Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Jeff Kinney spent six years drawing Diary of a Wimpy Kid before anyone published it, and posted it free on the children's site Funbrain, where it was read tens of millions of times. He had intended it for adults looking back at middle school.
About Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Jeff Kinney spent six years drawing Diary of a Wimpy Kid before anyone published it, and posted it free on the children's site Funbrain, where it was read tens of millions of times. He had intended it for adults looking back at middle school. What sold it instead was the format — a hand-lettered journal with cartoons on every page, dense enough to look like a comic and short enough to finish, which turned out to be the exact shape that reluctant readers wanted. The series has passed 275 million copies in print. Kinney's drawing style is close to the simplest thing that still reads as a person: a hollow oval, two dots, three hairs.
Kinney wrote it for adults remembering middle school; children took it over, and the publisher followed them.
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Key eras
| Era | Years | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Funbrain | 2004–2007 | Serialised free online before print publication. |
| 2007– | Published by Abrams; the series has passed 275 million copies. | |
| Screen | 2010– | Live-action films, then animated features from 2021. |