Hey, have you heard about this seventh-grade kid who keeps a diary?
Actually, he's not a real kid, because, like, what real seventh-grader would wanna write every day? Well, unless you're text messaging, but that's not like writing. Text messaging is cool.
Anyway, the kid is a boy named Greg Heffley. He's not that cool. In fact, he's kinda wimpy. He's got a big head and a stick for a body; he looks like a Blow Pop. Plus, he wears a stupid backpack the size of a microwave. He's got a mom who's a total wimp. He scams his wimpy friends. He thinks wimpy thoughts. And, he gets harassed by his teenage brother Rodrick and other boys because ... well, why do you think?
But you know what's crazy? This wimpy kid and his diary are really, really popular. So is the guy who made him up, Maryland-born cartoonist and author Jeff Kinney.
His first book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Abrams, 2007), has spent 45 weeks on The New York Times children's chapter book best-seller list, going as high as No. 1, since its release last April. Kinney's new book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, has been No. 1 on the list since making its debut this month. There are five Diary of a Wimpy Kid books planned.
Plus, film production company Fox 2000 Pictures announced on Thursday that it purchased the rights to the entire Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series and will produce a live-action family film, with more films to possibly follow.
Each of the books has cartoons and writings from Heffley's journal, which is really fun to read, considering that it's written by a wimp. He said it's called a diary because his mom bought him a diary instead of a journal. He made a deal with her to write the book in order to get out of the chore of cleaning the toilet (smart kid). She thinks it'll get him in touch with his feelings (not-so-smart mom).
Heffley's diary has entries about cute girls, annoying teachers, a demanding dad and other topics that seventh-grade boys think about -- but don't dare write.
A third Diary of a Wimpy Kid book is due out later this year; the first two have made Kinney the latest star cartoonist who got his start at the University of Maryland College Park student newspaper, the Diamondback. Others include Marvel comics illustrator Frank Cho and Boondocks author Aaron McGruder.
Kinney says even he's amazed at the Wimpy Kid's success.
"I'm still stuck at the part where I can't believe it got published," said Kinney, 37, who grew up in Fort Washington and currently lives in Plainville, Mass.
"I just wanted to create a character that people felt comfortable laughing at," he added. "I wanted to write a story from a kid's point of view. The problems a middle-school kid faces are more interesting than what adults face."
Cartooning in college
The Wimpy Kid series culminates Kinney's years of fascination for the comic strip artform, beginning as a youngster, when he marveled at how cartoonists such as Gary Larson (The Far Side) and Matt Groening (The Simpsons, Life in Hell) could make newsprint come to life with animated characters and humorous word balloons.
When he was in college, Kinney published a cartoon featuring a wisecracking college freshman named Igdoof. It became a must-read on campus and made many of Kinney's colleagues believe that he was destined for a future in comic strips.
"There was a student protest at one point during our time together on the Diamondback, when a handful of students took every last copy of the Diamondback," said former Diamondback cartoonist John Mortenson, an illustrator and graphic designer.
"Well, Jeff capitalized on this event brilliantly in the following day's strip by showing Igdoof in his room inside of a huge fort built entirely from Diamondback newspapers, saying to his roommate, 'Well I figured, hey, they're free,' " Mortenson said.
It took 10 years
But after college, Kinney's comic strip ideas were rejected, and he gave up the thought of breaking into the business the traditional way. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid was born of failure," Kinney said. "After a few years of rejection letters ... I created a mixed format that I thought might work as a book."
Kinney spent 10 years creating the Greg Heffley character, incorporating a little-used style of combining a cartoon with the written observations of a witty, wily and sometimes dorky seventh-grader.
He said that he wrote in a diary format because he figured it would be fun writing from a kid's point of view -- uncensored. The result is a cross between author Barbara Park's feisty, fictional, first-grade star of her children's book series, Junie B. Jones, and Bill Watterson's smart-mouthed, 6-year-old Calvin in the strip, Calvin and Hobbes.
"Oftentimes, Greg does something or says something that needs correction," Kinney says, "and as a reader, you're waiting for an adult to step in and correct him. But none ever does, and I think that's part of the fun of the book."
Kinney initially published his creation on Funbrain, an educational and games Web site for kids, in 2004, hoping for the best.
The result was 50 million site visits.
"I never thought it would work in the publishing world, but in the online world ... I would post entries at 3 a.m., and get feedback immediately, from people as far away as Russia, China, Japan and Greece."
Some fans of the book wonder whether Kinney is reliving his childhood through the Wimpy Kid books. When asked, he stops short of giving a definitive yes or no.
"I wasn't bullied the way that Greg Heffley is in the book, but there were plenty of moments of terror and intimidation," said Kinney. "On the whole, I made it through childhood unscathed.
"My childhood was, I think, fairly typical for a kid growing up in the '70s and '80s, but plenty of funny things happened along the way. In writing this series, I set out to find the humor in the mundane and to celebrate the universality of childhood.
"I would say that I really wanted to remember what it was like to be a kid and put myself in that frame of mind," he said. "And that took a lot of work to remember the pettiness and being put upon."
'Captures childhood'
Kinney got his break in publishing two years ago. While attending a conference for cartoonists, he showed Abrams books editor Charlie Kochman a 20-page sampling of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Kochman was sold immediately.
"Jeff perfectly captures childhood with his art and his writing," Kochman said.
That led to the book deal. Today there are 1 million copies of Diary of a Wimpy Kid in print. Online book giant Amazon.com featured it among its top choices for February.
In a business where thousands of cartoonists abandon their pursuits amid the slew of rejections, Kinney is lauded for his talent and persistence.
"I've been impressed with his work; it's different and it catches an adolescent viewpoint but deals with an adult audience," said cartoonist Bud Grace (Piranha Club) about Kinney. "Jeff is going to go real far. I admire anybody who makes a living drawing cartoons, because it's tough to do."
Because of the book's popularity, Kinney has fielded offers to turn Diary of a Wimpy Kid into a newspaper comic strip, which he welcomes. He also has earned awards from both the New York and Chicago public libraries, and his first book tour is scheduled for this year.
Some fans told Kinney that they though Greg Heffley was a real person. And, though it's enjoyed by kids of all ages, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series is most popular among fifth-grade boys. Kinney says the humor speaks to kids that age and it gives them a sneak peak at middle school. The more they enjoy Heffley's antics and cleverness, the more it appears that perhaps wimpiness is -- gasp -- in.
"I think in some absurd way fifth-graders are more comfortable in their own skin than middle-schoolers," Kinney said. "They have problems, but not serious problems."
joseph.burris@baltsun.com
Jeff Kinney
Age:
37
Born:
Andrews Air Force Base
Education:
Graduated from the University of Maryland College Park in 1993 with a criminal justice degree
Family:
Married. Wife Julie, and sons Will (5) and Grant (2)
Career:
Has worked as a newspaper layout editor, medical software company production manager and Web master; currently works as a Web designer
Comics strips that inspired him:
Matt Groening's Life in Hell, Gary Larson's The Far Side and Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes