Cartoonists With Attitude

Last night I went to see Start Trek in the Park Indoors. This Summer a group got together to perform a live version of Amok Time. This was that but at the Bagdad Theater. Pretty great. Spock, Kirk and McCoy did a stand up job of representing. The audience knew every line and laughed, cheered and hooted in all the right places. I didn’t have a camera but I did a number of sketches. Tomorrow they’ll go up.

Here’s the latest cartoon. Cranking them out… It’s fun drawing Too Much Coffee Man again.

Tonight I have a date with Borat and red wine. Damn that movie is funny.

And thus ends my feud with Tony Millionare.

A student from my cartooning class was inspired (when he heard what they paid) to send in a single cartoon submission to the New Yorker. He shot me an email asking for their address and wondering what sort of letter to include. He didn’t drop my name or say his age…. he got a personal letter back from Mankoff! Pretty cool. All sorts of cartoonist friends of mine are coming out of the woodwork asking how to get in because they send in stuff and hear nothing back and my 12-yr-old student gets a personal letter. Rocking!

I’d do a San Quentin workshop. That would be rad. I’ll be back down in Oct for the APE (a comic convention in SF). I think it’s the 17th but I’m not sure.
I’ll be the Johnny Cash of cartooning - except not cool.

“If you stay longer than overnight in a servantless house, you should arrive at a firm understanding with your hostess about doing your fair share of the domestic chores. Don’t volunteer for these tasks in a half-hearted way but consider them as an obligation. You should help with the dishes and make your own bed and your husband’s. If your hostess insists on performing these tasks herself, find other ways of helping, such as driving the car, looking after the children, or working in the garden [or, I would add, mincing garlic]. Anyone who is particularly good at cooking certain dishes or making small household repairs should offer to exercise his or her talent. The longer you stay, the more useful you should try to be.”
–Homemaker’s Encyclopedia: Etiquette for Everybody (1952)

This Sarah Vowell piece on Teddy Kennedy and Pell Grants made me reflect on my own life. I was raised by public schoolteachers, watched lots of public television (Sesame Street, Electric Company, 3-2-1 Contact), attended public schools from K-12, attended one of the top public universities in the country (couldn’t afford the private ones even though I got into them), and worked at the library of said public university for several years to support myself while I began my career as a cartoonist. In other words, I AM THE PUBLIC OPTION, BABY.

This one had more of a traditional editorial cartoon feel to it, so I decided to try my hand at cross-hatching and make it look a little old-school. That stuff is a pain to color, though, so I think I’ll stick to my usual style.

As source material for this cartoon, I used this handy timeline on the NYT website showing the history of U.S. health care reform efforts. Worth checking out.

I’m about to go on vacation, so this ends Health Care Awareness month here at Slowpoke. I drew the next few cartoons ahead of schedule — something I did not think I was capable of. Posting may be a bit irregular here, but we’ll see.

Latest comic - click here!

My favorite right-wing arguments are ones like the “rationing” one, where if anyone in the media bothered to allow the so-called “argument” to follow through to its logical conclusion, they’d have no choice but to realize how absurd and horrible it is. Case in point, the whine repeated in today’s strip. In its essence, to claim that quality health care is some sort of limited resource in America is to believe that the system where, assumedly, you have coverage, requires that many others do not. So why is no time given to these defenders against the mystical demon called “rationing” to honor those untold martyrs who graciously forgo insurance so that you may be safe from disease?

One in every nine children in America has no health insurance. Would Joe the Douchebag whining about rationing be willing to pay sixteen cents for a pill instead of fifteen to make that one in ten instead? Just curious, really. If the right truly thinks people have to be insured, I demand some actual numbers.

So, hey, there’s now a Facebook page for the cartoon. If you’re on Facebook and are a fan, you should sign up for that. I’m one of those bizarre, rare people on Facebook who thinks my personal Facebook page should actually be restricted to friends and family and people who I actually want to know about where I live and what I ate for breakfast. To quote the great Marge Simpson, I made you a second cake for you to all mess up.

And as always, buy some crap and join the mailing list.

(th)ink by Keith Knight

the K Chronicles by Keith Knight

Folks!! I’m in Boston for an extended period of time, so if there’s anything out here you wanna hip me to, hit me up at keef@kchronicles.com!!

*KEEF COMING TO BOSTON/DECATUR, GEORGIA

*HELP GET KNIGHT LIFE INTO THE SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

*NEW KEEF INTERVIEW

Please Spread the word about these shows!!

The Knight Life/K Chronicles LIVE!!

BOSTON!! Saturday, Aug 29, 4-7pm- Join Keef as he shares the stage with Brian McFadden (Big Fat Whale) for an early evening of beer, comics and hot racial love!! It takes place at the Burren, 247 Elm St in Davis Square, Somerville (just blocks away from a certain kerfuffle between a Harvard professor and a Cambridge cop!!).

