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• James Kochalka

Adventure comes knocking when a mysterious package is left on the doorstep of an interstellar patrolman. Inside the box is a tiny robot named Gonkbot, who launches the junior members of the Glork Patrol on a journey across the stars.

Thus begins Glork Patrol (Book Three): Glork Patrol and the Magic Robot, the latest in a series of graphic novels for kids by Eisner Award-winning cartoonist and musician James Kochalka. The Springfield native and Vermont's first cartoonist laureate is the creator of independent comic smashes such as Monkey vs. Robot and his long-running comic diary, American Elf. He's developed cartoons for Nickelodeon, recorded rock-and-roll Halloween tunes with the Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra, and even adapted his comics into video games. But Kochalka, a father of two, always tends to return to kids' comics.

Glork Patrol is a spinoff of his popular Glorkian Warrior series. Book three follows the exploits of the younger members of the Glorkian family, Gonk and Baby Quackaboodle, as they try to recharge Gonkbot's batteries (which they depleted by having the pint-size robot do too many dance moves).

Glork Patrol and the Magic Robot hits shelves on March 14. Ahead of the release, Kochalka spoke to Seven Days from his home in Burlington.

KIDS VT: It's a welcome return to the world of the Glork Patrol for your readers. What's new with the gang?

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• Glork Patrol: Glork Patrol and the Magic Robot by James Kockalka

JAMES KOCHALKA: Well, the first three books were all about the Glorkian Warrior. The three Glork Patrol ones follow the kids of the series more. I also got a little tired of the words "war" and "warrior." There wasn't really a lot of combat in the books anyway, so I wanted to put the emphasis on "patrol" instead. Because he doesn't really fight, you know? He goes on patrol; he's a space ranger.

KVT: Yeah, it seems like he just ends up adopting all of his adversaries rather than vanquishing them.

JK: The first time is in The Glorkian Warrior Delivers a Pizza, the first book. We meet Gonk in that book, who is wearing a giant robot battle suit. But Glorkian Warrior destroys the armor and figures out that Gonk is just a little kid, so he adopts him. Same thing with Baby Quackaboodle, which hatched from an egg of an alien space god. One day it will grow into a devastating giant space monster, but right now it's just a baby and part of the gang.

KVT: Is there a deeper lesson in that? Is finding allies where you least expect a sort of moral to the Glork Patrol story?

JK: You know, I don't think too much about morals with my kids' books. I just try to make them entertaining. I sometimes hear from parents or educators or read reviews where they mention the morals in my stories. Really, I'm just trying to make kids laugh. That's the only thing I want to do.

KVT: Did you use your own kids as a test audience?

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• Detail of Glork Patrol: Glork Patrol and the Magic Robot by James Kockalka

JK: My kids are big now. One is at Castleton University and the other is in high school, so they're too old to test my kids' stories on anymore. But I rigorously tested on them when they were small [laughs]. With all that practice, I can do it without the kids' test audience now. I've got the chops.

KVT: Looking at the latest Glork Patrol, the colors really pop off the page.

JK: I studied for years as a painter — I went to grad school for oil painting. I studied a lot of color theory, and I could never ever make any practical use of anything I learned. Early on, whenever I tried to use colors, they just never made any sense to me.

So what I do now is I try to pick a different color for each thing, each character, so that they stand out from the other colors and the image is clear. That's honestly it. They sure do pop though, and that's because I put all of my effort into making sure the images are clear.

A lot of it is down to keeping things simple. I don't want the reader to be belabored trying to decipher my art. I like that kids read my books and think, I can do this!

KVT: Were there comics that did that for you when you were a kid?

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• Detail of Glork Patrol: Glork Patrol and the Magic Robot by James Kockalka

JK: Oh, for sure. But when I was a kid, I really wanted to make movies. I made all these Super 8 films. But I quickly learned that when you're a kid trying to make movies, your friends aren't really reliable as a cast and crew. You need a team, and you need money to make films. Comics are more accessible to a creator. There's just so much more you can do as a creator, by yourself, with just your imagination in comics.

KVT: Do you try to alternate between kids' stuff and more adult stuff — or your music — to stay fresh?

JK: I'm always working, one way or the other. I'm already working on my next book, actually. I don't worry about what sort of book it is or what kind of story I want to tell. I don't even worry if ideas are necessarily good or bad! I just keep going.

That's what I've learned, doing this for all these years: Just keep moving. The more you let your brain play, the more fertile your imagination will be. K

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Glork Patrol (Book Three): Glork Patrol and the Magic Robot by James Kochalka, Top Shelf Productions, 40 pages. $9.99. Learn more at jameskochalkasuperstar.com.