Quite often you work on things not even thinking about what the end result will be, or what you’re going to do with it. Kochi Wanaba was one such thing for me, a real labour of love but with no clear end product planned, I just knew I wanted to do it. Once finished, I toyed with the idea of self-publishing but quality control put paid to that, so instead I decided to put the whole thing online. And I’m very glad I did, I was touched by how wrapped up in it people became, and there were a lot of calls to release the material as a book.

In my mind, the idea of it being a book was always a bit of a lost opportunity. I can’t say why, in case you haven’t read it yet and it spoils anything for you, but it would make sense. So I’m very pleased to say that Blank Slate will be publishing Kochi Wanaba. Blank Slate are really rising through the ranks as one of the best UK publishers, (check out some of their titles and artists here ), worth noting that their book Psychiatric Tales by Darryl Cunningham just hit number one in the amazon graphic novels list! Congrats!

So finally, yes, we’re making it a book. For release when, not quite sure. It’d be optimistic to say this year perhaps, but as soon as possible. Thing I learned with Kochi is it was rather tricky to print, and print well, while retaining the pencils properly, so there needs to be a bit of working out as to how best to do this. What I can say is for me, publishing Kochi as a book is a great opportunity to show all the work that didn’t make it online. There are a ton of pages and sketches which didn’t fit in, and I’d like to explain a few things in there too. We’ll make sure it’s a beautiful thing.

In the meantime, if you haven’t read Kochi yet, YOU CAN READ IT NOW(contains swearing and violence) or just wait for the book.

Phew, two book announcements in two days! Mental innit. One last mention, i’ll be at MCM Expo in London tomorrow (saturday), signing between 11 and 1. So do come along. Follow me on twitter and i’ll try and say where in the comics village it’ll be (as soon as i know), in case you want to be one of the first five to bring a copy of Find Chaffy and win a Chaffy toy!

Kochi recently made it onto the comics list at Reddit, which brought us a bundle of new readers (hello!). These are my favourite two reddit comments..

comment 1 – “After reading all 93 pages I can testify how charming, well drawn and just thought provoking it can be.”

comment 2 – “WHAT THE F*** DID I JUST READ?”

so if you’re just about to read Kochi, take these both as recommendation ^_^

Hello!

As Christmas is rolling up, I saw fit to suggest a few THINGS WHAT I DONE, WHAT YOU CAN BUY should you want to pick up some boggly-eyed face-slappy presents, including the beautiful Koch prints! So please have a look at the little blog post at fumboo (is here) for details on where you can get…

- T-shirts featuring Whubble, Angry Little Robot, Looshkin and loads more!
- Bear plush toys and books!
- Kochi Wanaba prints!
- Find Chaffy and all the other books what I’ve done!

Thank you for looking

jx

Thank you to those who asked questions about Kochi some time ago, here are a bundle of answers (including whether Kochi will ever be a book!)

What was the thinking behind drawing Kochi in pencil?

It was an idea that came about when I started it six years ago, I’d been drawing comics solely in black ink, thick lines, all confined in panels. I wanted to try playing around and doing something different, to do a comic which wasn’t constricted by panels, rather the action spilled out all over the page. Doing it in pencils, I felt, would show a side to my drawing that people hadn’t otherwise seen, since I’d always loved using pencils but never really employed it in my comics before.
Around that time I’d also been reading comics like Herobear and Serenity Rose, which had such great fluid textures to them, and I was keen to add my own contribution. They showed me you could make coherent, beautiful things while trying something outside of your comfort zone. Drawing in pencils takes a lot longer to do, but the end result it far more organic than ink I think.

Is the story for Kochi autobiographical in any way?

It kind of is, but in ways I can’t really talk about until the book has finished, for fear it’d ruin the ending (and consequently, what the whole book is about). There are themes in Kochi I wanted to explore, these, and my reasons for doing so, will hopefully become clear at the end.
As for the characters, I’d identify most with Kochi of course, but none of the events here ever happened to me. The setting for this whole comic is a place I used to live called Edenbridge, which was a cute little village. I went back there to take a whole load of photos when I started this comic, I wanted to capture something about it. Particularly the field the friends are sitting in when they’re avoiding the Bee Festival, that’s the cricket field across from my old house, which used to get the most beautiful displays of evening sun coming through the trees. So every scene I drew for Kochi, although I don’t often show the backgrounds, were very much set in specific places I knew.

Is there going to be a Kochi book?

Simple answer, I don’t know. Kochi was always intended to be a book, of course, but in my mind I had viewed it as a self-publishing experiment, maybe printing a very limited run of 50 hardback copies, all signed. Fill them with extra material and make them kinda special.
I can’t tell you how much trouble I’ve had trying to get this sorted. I’ve been through every print-on-demand place, a number of small-run printers, with all of them making test copies and ordering samples, usually having to completely reformat the book for each specific printer’s requirements (a time-consuming task). And the end result? Every time, it prints poorly, way below my expectations. And the price I’d have to sell it at (about £30) wouldn’t justify the print quality I’m getting.
So yes, I have Kochi books lying around, but they’re just not good enough. And I don’t see any better way of doing it, that is affordable. If a publisher would like to take Kochi on, and make it into a book, then by all means I’d be keen to discuss it. Seeing Kochi as it was intended, a good-quality, nicely-bound book would be wonderful, and the culmination of all this work.
So hey, if you know anyone who would like to publish this, point them towards it! :p

Any more questions, about what I’ve said here, the plot, the characters, etc etc, leave it as a comment and I’ll try to reply likewise!

Hey everyone!
First off, I’d just like to say thank you so much for all the lovely support for Kochi, it’s been very appreciated! Now the story is starting to turn a little darker, i’m psyched to show you where it’s going to end up. Kochi’s a story I’ve been trying to tell for a long time, so now it’s slowly unfolding I’m enjoying it as much as anyone.
I wanted to start answering some questions about Kochi. If we get a few i’ll turn it into a FAQ blog post in the near future, answering whatever questions you might have about it. Whether it be about the making of Kochi, about the story or characters, future plans for Kochi, ANYTHING you wanna know i’ll be more than happy to answer (spoiler-free, of course).
So if there’s anything you want to know about Kochi, please leave your question as a comment under this blog post. I’ll then bundle them together and answer them soon!
Thank you!
jamie