DECATUR, GEORGIA!! Fri-Sun Sept. 4-6- Keef makes his first slideshow/booksigning appearance in the Atlanta area!! Come on out to the Decatur Book Festival, the 4th largest bookfest in the states. Keef will be signing at the McSweeney’s booth, and performing a slideshow of race cartoons on Sunday at noon!!

HELP GET THE KNIGHT LIFE IN THE SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS!!I heard some space may be opening up soon on the comics page there!! Contact them and tell em to add the Knight Life!!

Reasons why:

*It’s damn Funny!

*It’s of this century!!

*The artist has a kid to feed!!

Features Editor: Deborah Petersen, 408-920-5617.E-mail: features@mercurynews.com

AND HELP KEEP THE KNIGHT LIFE IN THE DENVER POST!!

Fill out their comics survey and give the strip a thumbs up!!
http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_13009435

Recent Keef interview on Tall Tale Radio (episode 39)http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=77435

ONE LAST THING FOR THOSE OF YOU IN LOS ANGELES:My good Bay Area Comedian/Talk Radio host pal Brian Copeland is bringing his award-winning one-man show to L.A. Here’s yer chance to score cheap tix..

You friends can get half price tickets for the first four shows by using the code word GENUINE when they buy their tix.

Here’s the info:
NOT A GENUINE BLACK MAN in Los Angeles!
September 15, 2009 thruOctober 21, 2009 - 8:00 PM

The Hayworth Theatre

2509 Wilshire Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90057

BUY TICKETS http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/73499or call [24/7 Ticket Hotline] 1-800-838-3006

http://www.kchronicles.com/

http://www.knightlifecomic.com/

*LETTERS/EMAILS OF THE WEEK:

Re: VanGlourious K Chronicles

Cripes all mighty I can scarcely believe how much the salon commentsfolks lost their shit at your Vanglorious Nigras comic, when the movieit’s sending up is a critically acclaimed heralded whatever romp of murder.b-but those are *nazis!* Totally different situation there! *lives in a country built on centuries of blood and toil and slavery with a century of jim crow at the top*Anyway I’m sure you’re getting tons of sputtering ragemail today but Ijust wanted to let you know that was probably the funniest damned strip I’ve seen in a while. And I guess maybe let you know not all white guys are humorless ignorant fartlords.Okay sure most of us, are yeah. But. Uh. I forgot where I was going with this. COMIC GOOD.

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re: Knight Life Comic strip about East Coast food

damn, your cartoon yesterday hit home. Whenever I head back to NYC, my culinary checklist includes: “real” pizzadunkin donuts (coffee and munchkins)”real” bagelsItalian ice (especially the very elusive orange flavor) and Papaya King hotdogs. Glad to see I’m not the only one with proudly retarded taste buds.

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I just got back from my Boston trip. Was visiting my folks in Framingham, have been in SF for the last 30+ yrs, but my 1st stop from Logan was to the North End for Lobstah roll, then Regina’s for a pizza to go. Fried Clams the next day for lunch. Were you following me?

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re: the Knight Life

Hello-

I like your comic strip quite a bit and look forward to reading it daily in the Denver Post. I’ve never written a letter or email like this, but I figured that with any artistic pursuit it’s nice to get feedback from the audience. So here it is.A while back there was a Rudy Ray Moore reference in one of the strips—very nice. This and the general urban/ with-it feel of the strip seems to distinguish it from alot of the base drivel that they allow on the page. I appreciate the angle of your approach and the simplicity of the drawings. Also, the lack of comics syrup is welcome as well. Thanks for putting this comic out there. I’ll be looking forward to it daily, and am expecting more great simmering subversion and self-parody.

-a

The Journal News recently laid off their 2004 Herblock and Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Matt Davies. They have now reversed that decision and will keep Matt on board. The Daily Cartoonist has more.

These are for the OC Weekly.

A guy spots a carefree Muslim girl in a hijab cruising around a supermarket on those roller shoe things and has a nice you-are-the-future-of-the-country moment.

Some obnoxious guy was chain smoking at a golf course.

I wanted to point out this excellent remembrance of Ted Kennedy, which is particularly relevant to some of the discussion that’s been going on here at “Alas” recently. Melissa writes:

Senator Edward Kennedy was a tough guy. He was smart, tenacious, opinionated, strong in body, mind, and spirit. And I think because he was such a tough guy, he won’t mind if I don’t share my real and uncensored thoughts on the occasion of his passing.

Teddy, as he was known, was privileged, in every sense of the word. And he made liberal use of his privilege, in ways I admired and ways I did not. The terrible bargain we all seem to have made with Teddy is that we overlooked the occasions when he invoked his privilege as a powerful and well-connected man from a prominent family, because of the career he made using that same privilege to try to make the world a better place for the people dealt a different lot.

Twice, Teddy did despicable things with his privilege, very publicly.

Read the rest.