Jeff Kinney

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Kinney grew up in Fort
Washington, Maryland,
as part of a family that appreciated
a good story, especially one with
comedic elements. “We’d always
indulge my grandmother and
listen when she’d start one of her
own tales,” he explains. “She’d tell
and retell the same stories again
and again, and we’d never say
‘Gram, we’ve all heard that one a
million times.’ We’d just listen.”
Thanks to Kinney’s mother, an
educator, his childhood home
featured a library of awardwinning
books for him and his
three siblings to read. However, it
was Kinney’s father who provided
his favorite reading material. “He
brought home lots and lots of
comic books,” says Kinney.
The comics left a lasting
impression on him. While
attending the University of
Maryland where he studied
criminal justice, Kinney started
drawing “Igdoof,” a cartoon for
the school’s newspaper. While
Kinney had been a top student in
high school, he found himself just
getting by in college as he devoted
more and more of his time to his
comic strip and spent less time on
his studies. “I had my priorities,”
he says.
Kinney credits his decision to
pursue a career as a newspaper
cartoonist to the confluence of
his lifelong interest in his father’s
comic book collection with the pop
culture prominence of cartoons
in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
“I came of age during the height
of Bloom County and Calvin and
Hobbes,’” Kinney explains. “I
wanted to be a part of that.”
After college, Kinney spent three
years unsuccessfully trying to
get his comic strip syndicated.
“It was clear that I needed to
head in a different direction,” he
says. During this time, Kinney
actually did keep a diary. “The
idea behind the diary was the
hope that it would motivate me to
keep working on my comic strip.
Instead, it gave me the idea for
a new format.” In 1998, Kinney
came up with the concept for Diary
of a Wimpy Kid, a book peppered
with his simple but effective
illustrations. “I consider this to be
long-form cartooning,” he says.
Kinney worked on that first draft
of Diary of a Wimpy Kid for years.
“I was originally writing it for
an adult audience, as more of a
nostalgic thing,” he explains. “Then
I brought a draft with me to the
New York Comic Convention and
found a publisher who liked it,
but he envisioned it as a children’s
book instead. The rest is history.”
An online version of the book
came out in 2004. Due to popular
demand, the first print copy was
released three years later.
Each book takes at least six
months to create. For Kinney, it all
starts with the jokes. “I typically
come up with about 350 jokes
before I begin writing each book.
I do all of the drawings as the last
step, but I usually have them in my
head all along.”
Kinney attributes much of the
series’ success to the inclusion
of what he sees as universal,
pre-adolescent experiences. For
example, the series’ compelling
recurring references to the moldy
slice of cheese left behind on the
schoolyard and the social curse
of the “cheese touch” affixed to
anyone who touches it. “Every
group of kids has something like
that,” Kinney says. “Of course it’s
not always cheese. Maybe there
are all orange chairs except for
one that’s yellow. If you sit on the
yellow chair, you’ve suddenly got
this condition. You’re the outcast.
You’re basically a pariah. That’s
how kids are.”
With two sons of his own, Will
and Grant, Kinney says he feels
fortunate to have a window into
their realm. “It’s nice to be able to
have a second look at childhood
StoryMonstersInk.com | NOVEMBER 2015 | Story Monsters Ink 5