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

 
*IF THERE WAS EVER A REASON FOR NEWSPAPERS TO STILL EXIST...
..it's days like this. Y'see, framing a screen shot of Yahoo proclaiming an Obama win doesn't rock it the way the cover of the Chicago Sun-Times or New York Times newspaper does.

I went looking all over the hood for an L.A. Times so I can frame that sucker, but it was sold out everywhere. I finally found one late in the day, practically hidden away in my local cafe. Newspapers across the country sold more copies today, than they have in YEARS.

So..the key to selling newspapers is to have something extremely incredible and inspiring to happen. Unfortunately, the past decade saw an administration that thrived on the negativity, fear and bu**sh**.

*THE CONTROVERSY THAT JUST WON'T END..
With the joy of an Obama win, came the pain of a very unfortunate mix-up at the Arizona Daily Wildcat, an indie publication for college students in Tucson.

Instead of running the Life's Little Victories Voter edition timed for the Obama win, they accidently ran the N-Word strip from a coupla weeks ago. Yes, the poop has been stirred up again--and this time I can totally understand why folks are pissed.

I talked to the editor on the phone and she apologized. Again, it was an accident due to a miscommunication between editor and managing editor. The paper is gonna run the intended strip with an additional apology to the readership.

--------
In case you missed it, I put together more links to blog posts about the controversy. Enjoy!!

http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/10/30/keith-knight-cartoon-causes-kerfluffle-in-jersey/

http://www.popcultureshock.com/blogs/college-paper-riled-over-knight-cartoon/

http://loudpoet.com/2008/10/29/apology-unnecessary/

http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2008/10/29/newspaper-apologizes-for-keith-knight-cartoon/

http://www.baristanet.com/2008/10/oops_montclairion_apologizes_f.php

EMAILS/LETTERS OF THE WEEK....

thats a dick move calling the new president of our free world a n***er. f**k you f**got.

-B.
----

Keef,

llv # 271

Somebody I voted for Won.

-J.
---

Labels: controversy, email of the week, letter of the week, newspapers, obama

 
*GREETINGS FROM THE WORLD'S WORST BLOGGER....
Ugh..I oughta be ashamed of myself. I don't deserve a blog. I don't deserve readers.

Anyhoo. Here was my past week:

*826LA FUNDRAISING PARTY..
..was at the Venice location. Which made it easy for me to hop a bus and head over there. T'was a nice event that featured Dave Eggers, Spike Jonze and new LA director Joel Arquillos making the pitch to a whole bunch of creative folk. Meg Ryan was there. I told her to sit down.

826LA is always looking for volunteers and donations, at either the Venice or Echo Park locations. Feel free to contact them through their website: http://www826la.org. Tell 'em Keef sent ya.

*I TOOK MY ARSE TO SAN FRANCISCO..
..for a number of events, including the opening of my glorious exhibition at the Cartoon Art Museum!! The exhibit looks great, with over 40 pieces gracing the walls. It includes high school and college work. And ends with originals of my new daily comic strip, Knight Life.

I got some decent press for the event, including a nice write-up in one of the local alt-weeklies, the Bay Guardian. Unfortunately, at the same time of my event, Lynda Barry was doing something at the Booksmith, and ultra-fab editorial cartoonist Khalil Bendib was doing the Commonwealth Club!! Three cartoonist events at the same time!!

So the attendance at my event was sorta spotty, but sales were good. I did a bit of a walk-thru for the crowd, commenting on various pieces. Shout outs to SF cartoonists Paul Madonna and Lev Yilmaz for showing up.

In addition, I spoke at the Oakland campus of California College of the Arts and did an interview for KPFA's Hard Knock radio. Made a surprise guest appearance at Stephen Elliott's Progressive Reading Series and partied at another opening for a smaller exhibit of my work at the City Center hostel in downtown San Francisco.

I must say thanks to the woman from Massachusetts who showed up to the hostel event after reading about it on my blog. I didn't think anyone read this thing. I wish I wasn't so new-parent tired, I would've given her a donut or something. Thank you for coming out.

The weekend ended with my "Cartoons are Serious Business" lecture on Sunday. I was asked whether I 'd ever do a class that was more about drawing cartoons...I think I will do that for the next one.

*TOTORO FOREST PROJECT..
An exhibit that just went up in the gallery next to mine at the C.A.M. is this amazing show that features art from the Totoro Forest Project Charity Auction. All of the art was inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's animated film My Neighbor Totoro. And it was all auctioned off at the Pixar Animation Studios earlier this month. Proceeds from the auction go to save Japan's Sayama Forest, the forest in which Miyazaki's film is based on.

My buddy Chris bid and won the piece that features 4 frames on the wall that faces my exhibit. Defintely check this show out. It's the cat's bottom!!

Cartoon Art Museum: 655 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94105
http://www.cartoonart.org

*DID I MENTION THE PIECE I DID FOR THE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION..
..about the dwindling black population in San Francisco? Check it out by going here and finding my name.

*MY "IF PALIN WERE A DEMOCRAT/BLACK DEMOCRAT CARTOONS ARE POPPING UP EVERYWHERE..
Nice to see them getting around. And to see the right-wing trolls that lurk the internet to place feedback and commentary anywhere they can put it. I hope they're paid well.

Makes me wonder: If anyone or any company performed as bad as this administration did in these past eight years, you'd never want to hire them again, right? You'd punish them so they'd change it up and come back with better service, a better product.

Yet, there are still folks out there willing to vote for the Republican ticket.

Honestly, folks. If the Republicans win, they'll know that they never, ever have to do anything for the American people, EVER. They could nominate two piles of Moose dung, and as long as all the right-wing talking heads push em, they'll have no problem getting elected.

Political video of the weak.

*LETTERS/EMAILS OF THE WEEK..

