K Chronicles by Keith Knight
(th)ink cartoon by Keith Knight

*I'M LATE GETTING STRIPS UP THIS WEEK...
..Cuz I was cramming to get lots of strips done before I took off for Vegas for the holiday.

It's the first road trip for the "Fetus Formerly Known As Lil Gravy" and he was quite the trooper. Meeting his grandpappy and great unks for the first time. Four generations of Knight men on the streets of Sin City.

*SIGNING TODAY (BLACK FRIDAY) AT ALTERNATE REALITY COMICS IN VEGAS..
Thanks to the very kind Ralph and Kate, I will be signing at L.V.'s finest comix shop from 4pm-6pm. I'll be signing Complete K Chronicles books and the latest self-published I Left My Arse in San Francisco. How appropriate for this Black Friday. The address:
4800 S. Maryland Pkwy. ste. D Las Vegas, NV 89119
phone:(702)736-3673.

*CONTROVERSIAL COMIC STRIP WRAP-UP: ARIZONA..
The University of Arizona brought me out to Tucson to address the students about my controversial comic strip (the K Chronicles: Stories from the Campaign Trail). The strip was mistakenly run the day after the election (world's worst timing).

My favorite part was doing a roundtable with a group of black students earlier in the day. They voiced their frustration which seemed more about the timing of the strip, than the strip itself. What I learned from them made it clearer to me why the strip caused such a ruckus. Besides their being .1% black students on a campus of 30,000, U of A is also one of the campuses where the white fraternities had "blackface" parties on Martin Luther King Day. And the paper that ran my strip, had previously run some questionable comics in the past (albeit with another editor and staff).

I was disappointed with the turnout for the slideshow itself. But from what I heard from some black students, whites were saying "What're you complaining for? The cartoonist is black." (which is crap, by the way. If you have a problem with the strip, it doesn't matter what color I am).

Anyhoo..There was a ton of T.V. news people there. and i turned down interviews from Fox , NBC and someone else. (I felt bad for the local FOX guy, since they don't have much to do with the evil national FOX news, yet they are forever stigmatized). Everyone did a reasonably good job in reporting it. Here are a coupla links:

http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2008/11/20/News/No.Laughing.Matter-3554705.shtml
http://www.fox11az.com/news/topstories/stories/KMSB_20081119_dc_jh_cartoon.1cd01dc27.html
http://www.kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=9383508&nav=HMO6HMaW

After the slideshow, I sat on a panel about the n-word and Hate Speech, signed books, and met the managing editor who effed up. He and the editor both were very sincere when apologizing about the mix-up.

Thanks to Seema and Zeke for bringing me out to the campus. I hope Montclair in New Jersey does the same thing.

*LETTERS/EMAILS OF THE WEEK....
Hi Keith,

I've written you before to thank you for the Chronicles, but have to do it again. This
one is brilliant!

I read two newspapers a day, but had not heard that Toyota continued to pay workers to do
community service during a downturn. That's enlightened management. Why can't we
Americans do that?

I've believed in the value of a passenger rail network for years, although the size of
this country compared to Europe makes the question more complex.

In any case, you're insightful as well as funny. Keep it up!

Thanks,
J.
--------
Subject: 11/26 in Salon

Dude, that sh*t was on effin' FIRE. Great comic. Thanks.

And the daily. I make a point of reading it online every day.

Take care,

--A.

-----
Hi,

I don't know if you can make this work in two panels, but here goes.
I've been a fan of "K Chronicles" for many years and have written
five articles myself for "Funny Times" during these years,
meaning I have some concept of what makes humor works,
but when all is said and done, I don't know sh*t.


So here goes:

I drive my wife's truck to a garage for repairs. A guy in a fancy
Lexus pulls in the bay next to mine. While I'm waiting in the room
disdainfully leafing through old issues of "People Magazine," there's a big commotion
from the garage.
Incredibly, the guy in the Lexus had driven across Denver at 70 mph
with a tiny, black kitten trapped in his engine compartment under the radiator.
Miraculously, she was oily, greasy and traumatized but unhurt.
The mechanics talked about taking her to the "Dumb Friends League,"
but I figured this little girl had been through enough and I offered
to take her home.
(They did make me promise to name her "Lexus.")

So I arrived at home with this 4-5 week old kitten the size of a teacup.
We cleaned her off, she fired down twice her body weight in cat food
and then declared herself the queen of the household. Lexus is
vibrant, vivacious, whimsical, entertaining.

