I have just massively expanded the archives of my daily diary comic strip here at American Elf.

In May 2002 I started posting my daily diary comic strip online. However, the strip actually began several years earlier than that, in October 1998. The early years were collected in book form by Top Shelf, but they were never included in the online version of American Elf… until now!

The archives at American Elf now go all the way back to October 26, 1998.

The early strips are black & white, and then when I began putting them online I decided to try a 2-tone color system. However, that two-tone system very quickly expanded into a full and vibrant exploration of color. I’ve tried to use it to enhance the emotional power of the work. But the early black & white strips do have a special power of their own. Both are good, powerful in their own way. Now the readers can see the full evolution of my grand diary experiment, which is really turning into my “life’s work” it seems.

The first color strip appears May 12, 2002.

best wishes,
James Kochalka

P.S. These main American Elf archives are completely free. However, there’s also lots of bonus content available on the site, much of which is “subscriber only”. I really, really, really appreciate your continued support!

When I sometimes draw more than one strip in a single day, I post the extra ones in “Bonus Elfs“.

There’s several long stories about Fancy Froglin, a bright blue frog with an erection.

There’s tons of songs by me and my band James Kochalka Superstar.

And last but not least, there’s my 4-year old son Eli’s own nearly-daily drawing blog comic thing, Monster Attack.