I've been enjoying your stuff for a long while. To me, your forerunner was Warren
Hutcherson, who claimed his father was a state policeman, black muslim--and whenever he
the son was stopped by a trooper, they said he had enough crap in his life and waved him
on. He said his father would show him examples of racism all over the place--green olives
were in glass containers but black ones were kept in metal cans, symbolic, he implied, of
the black man's being kept in jail.
Please understand that in the sixties and seventies, and still now, I was on picket lines
all over. I don't know if you saw it, but a short while ago the local rag ran a piece on
people in Haiti were literally eating pies made from a pale mud--and selling them to
other people as some sort of nutrition. I was in the lobby of my building and expressed
shock at what I was reading. The mailman said, and another tenant expressed good-humored
agreement, that if "they" didn't have seven children, maybe they could afford food. I lit
into them (mud to eat is the result of 400 years, etc.), but the way things are going,
people just kind of shut up--declining king's gambit, perhaps.
Anyway, thanks again for all your good work--especially liked the drug-shit correlation
in current issue. Incidentally, Burlington uses our lovely Lake Champlain as a toilet and
for filtering it to drink. Screw Orange County. Give credit where due.
By the way, I'm in (theoretically) the last stages of writing an existential novel about
the Brooklyn Dodgers of 1950--and reappearing today.

Best to your family.

J

-----

"If Palin Were a Black Democrat"

BEST. KCHRONICLES. EVER. (or at least tied for first with the one about trying to get good pizza and cheese steaks in San Francisco vs. Boston)

Take a bow, sir. Great work.

--Jeremy

----
Loved today's "Knight Life" about vet mentoring.

I'm a veteran myself. A few years ago I was at the VA Medical Center in Salt Lake City and I was shocked to learn that a lot of the other vets in the hospital with me were homeless and that after they were discharged they were either going to homeless shelters or just back on the street. I did some research and learned, at the time, that 20% of all homeless people in the US were veterans. That number has risen to 25%. It's tragic. For all the talk from the Bush administration about "supporting our troops," it pisses me off that veterans just don't matter to them. The government makes a big show about raising the budget for the VA every year but then after the fiscal year gets started, the president calls the secretary of veterans affairs and says, "you need to cut your spending so we can pay for the war." It seems that in this country, we like our heroes in only two forms: In a uniform or in a grave. Anyone else is just a veteran and they don't count.

Keep up the great work.

-J

-----

Keith and Kerstin,
Nice work! Gravy’s happy face adorns our refrigerator.

As you may know, for us humans, not every act of copulation produces a life. Countless couples have mastered the fine art of coitus, but to no reproductive avail. Naturally, whenever a baby is born, most of the credit goes to the woman. Often, people don’t keep in mind that the most important part of successful procreation is a strong swimming sperm. Without the tiny sperm’s tenacity, his tireless determination to swim, swim, swim upstream like a salmon, none of us would be blessed with the awesome gift of life. Here, the credit goes to Keith, and all his paternal, sperm-producing ancestors who gave rise to the Knight family line, which Gravy will one day proudly carry on, with his own strong swimming sperm.

Love,
S.


*BUSY WEEKEND AHEAD OF ME..
..I've got workshops at the Getty Museum and a table at the West Hollywood Book Fair on Sunday. Come on by and see me. I will be the one stalking Adrienne Barbeau.

Cheers!!

Labels: 826la, email of the week, letters of the week, San Francisco, West Hollywood Book Fair signing

 
*EMAIL/LETTERS OF THE WEEK...

re: Star Wars strip-

(Holding up a beer) Here's to you, guy.

That was one of the funner bits I've seen in a while. (Especially the
gentle kick-in-the-knee to the one guy in Hollywood who would laugh with
you, which would be Kevin Smith.)
I assume you've avoided the new cartoon movie, too.

-Jeff // San Francisco
-----------
My younger daughter turned 16 yesterday; my older daughter is leaving home
day-after-tomorrow. We've been in a record heat wave. I shopped ahead. I started
baking before the heat of the day. Two layers, each sliced in two, filled, frosted and
chilled in a struggling dripping fridge. It is time to celebrate. I remember:
Candles!@#$? I look in the cupboard... and find two new packages, untouched, pearly
white, two packs of eight!

Keith, I'm sure you can reduce this to something universal. In case it is not clear,
I'll tell you that yesterday this seemed a MAJOR victory! Thank you for your work, your
art, your expression of our fears and reminder of our joys.

Miriam (in Portland, Oregon)
-------------
Hey Keith, I've been meaning to drop you a line for a while now. my
girlfriend (now wife) bought me one of your books 3 years ago and I've
been hooked ever since. she's from san fran I'm from utah we met in
new england and are now living in DC. we got a lot of strange looks as
an interracial couple but now that we're married, people actually
look at us and smile. love the strip, I have them all now and love the
band. anything new on the horizon?

at a recent game with a topic of famous people i tried
to depict you, unsuccessfully. The new in-laws said it wasn't fair
because you weren't famous . I beg to differ, in my world your very
famous. keep up the good work and if your ever in DC look me up.

R.
--------
Hey Keith,


I am one of those old comic strip lovers. I have every
Trudeau/Doonesbury book and a hundred more from people like Addams and
Bizarro. I find the humor lifts the day and like your stuff gets me to
laugh and think at the same time but not necessarily in that order.


What got me to write was the "Hi-lingual" strip. As the T&D director of
a truly multi-national company and having to deal with the world
population every day, I love that strip and would love to share it with
some of my colleagues.

Should you find yourself in the Seattle area and need a tour guide, me
and the Mrs. would love to play host but in the meantime, keep on
cranking out the good stuff and hope the Seattle PI will keep your strip
running.

Cheers,

L.

And a video of the week.