I showed up at a garage with nothing in mind other then
my credit card balance and I arrived at home with
the kitten of everyone's dreams. Sometimes the universe
purrs.

By the way, my favorite "K" story of all time is #1222.
Please keep the laughs and nurturing chronicles coming.

Love and aloha,

J.

-----

Life's Little Victories..

...like, having all 6 Obama yard signs on your road stolen the same night and seeing all
of them replaced the next day, most of them by a variety of hand-made, but perfectly
legible facsimiles. Yes, we can.


I see your work in Funny Times. I love it, keep it up!

G.
-------

Labels: (th)ink, controversy, email of the week, K Chronicles, Las Vegas, letter of the week, signing

 
*WHOA *COUGH*...
Greetings from southern California...Where the sky is brownish-gray with ash as the place burns to the ground. Those of us in the cities are far from the flames, but we're all breathing in air that is even more toxic than it usually is.

The wifey and I walked to the top of our local Trader Joe's parking garage to watch the blood red sun set this evening. Eerie stuff.

HopE firefighters can get control of all these fires (there are plenty). And I hope folks directly and indirectly affected can make it through this really difficult time.

It will be interesting to see how our federal government and all the moronic talking heads react to these events (bravo to the state of California and local folks for handling things exceptionally well). There's no way you cannot think about New Orleans and Katrina. Who will get rebuilt first: San Diego or New Orleans? Even with N.O.'s two-year head-start, I'm bettin' on San Diego.

*HOW 'BOUT THEM FREAKIN' RED SOX!!
BOW DOWN!! Man, oh man!! I have to tell ya..I've given up on the Sox several times this year and yet they keep on surprising me. They had no business winning that Cleveland series with all the double plays they hit into. I'm loving this team, even though I believe Julio Lugo and Eric "Gag ne with a Spoon" are spies paid off by Yankees GM Brian Cashman.

Colorado's dangerous. They're so young, they don't realize they shouldn't be winning 21 out of 22 games. But they've had 8 days off. Enough to cool them. Sox in six. And then Papelbon will dance.

*MY EVIL TWIN SISTER UP IN SEATTLE..
..is opening up a second T(ea) Gallery!! Tomorrow (Wednesday), 7:30am-3:30pm , 700 5th Ave, the Seattle Municipal Tower in downtown Seattle. So get on down there and pick up some great tea. And say hello. Here's her website.

*ART SHOW IN LAS VEGAS..
I just got a call from my man Andy Taylor in Las Vegas. He asked me for some art for a comics show he's putting together for Las Vegas First Fridays on November 2nd. I won't bew there in person, but you should be. I will be out there for Thanksgiving, though. Mebbe I'll set up a signing to kick off the Holla-day Season.

Labels: art show, evil twin sis, Las Vegas, red sox/yankees, so-cal fires, t(ea) gallery

 
*OH YEAH, I FORGOT..I HAVE A BLOG..
Sorry folks...I've been on the road and bad with the blog upkeep.

*LAS VEGAS...
The wifey and I made a little jaunt to Las Vegas to visit ye father and to consume too much casino buffet food.

What brought us out there was an Arts conference that scheduled a workshop for myself and co-author Mat Schwarzman of the Beginner's Guide to Community-Based Arts. He brought some supr-talented youth from New Orleans with him, whilst I hawked the book guerilla-style with my "Ask me about my Comix" sign.

*THE K CHRONICLES NOMINATED FOR A HARVEY AGAIN!!
Yeehaa! High off of my win of a second Glyph award, I got word that the K Chronicles has been nominated for a Harvey for best comic strip or panel for a second year in a row!! I'm up against some serious heavy-hitters including Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury and Patrick McDonnell's Mutts. Yikes!! I need anybody who is remotely involved in the industry to vote for my ass here.

*I'M CURRENTLY UP IN SAN FRANCISCO..
..recording the last two shows of SPARK, the Bay Area Artist documentary program I narrate. I'm getting all teary-eyed knowing that this may be the end, but I'm hittin' the Red Sox/Oakland A's game this afternoon with ye homies to keep my spirits up. Them slumpin' Sox better turn it around!!

*ALSO IN SAN FRANCISCO THIS FRIDAY..
A K Chronicles original art will be auctioned off this Friday along with a bunch of other good stuff at the League of Young Voters annual art auction Picture Progress. The event will have food, drink, music, art and will just be overall groovy. Get all the details right here.

Labels: Beginner's Guide to Community-Based Arts, Harvey Awards, K Chronicles, Keith Knight, Las Vegas, Mat Schwarzman, original art, Spark