Halloween Spook-tacular: James Kochalka Inter-BOO About “The Mummy’s On The Loose” & Festive/Monstrous Ear Candy
Left: James Kochalka -photographed live (CREDIT: Luke Awtry) and Right: “The Mummy’s On The Loose” single cover (ART CREDIT: James Kochalka)
"Crashing through the threshold between stupidity and genius." - Paste Magazine
"Genius or moron? You decide." - Seven Days
James Kochalka's work may be absurd, but it's not stupid. The world itself is absurd, we are living in absurd times and he gives full-throated voice to this fact and sings it joyfully into the void. Every once in a while, something hits the right vibration and the void sings back. His collaborations with Frankie Cosmos, Darlingside, Moby, Bitshifter, ROUGH FRANCIS, Jello Biafra (The Dead Kennedys,) and Dan Deacon are indications of this resonance, but not the whole story. Do a deep dive into his oeuvre and be amazed. "Cartoonist/song-writer" isn't a term you come across often, but the boundless creativity of Kochalka (oftentimes, credited as James Kochalka Superstar) regularly defies categorization. Wild and tender, ironic yet earnest, Kochalka's innocent oddball style belies a decades-deep career that has forged a devoted following for his cheerfully surreal underground anthems. In addition to being an absurdly catchy songsmith, Kochalka is also an accomplished cartoonist, having published more than 50 graphic novels. His comics have won two Eisner Awards, four Ignatz Awards, and the Harvey Award.
James’ original graphic novel/comic book credits include American Elf, Glorkian Warrior, and SuperF*ckers and he has also contributed to The Incredible Hulk, SpongBob SquarePants, and Dr. Seuss titles. Most recently, I painstakingly assembled a Spotify playlist now-dubbed James Kochalka’s Select Festive Selections including songs about and/or closely (and sometimes, more vaguely) affiliated with Valentine’s Day, Presidents’ Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve/Day. Just in time for Spooky Season, I zeroed in on the specific Halloween section (roughly starting with Jazzin’ Hell’s “The Mummy’s On The Loose” and running up through “Freakshout”) of said playlist, reached out to James Kochalka, agreed upon an doing an interview with a super-quick turn-around, and emailed James a batch of questions. And, now, you have the Halloween-centric spook-tacular interview seen below has been lightly edited. Check it out, turn on some of James Kochalka Superstar’s spooky jams, read along, and have a safe and happy Halloween!
I. What have been some of your personal favorite (either solo and/or group costumes) you've worn or created by hand in years past?
James Kochalka: I made some great robot costumes for my kids when they were little; they’re adults now! My new thing for myself is to make a flat cardboard painting in my cartoon style and just attach it to a headband. I put it facing the right or left, so I can see where I’m going, but from that one side, it looks like I’m a cartoon character running around. I’ve done my Glork character from Glorkian Warrior and Glork Patrol, as well as a cartoon self-portrait and Pac-Man.
II. Can you tell us a bit about the origins of your song, "The Mummy's On The Loose," which dates back to 1985(?) and was originally written and recorded by your old Lo-Fi/Casio-punk band with your friend and frequent collaborator Peter Katis as Jazzin' Hell?
Kochalka: Yeah, Eric Bradford and I had a Casio-punk band called Jazzin’ Hell that we started [during our] freshman year at the University of Vermont [U.V.M.], then, Peter Katis joined, and, then, Hilton Dier, [III] joined… who also performed with us as a corporate alter-ego named Holy Devoid. “The Mummy’s On The Loose” is one of the first songs I ever wrote. I was 18 years old. It might’ve been 1986, actually, [it was the] second semester of freshman year at U.V.M. Our fans were 50% Punk Rockers and 50% college hippies. We even played with Phish a couple times back in the early, early days. We were incredibly popular for such dumb, silly music as we were playing. For a very brief window, we were more popular than Phish.
III. What made you decide to resurrect "The Mummy's On The Loose" for a proper, fully fleshed out re-release as James Kochalka Superstar in 2022?