Labels: email of the week, letters of the week

 
*LETTER/EMAIL OF THE WEEK..
Hey Keith,

Labels: cartoon art museum, email of the week, letter of the week

 
*K CHRONICLES NOMINATED FOR A 2008 HARVEY AWARD!!
Whoa!! I could really get used to this!! The K Chronicles has been nominated for Best Comic Strip for a third year in a row. The Harvey Awards are named after the late great Harvey Kurtzman, whose work was a big influence on the K Chronicles.

Lost the first year, won the second. But I hear the 3rd time is also the charm, so all you folks in the industry, please download and fill out a ballot here. Let's shock the world once again!!

*THANKS TO EVERYONE..
..who participated in the online Q & A at the Washington Post online last week. A lot of great questions, and a coupla weird ones. You can still check out the interview here.

*FROM THE K CHRONICLES TO THE KNIGHT LIFE: SPOTLIGHT ON KEITH KNIGHT..
..is the title of the panel Ill be doing at this year's San Diego Comic Con on Thursday, July 24th at 4:30pm. I'll be doing my world-famous slideshow that'll highlight work featured in my new Dark Horse 500 page collection, and a look into how I developed the Knight Life, my new daily blazing a trail across newspapers nationwide and beyond (including Honolulu and Trinidad!!)!!

*KEITH KNIGHT COMIC ART EXHIBITION AT THE CARTOON ART MUSEUM IS NOW OPEN FOR VIEWING..
..in glorious San Francisco from now until November 9th. If you go see it, take some pics and send em my way. I won't be up there for a while. For more info on it, go to http://www.cartoonart.org.

*LETTERS/EMAILS OF THE WEEK...

Keef,

Because I have been reading K Chronicles for thirty-five years, I feel I have an
understanding of your work.

It is obvious The Knight Life is a love letter to wifey and your family.

And for letting us read that,

Thank You

Yours,
J.
Denver

-----
(RE: Alien Abduction Knight Life Strip)

K,

Barney and Betty Hill, perhaps the first and most famous alien abductees, were an interracial couple. Their account of their abduction introduced several features that are now commonplace in abduction stories (fragile gray aliens, surgical probes).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Hill

--------

(RE: K Chronicles Vaccination strip)

Hey Keith!
I'm a devoted fan for your wit, wisdom, humor and slice-of-life
installments of The K Chronicles!
But, getting chicken pox as a kid was no big deal to me, fun to stay home
and miss school...at the time.
As an adult, I've become one of the 20% who suffer from SHINGLES, which is
no fun!
Medical science has learned that shingles is the SAME virus that is
responsible for chicken pox.
Read all about it at:
http://www.stopgettingsick.com/Condtemplate.cfm-1341-82-1

Also, be sure to check out Jenny McCarthy's info about "Green Our Vaccines"
and spacing out childhood immunization programs to avoid possible links to
AUTISM complications associated with multiple vaccine programs. Just
sayin'!!

Best Regards,
B. in SLC

Keith,

I've been a fan for a while now, but your recent articles have really hit close to home
since my wife is preggers with our first kid too!

After your most recent comic, I'm sure you're going to get a bunch of emails from
anti-vax folks telling you not to vaccinate your kid at all. Just wanted to temper that
a bit with some facts. Make your own decisions, but please inform yourself with the
science. Personally, I don't think there's any reason not to give all the vaccines to
your kid at once (they've been shown to be perfectly safe), but you're well within your
rights to space them out as makes you comfortable.

Don't listen to the anti-vax crowd. They completely ignore the sound research and divert
research dollars from where it should be going - to fund research into what actually
causes autism, and to finding a cure. Instead the NIH has wasted millions of dollars
appeasing these folks by funding study after study that tells us the same thing -
vaccines are safe. The "toxins" they claim to be in vaccines are not in there. The CDC
took the mercury out of childhood vaccines to appease these people, and there was no drop
in the autism rate (interestingly, the anti-vax crowd still claims that it's in there).
I can assure you that there is no anti-freeze or formaldehyde in any vaccine, they simply
do not understand the chemical nomenclature.

Alright, that's my rant.

best,
m.
----

(RE: K Chronicles Bucket List strip)

Mr. Knight,

We have a 6 month old, and while our lives are different (I?'m not used to be
up and sober at 4am), you?ll be amazed at what you can still do with kids.
Our daughter comes to happy hour (I call ahead to work it out with the
restaurant), formal dinners, goes on planes, buses, trolleys, and just took
a 3 ½ week cross country road trip with us. She loves new places, and is
actually far more flexible than we, the adults, are.

Good luck!

-E.
---
(Re: (th)ink U Miss. Pot strip)

Hi,

Saw your great comic in the chronicle this morning...Good stuff.

My husband is on the board of Norml and I know he'll get a great laugh. So thanks and in
October we are holding the Annual Conference in Berkeley if interested.

Take Care,
T.

------

Keith -

You got my vote in the WashPost survey. I've enjoyed your stuff in "Funny
Times" for years. Keep up the good work, and good luck with making it as a
regular in the "Post".

- A.

(folks can still put in a good word for my daily strip at the Post and a few other places:
go by their website and say something nice about the strip:

http://comicsurvey.washpost.com/survey.cfm

Another important paper testing the strip is in Raleigh, NC.:
http://share.triangle.com/node/3528?page=63

Also, the Orange County Register is taking a survey about what they should add to their paper:

http://ocregister.upickem.net/engine/ApprovedSubmissions.aspx?contestid=1864
thanks!! k.k.)

