Kochalka invented the daily diary comic strip, spawning a grassroots comix movement that has swept across the globe. Every day Kochalka draws a little comic strip about something that happened to him that day. A simple as that concept might seem, in Kochalka's hands it becomes something astounding and surprising... wickedly funny at times and deeply moving at others. This volume prints all of the strips from 2004 and 2005 in gorgeous full-color.
"Kochalka is disarmingly honest about the details of his life -- sex, diapers, career anxiety and all -- rendered here in vivid colors that accentuate his sense of joy in the mundane. At turns conventionally funny, poignant and simply absurd, the compelling thing about an American Elf book is that you hold someone's life in your hands." —Joel Hartse, Paste Magazine
"Kolchaka's art takes advantage of the fact that these strips are supposed to be entries in a "sketchbook diary." It's rough and kinetic, using vivid colors and surreal figures (his best friend is a dog; an acquaintance may turn out to be a cyclops). The result is surprisingly realistic, but also versatile, able to handle poop jokes and late-night worries with equal weight." —Publishers Weekly