Kochalka: I had been playing the song with my Rock band, James Kochalka Superstar, for a while, but we had never done a good recording of the Rock version. And around The Pandemic, I started to get really interested in collaborating with other bands; maybe, because of loneliness? But, also, because my friend, Neil Cleary, came up with the idea that I should do a bunch of collaborations with other bands.
IV. How did ROUGH FRANCIS (AKA the sons and current band members of DEATH) and former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra get involved within these processes?
Kochalka: I had been friends with Bobby Hackney of ROUGH FRANCIS for a long time. I had known him as a “young Rock guy” around town here in Burlington, Vermont… but I got to know him a lot better when we both had young kids in the same elementary school. So, you know, I just asked him if he wanted to collaborate and he said “yes!” It was pretty easy.
Getting Jello to say “yes” was a bit harder. I had met him twice before because my old bandmate, Eric Bradford, is actually pretty good friends with him and I knew he liked my song, “Monkey vs. Robot.” So, I got his number from Eric and called him on the phone a few times… but just got an answering machine and no call-back. Finally, in one of the messages, I just ad-libbed a little song on piano asking him to [collaborate] with me and ROUGH FRANCIS. That got his attention and he called back… but he didn’t call me, he called Bobby [Hackney] of ROUGH FRANCIS.
I wrote a whole new part for Jello to sing; a bridge. He did it in [an] old-time Scary movie accent… kinda like Vincent Price or something like that. That part wasn’t in the original [Casio-punk] 1985 version… so, I guess the final version took, like, 26 years to write from start-to-finish. We recorded it at The Box in Burlington, which is a warehouse space with art studios and a recording studio. Urian Hackney was the engineer/recording guy. We, then, sent it to Peter Katis for mixing and he pumped it up a million degrees. Peter’s a GRAMMY [Award-]winning producer now and has worked with The National, Interpol, Kurt Vile, and lots of other great bands.
V. What went into and who was involved within the creation of the companion and equally spook-tacular music video for "The Mummy's On The Loose?"
Kochalka: My friend, Neil Cleary, directed the video and Sam Simon did the camera work. I think my friend, Liggy of LIGGY LIGHTS, did the lights, very [professional]. We shot it in the backyard of David [Zacharis] and Holly [Chagnon] from the band The Smittens… because they are awesome, nice people who say “yes” to things like that. David is, also, probably Bobby Hackney’s best friend and they DJ regularly as a duo called The Unhappy Hour. Neil had been kinda acting as a “manager” for me, of a sort, helping to set up the various collaborations I was doing with different musicians. For a while, he had a lot of free time and I was kind of his hobby, I think.
VI. Who or what would you readily cite as some of your primary sources of inspiration and influence when designing the cover artwork for the "The Mummy's On The Loose" digital single?
Kochalka: I had wanted to wrap myself [up] as a mummy for the music video, but we decided against it in the end. So, I drew it for the single’s cover, instead. It’s based on a photo of me by Luke Awtry. He’s a local photographer who’s taken zillions of Burlington band photos… like, anytime a live performance is happening, Luke is almost always there shooting away… I used one of his photos of me from a live Rock performance and, then, re-drew it as if I was wrapped up in mummy wrappings. I had already used the same photo on the back cover of my graphic novel, Mechaboys, as an “author photo.” I like to use Rock photos for my author photos because it’s so aggressively different than what a typical author’s photo looks like.
VII. What inspired you to re-visit and effectively re-release/re-do your 1997 song, "The Hockey Monkey" with THE ZAMBONIS (crediting you as one Jimminy Kroekel) as the slightly more Halloween-y "The Hockey Monkey Mash" back in 2020?