------

Keef,

I don't know if you remember me - I've E-mailed you a few times in the past asking for information in getting my own comic strip out there. (No luck yet, incidentally.)
Anyway, the topic this time is completely different - I'd like to bring up something that I think should be addressed in your strip. I know that you've got a lot to draw on in your own life at the moment, what with the upcoming baby and all (congrats, by the way), but I really think this is something that the more people know about, the better.
The topic I refer to is that of Zimbabwe. I don't know if you've been keeping abreast of the political situation over there at the moment, but let me tell you, it makes ours look like a cakewalk. Bush may be an idiot and a warmonger, but Robert Mugabe is an out-and-out MONSTER.
The reason I know about this is that my mom grew up in Zimbabwe, and she still has family and friends living there. They have been corroborating the news reports via E-mail, and adding to them. It's not just as bad as people have been saying - it's worse. The people are not only being starved, they're being beaten, bullied, killed, tortured and indoctrinated. Food is now seen by the government as a weapon - in a country that is dying of starvation, feeding someone is now a potential crime. Why? Because they might have voted for the MDC (the opposition party to Mugabe's ZANU-PF). Anyone who might have voted for the 'wrong side' is now automatically a target.
Keef, you have often addressed issues of racism and politics in your strip - and rightly so; as a black man in America, you've seen the discrimination that still exists in our society. What's happening in Zimbabwe is worse - far worse. It started with the reverse of what we're used to - blacks against whites - and has steadily snowballed into a nightmare. Racism is wrong, no matter who initiates it, and Zimbabwe is a prime example of how it can be used in the wrong hands.
Now, none of this affects me - I don't live in Zimbabwe, and neither do any of my immediate family or friends. But that changes nothing. What's happening there is wrong. It's wrong, it's horrifying, and something should be done about it. South Africa, Zimbabwe's neighbor to the south, has proved that something CAN be done about it - our protests helped lift Apartheid.
Is there any chance you could address this subject in one of your strips? Right now, Zimbabwe is just a blip on the news to most folks, but your strip has a pretty loyal following, and could help bring things into focus for a lot of people. At the very least, would you mind printing this letter on your site?
Thanks, either way. The 'K' Chronicles is still one of my favorites!

Sincerely,

D.

(thanks for this, d. is it a black on white thing in zimbabwe? or a black on everybody who oppses him thing? cause all i ever see in the news is black folks getting hacked up, beaten and killed-kk.)

--- -

Mr. K,

It just hit me today why I like your strip so much. [I read it in Salon] You're always so enthusiastic, and your illustrating style makes the excited. It's great to see so much un-abashed, un-ashamed, un-ironic enthusiasm in anything.

That's all I really wanted to say other than good luck with the kid, I love the restaurant review idea, and better luck in the next life with Linda Carter.

Keep up the good-
-C.

(thanks!! when we moved down here to l.a., my wife & i agreed that we can have one celeb sleep over if they would like to. and mine is lynda carter. -kk.)

Cheers!!

Labels: cartoon art museum, email of the week, Knight Life daily, letter of the week, new papers

 
*ANNOUNCING THE FIRST KEITH KNIGHT SOLO COMIC ART EXHIBITION!!

For Immediate Release: May 28, 2008
Contact: Keith Knight, keef@kchronicles.com
Images Available Upon Request



The Knight Life:
Bay Area Spotlight on Keith Knight
Cartoon Art Museum Exhibition: June 14 - November 9, 2008



The Cartoon Art Museum is honored to host the first comprehensive exhibition
of Harvey and Glyph Award-winning cartoonist Keith Knight, creator of the K
Chronicles, (th)ink and the new United Features syndicated daily comic strip
The Knight Life.

The exhibition, co-sponsored by Dark Horse, coincides with the release of
The Complete K Chronicles (Dark Horse/$24.95), the 500 page omnibus
collection that incorporates the first four K Chronicles compendiums (three
of which are out of print).

Keith Knight, a Bay Area institution whose move to Los Angeles left a gaping
whole in the S.F. reprobate and indie comics community, will dig deep into
his vast catalog of original artwork for this retrospective. The K
Chronicles, (th)ink, the brand new daily comic strip The Knight Life, his
work for Mad Magazine and ESPN: The Magazine, Marginal Prophets poster and
album art, plus some early high school and college work will be represented
in the exhibit.

Information regarding the official reception for this exhibition will be
announced shortly.

About Keith Knight

Keith Knight is an award-winning cartoonist whose two self-syndicated comic
strips, his humorous, autobiographical the K Chronicles and (th)ink, which
skewers politics and current events, can be found in over 35 alternative
weekly, college and daily newspapers and websites nationwide. He's also a
frequent contributor to Mad Magazine and ESPN: The Magazine. His new daily
comic strip, the Knight Life, has recently launched, courtesy of United
Features Syndicate. For more information or to schedule an interview with
Keith Knight, visit his website at
www.kchronicles.com, www.knightlifecomic.com or send an email to
keef@kchronicles.com.


]{[^]}[
Cartoon Art Museum ? 655 Mission Street ? San Francisco, CA 94105 ?
415-CAR-TOON ? www.cartoonart.org
Hours: Tues. - Sun. 11:00 - 5:00, Closed Monday
General Admission: $6.00 ? Student/Senior: $4.00 ? Children 6-12: $2.00 ?
Members & Children under 6: Free

*A PREVIEW COPY OF THE DARK HORSE BOOK IS HERE!!
And it looks FANTABULOUS!
It's HUGE!! Like a phone book!! Chock full of K Chronicles strips the way you wish papers would run it. BIG!! Kerstin was saying that she never noticed all the little things that I put in the strips because the collections were too small.

She also loves the notes that I put in below the strips. Little factoids and things about the work. I'm psyched!! And I'm looking to get a lot of publicity re: this book, so if you know where to send it to, tell me!!

You can pre-order the Dark Horse Book here.

*NORTHERN CALIFORNIA WRAP-UP..
Had a spectacular time in San Francisco and Santa Rosa last week. Thanks to the JCCSF for bringing me up there for their Serial Boxes panel. It was nice hangin' with fellow creators and comic fans alike.

I also rolled into a coupla old spots including the Edinburgh Castle, which still had a pinball machine in the back. I tossed a coupla quarters in the machine to see if I still had it.

