Today, cartoonist and household name Jeff Kinney stopped by The Center for Cartoon Studies to talk about his empire built upon one unusual book: Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
The main character, a doofy ‘cad’ named Greg character comes from a long-line of cartooning and work during Kinney’s off time. He began his cartooning career in college with the strip called Igdoof with some successful newspaper coverage and a little encouragement from Lincoln Peirce (creator of strip comic, Big Nate). Life continued for an fully-employed Kinney, drawing in his off time and slowly filling a 70 page sketchbook with ideas for Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Title added by Schulz Library for additional (if not funny) emphasis
Kinney references Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers and about putting in the time for what you love. His sketchbook is proof! The first page contains some of the later characters and Kinney talks about how he could fill up 3-4 pages a night. Flash forward months later, as his handwriting began to shrink and his pages looked like the right hand page below, taking 3-4 NIGHTS to finish a page. His 70 pages of ideas turned into 1,300 Wimpy Kid pages of comics first featured on Funbrain.
After Abrams published Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Kinney began his book tour and learned (not that he needed it) about humility. At first, no one showed up to his book signings. Lovely book sellers would sit with him and always made the same two comments: “The weather is too nice for people to stay indoors” and “The weather is too lousy for people to drive.” Once, Kinney gave his entire Diary presentation to one lone girl who claimed to “love slumber parties.” In an attempt to connect, Kinney said he did too…realizing under different circumstances he could get in a lot of trouble. Then one day, he walked into a sweltering bookstore PACKED with 600 kids. Excited, he watched the first girl in line vomit from heat and nervousness. He was on his way.
Kinney touches on two other graduates from his alma mater, Aaron McGruder of Boondocks and Frank Cho of Liberty Meadows
Once Hollywood came a-calling, Kinney realized that he hated collaboration. Luckily, because he had another job, he was able to say “no” in certain circumstances. At the virtual world called Poptropica, Kinney helps create worlds for kids to adventure in and even got his old friend Lincoln Peirce into the mix. He was able to pay him back from his past kindness.
Kinney ended his talk with fantastic advice on prioritizing your days so you don’t miss out on your own life. For more than half of 2011, Kinney spend 15 hours a day drawing at his computer to send the drawings to the movie people, promotion people and more. He figured out after five years (he laughs) that he needs 350 gags for a Wimpy Kid book and with that goal in mind, he can spend more time with his family and make more books for audiences around the world! Time to hit the books or diary in this case.
-Jen Vaughn
Cartoonist Librarian
