James Kochalka is interviewed by both Comics Book Resources and Publishers Weekly about his latest kids’ comic, Johnny Boo, published by Top Shelf. Kochalka, who has also recently published Squirrely Gray through Random House, tells Comic Book Resources about the difficulties involved in getting a children’s comics into the hands of young readers:
I think that the readers, the people that read the rest of my comics, will find something to enjoy in it. But we’re trying to get it into the hands of actual kids. [Top Shelf has] been working very intently with the various book distributors to make sure they can get it to kids. We got a great quote from Harry Bliss, who’s the illustrator of the bestselling “Diary of a Spider.” That should signal that this is something they should buy and stock. That’s the thing, you can make a great kids book, but there’s one buyer for each of those big chains. One buyer can say no. That’s what happened to my first children’s picture book, “Squirrely Gray.” One guy from Borders looked at it. They said it was great, and they were passing on it.