40 million points, one free game and a "shoot again" later, I realized I did still have it. I walked away after just one ball, cuz I knew it wasn't gonna get any better than that. It'd make someone's night to find all that free stuff on a pinball machine...

I also hit one of my fave Haight St. foodspots, Askew, for a little pepper encrusted Ahi, but they jacked up the price on that thing BIG TiME. The gas crunch has seriously affected the menu (it was still delicious, though).

There was more food, booze and fun seein' as it was Bay to Breakers weekend, but I won't bore you with all the details. Let's just say that if you ain't spent any time in San Francisco, yer missin' out.

Special thanks to Greg and Jose at the HI SF Downtown Hostel for putting me up. I really enjoy coming into SF from a traveler's perspective.

*I ALSO DID A COUPLA SWELL INTERVIEWS .
One was with Chris Lanier for an upcoming ish of McSweeney's and the other you'll be able to find right here.

*INDIANA JONES REVIEW..
What can I say? If you like Indy, you'll see it. If you're looking for a good movie, don't bother.
Some good parts (the opening stuff, the college chase, the jeep and sword fight), some bad parts (swinging through the trees, THREE waterfalls?), and a sorta weird walk-on by Karen Allen (was she supposed to be acting?)..

T'was the weakest but still far better than any of the new Star Wars movies.

*I KNOW, I KNOW..JACKIE ROBINSON WAS A REPEAT..
..But it was a classic!! Being on the road, coupled with the news of Rory Root's passing threw me for a loop, so I hope you didn't mind the week off.

*LETTERS/EMAILS OF THE WEEK...
Hey Keef,

We've must've seen the same photo. Berra has the ball and misses the tag, Jackie slid towards the inside of the plate, and his toe catches the top corner. We are probably in the same boat as we were too young too have seen him play live. The image of Jackie dancing off the bag at third, and just messing with the pitcher's head, then taking off, arms flailing, the crowd does a collective gasp, somebody yelling, "there he goes!!!!!!!", just gives me the chills. The Original Bum Rush. Truer words have never been spoken.

Just wait until you tell your son about it.

Keef, I love your strip, and look forward to it every week.

J.
(a transplanted Bostonian)
----------
Hey Keef,

Don't know if you ever heard of Major Taylor, but he was one of the most famous, and well-paid, athletes of his day, from about 1895 to 1915. He was a bike racer, he was amazing, he was black, and like Jackie Robinson, he also faced a mountain of prejudice. What most people don't know, is that he ever existed. And he wasn't just famous in the U.S. either, he was world famous--cycling was a huge sport here and internationally in the days before the automobile screwed things up. Anyway, whenever I come across praise for Jackie, I feel the need to make sure Major Taylor gets his due.

Peace,

D.

(i actually did a strip about major taylor when i was contemplating doing a black history panel called "betcha didn't know"..i never pitched it, but if i find the taylor panel, i'll post it.-kk)
-------

Hi Keith,
I look forward to reading (th)ink every week in Boston's Weekly Dig, and just wanted to
write you a note to tell you that I really appreciate the strip. When I read your recent
comic about Mildred Loving, it caused me to look for more information about her - I
listened to the online NPR piece from last year. I realize that on top of entertaining
your audience, you're also informing them - art, commentary, and historical notes all
rolled into one. Nice work! Your strips that address interracial couples always catch my
eye, since I'm white and my girlfriend is asian-american - I often show my favorites to
her, especially the one I mentioned. I also enjoy Tak Toyoshima's "Secret Asian Man"
strip for similar reasons. Anyway, keep up the good work - I look forward to reading many
more of your comics in the future!
-D.

----------

Hi Keef:

I opened the mailbox today and found the book waiting for me. Thanks
for the personalized note on the inside cover. I hope all is well with
your's and your wife's impending parenthood.

I haven't found any local papers that carry you since Pacific Sun and
you parted ways. I'm curious if you're going to be writing anything
about the economy up in these parts.

By day I'm a hard working commercial real estate broker. I also have
three kids, two for whom I pay child support, one who I raised on my own
(his mother passed away). In 2006 I made a little over $117,000. I was
responsible with the money (I always pay my child support and bills) and
my only excursion was a seven day trip to Maui. After taxes and all, I
entered 2007 with a little under $70k in savings. And then the fucking
earth spun off her axis and the market dropped. I was worried, but I
kept the expenses in check and distracted myself with my night time
endeavor. But I kept watching irresponsible,
greedy bankers and lenders make unrealistic loans to small businesses
and investors who were fooled in to thinking that Bushenomics would
continue to expand. It's like thinking you can re-use a rubber:
eventually some spunk is going to be squeezed out and then the chain
reaction begins. In 2007 my income dribbled to less than $7,000. Now,
in late May 2008, I'm faced with eviction. Me! The guy who was never a
dead beat dad, the guy who works 10 hours a day, then comes home and
works some more. The guy who warned people, "Don't take those loan
terms....lock in a fixed rate...you pay a little more up front but you
won't be exposed to the impending melt-down". I'm 44 years old and
facing starting all over. How the f--k did that happen?

Obama in 08, Knight. He's not going to hand us a fix, but he's sure as
hell gonna hand them some pink slips. Let those irresponsible f--ks
face their sins against this nation without jobs for a while. As I sit
here wondering if I'm going to be sued for eviction, I stress out. I
have anxiety attacks and spend hours better invested sleeping staring at
the ceiling trying to figure, hope, pray for a way out of this mess. I
can only imagine how they might feel with the hope of them one night
laying awake wondering how they're going to fare in congressional
hearings.

Best Wishes,

Pi

-------

Whaddaya mean you didn't know I went daily?
http://www.knightlifecomic.com

Labels: cartoon art museum, dark horse collection, email of the week, Indiana Jones movie review, interview, letters of the week, San Francisco

 
*GREETINGS FROM THE WORLD'S WORST BLOGGER...
So I'm still trying to find out when my new daily, the Knight Life, will be launching in the Washington Post and the Boston Herald. I'll post it as soon as I find out.

