting in your woodshop all day carefully building a chair and when you are done you sit on it. Are comics craft? Well, certainly any cartoonist you are likely to meet will tell you “yes”. And that’s a big problem. Craft is boring. Ever been to a crafts fair? Not unlike a comics convention. Craft sucks.

When a cartoonist sits down to draw, and their goal is to draw well, they are doomed to failure. No matter how much they practice the best they can hope for is to become a polished hack aping their preconceived ideal of “good comics”, to become a mere hollow shell of the cartoonists who came before.

For one reason, there is no objective “good” in art. Someone could conceivably think ‘Spawn’ is well drawn and think ‘Peanuts’ is poorly drawn (although that sounds insane to me). So if you are trying to draw well what you are shooting for is illusory. There is, objectively, no such thing.

However, if you are burning up inside with the need to express yourself, if there’s something you desperately need to say, when you sit down at the drawing table you think “how am I going to say this? How am I going to express myself so the people will understand?” The art will be slave to the content. Either the artist expresses the meaning, emotion, and power of their vision or they do not. The comic succeeds or fails on these terms. The notion of quality is meaningless.

From here.

James Kochalka – “Craft is the Enemy”

I just felt suddenly like I had to write and say craft is the enemy! You could labor your whole life perfecting your “craft,” struggling to draw better, hoping one day to have the skills to produce a truly great comic, this powerful work of art, that you dream of. There’s nothing wrong in trying to draw well, but that is not of primary imprortance.

What every creator should do, must do, is use the skills they have right now. A great masterpiece is within reach if only your will power is strong enough (just like Green Lantern.) Just look within yourself and say what you have to say.

Cezanne and Jackson Pollock (and many other great painters) were horrible draftsmen! It was only through their sheer will to be great that they were great. The fire they had inside eclipsed their lack of technical skill. Although they started out shaky and even laughable, they went on to create staggering works of art.

This letter is not for the established creators….they’re hopeless. This is for the young bucks and does…let’s kick some fucking ass!