Charlie Kochman got to know Will Eisner when they worked together on The Will Eisner Companion (DC Comics, 2004). When Kochman told Eisner that he was moving to Abrams, "Will was thrilled," Kochman said. "That was the best you could do, as an artist, to have a book at Abrams."
Since moving to Abrams in January 2005, Kochman has tried to bring the quality of Abrams's renowned reputation as an art books publisher to the projects he has worked on. He believes, he said, that each book "needs to fit comfortably alongside Matisse and Renoir." Kochman brought that sensibility to Kirby: King of Comics by Mark Evanier (March 2008), who started as Kirby's assistant in 1969 and later become his official biographer; to Al Jaffee's Tall Tales (September 2008), a presentation of the newspaper strip syndicated internationally by the New York Herald Tribune from 1957-1963; as well as to Wacky Packages by the Topps Company, with an introduction by Art Spiegelman (June 2008).
"We were looking at the list and realizing we had these comic books that had a different look than the others," Kochman recalled. That's when Abrams decided to create a separate comics imprint. "ComicArts wasn't something we set out to do, but rather [an answer to the question of] how do we continue to publish these books and give them a proper place in the market and in house? More than dipping our toe in, we were committed to this kind of book."
If Kochman were a physician, you might say he did his internship and residency at DC Comics, where he spent 12 years. "We [would] take the DC characters and try to sell them beyond the regular comic book buyers," he commented. "Every time I edited a comic book, [I edited it as] if I knew nothing about comics. Everything I needed to know was contained in this book." He cites as an example Spy vs. Spy: The Complete Case Book by Antonio Prohias (published in partnership with Watson-Guptill, 2001), for which he included essays, one by a Cuban reporter about what Prohias's influence was on the political scene in Cuba (Prohias fled that country in 1960) and another about Peter Kuper, who took over the strip from Prohias, among others.
Because the author of Maus cut his teeth writing copy for the Topps's Wacky Packages, "For Wacky Packages, it was essential to have the introduction by Art Spiegelman which gives you a context," he said. The wax jacket mimics that experience for readers, and, under the wrapper, there's a photograph of the gum "because that's what you expected when you opened it," Kochman continued. "I'm probably the least capricious editor because I spend a lot of time with that material to find the right way to present it."
The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle with an introduction by Harry Shearer was released in July from the Abrams ComicArts imprint and, along with Kirby, Kochman sees Kurtzman as part of the "triumvirate of seminal comics artists." Kochman is still searching for the right author to work on a book about Will Eisner, the third in the triumvirate.
At ComicArts, Kochman also is presenting contemporary influential artists, a prime example being The Art of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets of Life and Death by Todd Hignite, designed by Jordan Crane, coming in spring 2010. "Like any art book company, [Abrams was] doing books on [past] masters and contemporary masters." He offers the example of Avedon. "We were his publisher because we publish great photography and here was a great contemporary photographer," Kochman said. "The model for ComicArts should reflect that. Someone like Jaime is one of the great artists who ever worked in comics; he's beloved and respected, and deserves to sit next to Kirby and Eisner. It's commercial but also smart and hits a different demographic. He doesn't appeal just to comic book fans. The longevity for this material lies in the real world."
Kochman differentiates Hernandez's work, for instance, from that of Brian Fies. "As much as I love Brian Fies, he's not ready for a book about his art; he hasn't been around long enough. Jaime has been." Kochman also uses Dread & Superficiality: Woody Allen as Comic Strip by Stuart Hample and R. Buckminster Fuller, which was released this month, as an example of "what Abrams does that other publishers don't." The book's contents are shot from the original strips so that it looks "exactly as it would on a museum wall," Kochman explains. "Other [publishers] would shoot [the strips] as line art, so you wouldn't see the white-outs, etc. You can look at an aspect of Woody Allen's career that a lot of people don't know about." The strip was syndicated widely during the height of the comedian-filmmaker's career, from 1976-1984, the period when he was working on Annie Hall through Broadway Danny Rose. "When you see that material, you respond to it as a Woody Allen fan or even if you're not. [Allen] approved everything from cover to design to title. It had to reflect the sensibility of the rest of his work."
The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics edited by Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman (September 2009) is another such example, presenting children's comics from the Golden Age through the 1960s. "In the same way that RAW [co-edited by Mouly and Spiegelman] said, 'These are the great artists of underground comics,' they're doing that now with children's comics," Kochman explained. "These are the masters--Walt Kelly, POGO; also the great animal comics that no one has every fully acknowledged, like Carl Barks, Jules Feiffer. They're meant to be read by kids, not collectors. It's not vintage, but classic."
Another big fall book is Manga Kamishibai: The Art of Japanese Paper Theater by Eric Nash (September 2009), a writer for the New York Times. "It's the antecedent to manga, when stories were told orally," Kochman explained. "The kamishibai man had single panels that he put on a proscenium [mounted] on a bicycle. There were monster stories, covering [World War II] from the [Japanese] point of view, the atomic bomb, the way Americans were from their reality. It's never been reprinted in this country." Kochman would like to see Abrams do for manga with this book what Graffiti World by Nicholas Ganz edited by Tristan Mancodid (Abrams, 2004) did for graffiti artists.
While two of the early books Kochman published, Mom's Cancer by Brian Fies and The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, started as Web comics, "we are still in the early days of Web comics," he said. "But I think, in the same way that for comic strip artists or comic book artists, it wasn't enough to be widely read in the newspapers, you always wanted the collected hardcover or paperback edition." Kochman continued, "For George Herriman and Krazy Kat, there were always collected books. No one dreamed there'd be these vintage editions. You felt the newspaper was disposable, and at the end of the day they were gone, other than the ones you clipped for the refrigerator." Kochman said that Wimpy Kid to this day still exists completely online, and that hasn't affected the sale of the books. "With kids, you have a prescribed amount of time in front of the computer. In cars, in restaurants, a book is still the way to enjoy it." But Kochman also believes that's true for a book like A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld (Pantheon, August 2009) about Hurricane Katrina. "It was a great Web comic and utilized the web in a wonderful way," Kochman said. "If you're interested in reading about Katrina and what Josh did, I don't know if people will spend a half hour online as easily as they will lingering over a book. Having the book will always be the gold standard you strive for."--Jennifer M. Brown