Meanwhilst, it has started in the Detroit News and will be launching in Albany, New York, where I gave the worst interview of my life. I kept on talking about Detroit, then I realized two-thirds of the way through that I was talking to a reporter from Albany.

Wanna get away?

The posters are slugging it out on the Sacramento Bee's forum about the strip. If you want to put in a good word, head on over to the site by clicking here.

*I'LL BE IN SANTA ROSA AND SAN FRANCISCO THIS WEEKEND!!
Doing the artist in residence thing at the great Schulz Museum on Sunday May 18th from 1-3pm. I'll be drawing and signing copies of my new K Chronicles collection, I Left My Arse in San Francisco.

My Arse will be in San Francisco, Tuesday May 20th at Intersection for the Arts. It'll be a graphic novel panel sponsored by the JCCSF and will feature Miriam Libicki, Ariel Schrag, Jaime Cortez and yours truly. Slideshow and panel starts at 7pm.

Attend both and win a prize!!

*LETTERS/EMAILS OF THE WEEK..

When I flipped to the comic section this morning I
nearly flipped out in surprise. They are test-running
your strip in our paper!

I've followed your strip on Salon, bought all the
K-Chronicle books and am gearing up to get the latest
one. I sincerely hope your new strip will catch on
with the readership... tho fearfully I suspect
Sacramentans are "Garfield" people. But I went
straight to the paper's web forums to post my props,
and saw a whole bunch of others voting "yes" for
Knight Life in 08! Here's hoping!

Also, congrats on the Solo Show @ Cartoon Art. Totally
swinging down there in June to support your work.

L. aka C.

Hi Keef,

I am stoked to open my Sac Bee and see you in the pages. Congratulations! I wore my Keef on the Throne t-shirt today as a sign of support, and I will tell the Bee that this is the most brilliant strip I have ever read and will cancel my subscription if they don't pick you up for good -- even if you left SF for LA.

It's got to be tough to break into the daily paper. Some of your work that are my favorites deal with some of the less than family friendly topics. But don't forget the politics. And we love our babies; do you have your own little diaper soiler yet?

Best of luck to you, and hoping to see you every day,

m.

K,

"Once upon a time in the play ground"

You should win a Pulitzer Prize for that one!
I am behind the curve, I should have said these years ago!

Much Love for what you do,

A.

(going waaay back for that one. before the war started.-kk)

Keef,
I've been a fan of yours for some time, reading your work on
Salon.com. When I saw "The Knight Life" in the pull-down on
comics.com, I was expecting... well, some sort of midieval
Wizard-of-Id thing. Figured I'd check it out. Didn't even have to
see the byline to know that I would now be seeing daily goodness from
you.

(Adds to bookmarks)

I must admit, though, that I am DYING to see how far you push the rules of
syndication.

Rock on, man.

--C.

(i'm dying to see how far I can push it, too.-kk)

Labels: cheap-ass, email of the week, I left my Arse in San Francisco, intersection for the arts, letters of the week, Schulz museum

 
*SAN FRANCISCO RELEASE PARTY WRAP-UP..
It's taken a week for me to recover from my trip to San Francisco for the "Arse" release party. Special thanks to the Cartoon Art Museum and Andrew Farago for making everything run oh-so-smooth. And thanks to all the folks that came out and bought books

If you haven't grabbed the latest K Chronicles collection, act fast!! They're signed and numbered and only available in the store section of this website.

And yes, #666 is already taken.

*EMAILS/LETTERS OF THE WEEK..

Keef,

Just wanted you to know that you're my favorite comic strip artist of all
time (my 54 years of it, anyhow). You are funny, sensitive, sweet,
talented, kind-hearted -- and you radiate the true love of God in a very
special way. I get a blessing, along with my laughs, when I read your
strips.

Some of them, of course, are the inverse of funny. I printed off the strip
titled "How Not to Start the New Year" and taped it on the wall over my
computer because I went through some of the same thing back in October. It
blesses me to see that you were so THERE for your wife, and I pray that both
of you -- and your child -- are healthy, prosperous and happy.

This Monday, after the eagle flies, I'm going to start buying your books.

Brightest, warmest blessings to you!

W.

(letters like this make it worth drawing comics!!-kk)
-----------------
Hello, Keith,

I'll send a money order for one of every book and cd that you have. By my count that
comes to $148 for 10 items, including $10 for ten items.

You really are an excellent artist. Many peoples' cartoons don't hit the target, or are
too vague, or lack punch. With yours, every frame and word counts, you stay on track, and
you hit the target, and you do it all so elegantly!

There are very few political cartoonists who are worth their pay these days. My
favourites are Ben Sargent, Ted Rall (except that he can't draw well), and Tom the
Dancing Bug.

You handle complex issues without getting lost, and you're right up there now, in my
opinion, with the best of them, including Bill Watterson, Carl Barks, Dr. Seuss.

It'll be interesting to hear your band and your singing/rapping, as well.

So; are the items in stock and my calculations correct?

J.
Quebec
--------------------

(folks!! passion of the keef and dances with sheep are now in stock fro a very limited time!! order now!!-kk)

Keef!

So it's 2 am and I am working in the Graveyard. In come a couple of guys off the street, one of them says "Is this the hostel Keith Knight used to work at" I tell them no, he used to work Downtown, he's a good friend of mine. He then asks if I'm the one he wrote the dead cat story about, I said I am.

It really made my day! I can't believe anybody remembers that story, that was....years and years ago. It was funny too, that these two guys would be wandering around the Tenderloin in the dead of night, stumble upon the City Center Hostel and find somebody whose story made them laugh a long time ago.