Kochalka: A version of “[The] Hockey Monkey Mash” was a something I had been performing regularly with my band, James Kochalka Superstar. It was just “[The] Hockey Monkey” sung with a Halloween-y accent. Then, I suggested to THE ZAMBONIS that we record this new version together… but for them, I added that new intro part with new lyrics. FYI: I was only credited as “Jimminy Kroekel” on the Nickelodeon music video for “[The] Hockey Monkey,” not on the song itself. For some reason, the lawyers at Nickelodeon thought I shouldn’t use my real name because a bunch of my other songs [had] swears or “[were] otherwise, inappropriate for kids.” They didn’t even let me show my face! I had to wear a hockey mask AND mirrored sunglasses under the hockey mask. They went a little insane with that, I think, and, later, even they thought making me change my name and hide my face was a dumb idea.
VIII. How would you say these next four songs thematically relate and/or (even somewhat vaguely) tie into Halloween/spooky season...
a. "Genius?" (1998,)
Kochalka: This is from my Rock opera, Carrot Boy The Beautiful. It’s about a mad scientist that tries to make an army of carrot men to subjugate the world, but ends up with just one cute little Carrot Boy, who everyone loves. It’s good for Halloween because it’s about a mad scientist.
b. "Biological Progenitor?" (2012,)
Kochalka: This one is about having your father replaced by a robot that [says] he loves you, but acts really weird and says and does a lot of really scary things. It’s really scary, the more you think about it.
c. "Meet Me At The Mall?" (2019,)
Kochalka: This is kind of a love song about a doomed relationship, based in a shopping mall where an undead infestation has taken hold.
d. and "Like Black Sabbath?" (2024) - RIP, Ozzzy Osbourne.
Kochalka: When I was a kid, I was really surprised that The Grateful Dead didn’t sound anything like Black Sabbath even though their names were equally creepy. I suppose the song isn’t really very Halloween-y at all, except for the fact that “Black Sabbath” and “The Grateful Dead” really [do] sound like Halloween-y band names and it’s about them.
IX. I've noticed you have a handful of not-exactly-Halloween, but monster-mentioning songs, such as "I Am The Troll," "I Am The Beast," "Teenage Cannibal," "Friend of The Wolf," "Monkey vs. Robot," "Robot Shark," "The Magic Robot," "Dragon Puncher," "Good Morning, Glorkian Warrior," and "Permanently Cute (The Squid of Pemaquid)." Why so many songs about monsters and otherworldly beings?
Kochalka: Ha, I don’t know. I write thousands and thousands of songs! There’s bound to be a few monsters in there.
X. Would you mind giving us a brief (yet effective) "origin story" for your widely-beloved, oft-revisited, seasonally-appropriate, Halloween-adjacent comic book super-star character, the one, the only, JOHNNY BOO?
Kochalka: No, I absolutely cannot! People ask this all the time… “how did JOHNNY BOO die?” He’s just a cute little cartoon ghost. I feel like it’s a mean question. No one really wants to think about that. He’s just a sweet little ghosty guy; leave it at that! Don’t ruin it for the kids!
Assorted JOHNNY BOO comic book covers by James Kochalka (SOURCE: Google Images)
XII. What sort of projects are you currently working on finishing up or preparing for eventual release(s)?
Kochalka: I am drawing a daily watercolor single-panel comic strip called Gentle Observation. And I’m drawing my diary comic strip, America Elf, and posting it on my Patreon. I’m looking for a publisher for a new adult super-hero comic called Drug Wolf… a Batman-like guy, who gets his powers from doing drugs in various combinations. My second Green Eggs & Ham graphic novel comes out in May 2026… [Dr. Seuss Graphic Novel:] Green Eggs & Ham Go Next Door. And I’m working on a new [full-length] album with David [Zacharis] & Colin [Cary] of The Smittens as my backing band.
XIII. What would you count as some of your all-time personal favorite Halloween songs and/or seasonally-appropriate oddities? 🎃🎶🎵🎼
Kochalka: My #1 favorite Halloween song is “The Eggplant That Ate Chicago” by Dr. West’s Medicine Show & Junk Band. This song was a huge, huge influence on my music, actually.
XIV. What sort of hi-jinx does James Kochalka Superstar have planned for this upcoming Christmas and/or next Halloween?
Kochalka: I don’t do hi-jinx. I’m a serious artist.