Cheers!

G.

(nice!! that's my man, greg at the city center hostel in san francisco. the best hostel in the city.-kk)
----------------------

Hello Keith,

I've been a major comics fan for 40+ years. I receive about 150 strips a
day. I own hundreds of books of cartoon art and history. So it is with
some authority that I can say that K-Chronicles is an excellent strip and
you are a great cartoonist. (Ignore the fact it is April 1. I sincerely
mean what I say.)

But what has happened to the Chronicles? It has not updated on GoComics.com
since September. I couldn't find anything newer on your website, and it's
too difficult finding anything on Buzzle. So what's happening/happened?

The downside of loving comics is the sadness when a great strip ceases.
Sometimes they must when nature runs its inevitable course (as when T.K.
Ryan retired from Tumbleweeds), and sometimes they end from tragedy (as when
Doug Marlette of Kudzu was killed), and sometimes the creators just get
tired of all the work for so little reward (Citizen Dog, Big Top, Bo Nanas)
or even just tired of the fame and money, hard as that may be to believe
(Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side). Too bad that so many strips (Peanuts,
Dennis the Menace, Nancy, etc., etc.) don't know when to quit and stop
denying newspaper space to better strips.


If there is any way K-Chronicles continues, this fan will be reading it.
Whatever is happening, I wish you the best.

P.
Devon, PA, USA

(there IS a lot happening, but I am still drawing the k chronicles. my contract was up at gocomics, and I signed a contract with another site that should start running it soon. meanwhilst, buzzle.com and salon.com are the places to go to see the strip weekly...though i hope to have them running regularly at this site soon.-kk)

*THIS WEEK'S K CHRONICLES..
What can I say? I was touched by a Love is strip. And not in a Catholic priest sort of way.
Anyhoo, if you don't think Love is can be funny, check out these strips.

Ha!!

Labels: book release party, email of the week, I left my Arse in San Francisco, letters of the week

 
*SETTLING IN TO OUR NEW PLACE..
..just three blocks away from our old one. I'm just starting to catch up on many of the book orders and correspondence. Thanks for your patience.

The wifey is coming along, and that's why she's the subject of this week's K Chronicles strip. I think she's just starting to move into the phase of the enjoyable part of pregnancy...we'll see.

*YES, THE PRICES GOT RAISED IN THE BOOKSTORE..
..after I took a few orders to mail out and saw that I grossly under-priced them when you factor "postage and handling" into it. Those who ordered early got a nice deal. The rest of you: FEH!!

*SAN FRANCISCO BOOK RELEASE PARTY BOOKED!!
It'll be at the world famous Cartoon Art Museum (655 Mission St. near 3rd in S.F.) on Sat. March 29th from 6-8pm. Nothing too crazy. A little wine, a little beer, some weirdos... I'll be spinning some of my favorite San Francisco tall tales, and also give some anecdotes about my first year in Los Angeles.

For more info on how to get there, go to http://www.cartoonart.org.

*WIZARD WORLD LOS ANGELES THIS WEEKEND...
I'll be attending my first Los Angeles convention this weekend. Wizard World LA is the little sister to the big Chicago convention, and I don't know what to expect. I'm hoping it'll be worth the three straight days I'll be sitting there in Artist's Alley. I'm sharing a table with David Malki and I'll have plenty o' copies of the latest book "I Left My Arse in San Francisco", so come on out of the sun and say hello.

LETTERS/EMAILS OF THE WEEK...

Mr. Knight-

I've been reading you on Salon for some time now, and I just wanted to write
to thank you for an excellent strip. I always enjoy reading your strips and
I like to think I even catch some of your in jokes ("Are you Aaron
Macgruder?"). As a longtime comic reader, your style and content are always
refreshing. I look forward to each strip, and I read Salon's comic page
just for you and Tom Tomorrow.

Keep up the great work!

Sincerely,

B. K.

Greetings Keef,

I was just wondering if a guy already owned your first three books, if the new Dark Horse Omnibus held anything new for me?

Thanks,

J. B.
Baton Rouge, LA

(good question!! the dark horse collection comprises of the first four k chronicles books (sheep, marker, strange and passion), three of which are now out-of-print, in a lavish 8 and a half by 11 inch package with personal notes and anecdotes by yours truly about almost every strip, an introduction by Kyle Baker, and several pages of sketches. It is truly the cat's bottom and a must -have for every k chronicles reader!!-kk)

You can pre-order the Dark Horse collection right here.

Keith,

I lived in the City back in the late 80s and have been a fan of your work for a long time (bought a couple of your early books). Haven't checked out your strip in a while though, and in doing so today was surprised to discover you've moved to L.A. Your Jan. 2007 reminiscences on your blog about living in SF make me homesick all over again. Wish I could talk my husband into moving back there! Hope L.A. life is just as much fun. Keep up the good work!

best,

L.
Athens, GA 30612
(the state that chose Obama and Huckaby in its primary....)

Dear Keith,

Although we've never met, we've corresponded for years... just wanted to tell you that
your concept of Life's Small Victories has kept my spirits high through a shitrain of
karma.

Yesterday, I fixed my mom's kitchen faucet. It was a hundred-dollar Moen, salvaged from
my collection of hardware, and it leaked. So I replaced an O-ring. No luck. I
replaced another O-ring. No luck. And when I came to final O-ring, I prayed not to
the god of plumbing but to the idea of life's small victories -- success. All I
wanted was for the faucet NOT TO LEAK. And, it didn't.

So, never doubt that your Keeftoons change the world for the better. Yesterday, they got
me through. They guided me through the valley of the shadow of Doubt, and helped me
fix a simple plumbing problem that would have really hurt me, if I couldn't prevail. I
would have felt like an abject failure; instead, I won one of LSV. Thank you, Keith.

Toon on,

J.

(nice!!-kk)

Keef,

My 20 year old daughter is a student at Faculte Saint-Jean, the French campus, at the
University of Alberta. She and 8 other Residence Assistants have flown to New Orleans to
work with Habitat for Humanity in the town of Thibideau rebuilding. I just received this
email from her, thought you'd appreciate her views.

"We actually did go to the lower 9th ward today. I'm just so mad at this moment. You
seriously just drive over a bridge and then you just see all this leveled bare land. You
are in this lovely area that is rebuilt and touristy then you drive 5 minutes and there
are houses that look exactly the same as they did 2 years ago.
I'll give you a call tomorrow. I'm so mad at the United States."

So, here we have a 20 year-old white Canadian student, the daughter of an ex-pat
American, seeing the fruit of a policy that began over three hundred years on the shores
of Africa, the auction blocks of Charleston and the fields of countless plantations
rotting on the soil in one of the wealthiest nations ever. Sad.

Your friend,
D.

Dear Keith:
I am sitting here waiting for my teriyaki chicken and rice bowl and considering it a personal victory of restraint that I am leaving you and your wife in peace. I wanted to tell you how brilliant your strip is, but you already know that, right?

Of course, if I see you again, you will totally have to deal with some adulation. Sorry!

-D.

(the above email is a lie, for he came up to us as we were leaving the restaurant. oh, how i hate it when people come up to me and say nice things..;) -kk)

oh!! and the restaurant we were in is my favorite in all of the city of culver: tokyo 7-7 is so perfect, from the $2.35 breakfast specials before 11am, to the autographed photo of erik estrada on the wall, this spot is the coolest and hardest to find place in culver city!!

Keef~

I have a small favor to ask, would you consider please, sparing a few lines of space on your blog, to help get the word out about this site. It's called freerice.com, where you play a word game, for every word you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated to the UN World Food Program. It's a really simple way for people who may feel like they don't have time to help others.

The site also explains how much each country is contributing to this program, we are at the bottom, and a form letter people can copy and send to their government, asking them to increase their participation. Anybody who has 5 minutes to spare on the internet, should be on this site. It's a quick and easy way to make a difference.

Thanks!
G.

(just cuz i posted this message above doesn't mean i'm gonna post a message about your pet cause...g. is a close personal friend of mine that i used to rob old ladies with, so i'm making an exception.-kk)

Labels: book release party, cartoon art museum, email of the week, letters of the week, wizard world la

 
*EXTRA!! EXTRA!!
I'll be sharing a sliver of a table at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival at UCLA THIS WEEKEND. Look for me at the Mc Sweeney's table and pick up my new (th)ink collection, "Are We Feeling Safer Yet?"

*APE 2007 WRAP-UP..

Another fine APE has come and gone. This one was special because it was the first one since moving down to Los Angeles...

*THURSDAY: The first night up, Kerstin and I stayed at the City Center Hostel on Ellis and Larkin Streets, courtesy of my olde co-worker, Greg. It's a great hostel, although not the greatest part of town. But if you've lived in any sort of big city situation, you'd be used to it.

We heard that Aaron McGruder was being interviewed by my man Jeff Chang at the Jewish Community Center in town. We whizzed on over there after meeting up with New York cartoonists Mikhaela Reid and Masheka Wood at Mark Fiore's Third Thursdays gathering at Dave's, a dive bar downtown.

The interview was cool. And the great Morrie Turner, the first black nationally syndicated cartoonist ("Wee Pals"), was in the audience. It was the first time I'd seen him since he had a bit of a medical scare a coupla months ago. We took some nice pix and went out to dinner after.

*FRIDAY: The annual Last Gasp/APE Pre-Reg party was fine and dandy with many of the usual suspects. Plus plenty of good food. It was here where we hooked up with Steve Notley, who was down from Seattle, and Shannon Wheeler, down from Portland. We split the party and joined the rest of our Cartoonists With Attitude colleagues at Daves.

*SATURDAY: The Alternative Press Expo officially begins! I did a panel on socially relevant comics with folks like Paige Braddock and Abby Denson. It was jolly good and well received. A lotta folks came by the table after. Good stuff.

*That evening, Kerstin and I had a great dinner with Rod Gilchrist, director of the Cartoon Art Museum, and his lovely wife. We were prepared for a night of revelry, with an infinite amount of parties and openings to attend..

..but we just decided to go back to where we were staying and get a good night's sleep.

*SUNDAY: The second day was actually busier than the first day. I was quite surprised and damned pleased. After we wrapped it up, Kerstin, Notley and I went to Tommy's Joynt for our annual Hofbrau type meal.

*I didn't pick up much at the event (i gots ta make $$$!!), but I did see this really incredible prototype of a book from Chris Lanier. Chris is a great cartoonist/animator /journalist who served on the board of the Cartoon Art Museum with me. And he did this great interview with me.

*Also, my man Paul Madonna has the first collection of his All Over Coffee. I saw a prototype of the book and it looks beautiful.

*EMAIL OF THE WEEK..

Dear Keith:
I really liked your comic on Jackie Robinson today. I
thought it was the best commentary I've heard in all the hubbub about
the landmark. It's funny that there was so much commotion about him on
his 60th anniversary of breaking the "color barrier" in baseball. You'd
think it would have been a bigger deal on the 50th. Anyway, he was
really before my time (I was born in 1950). I was a Pirates fan because
my father was from Pittsburgh, and so my guy was always Roberto Clemente
(still is). The best highlight from his career, for me, was when he was
named MVP of the 1971 World Series, and the reporter interviewed him.
Even though he could speak English well, he chose to respond in Spanish,
and he gave a little speech about how proud he was to be from the
Caribbean and representing Hispanic ballplayers. A very cool moment
from a real saint of a guy. Hope all is well.

A. (in Gainesville, Fl.)

Labels: APE, cartoonists, email of the week, San Francisco