OH MY GOODNESS!! A BLOG POST!!
Greetings and Salutations faithful readers! Your humble Gentleman Cartoonist is taking a break from wiping baby poo to check in for a long awaited update…
*2013: K CHRONICLES 20TH ANNIVERSARY!!
Believe or not, I’ve been cranking out this comic strip for two decades!! I remember when I started, I couldn’t imagine doing it for more than a decade, and here I am 20 years later! I should’ve quit, but I can’t do anything else.
Anyhoo, to celebrate, Ill be posting some seriously old school K Chronicle strips from college and when I first started doing them in the current format as a zine in San Francisco.
*NEW STORE PRODUCT COMING VERY SOON!
Expect a revamped K Chronicles store real soon. I’ll be offering an number of new items including a pdf version of the latest K Chronicles collection, sketch pages, and my long-rumored 25 Steps to a Better Kickstarter zine!
*Me in the Media!!
Dear Mr. Watterson is a documentary about the profound effect Bill Watterson’s classic comic strip Calvin and Hobbes had on the world. I was honored to be a part of it. Sadly, I missed the L.A. premiere cuz I was on baby doody.
Check out the trailer here.
*LETTERS/EMAILS OF THE WEEK:
love love love.
But as a trans woman, I have to be honest and say I’m a little hurt by the
panel in which you describe SF as being a “perfect storm”; the way in which
you’ve laid out the text and image sort of looks like you’re positing
“transvestite hooker” as “some*thing* interesting to look at”.
I think you kinda know already that this is problematic, no? I mean, a) sex
workers aren’t things, and b) trans people aren’t things, and c) how do you
know whether that’s a tranvestite sex worker, and not a transgendered sex
worker, or any of several other people?
Trans people are so often dehumanized in our daily lives, the wretchedness
of which I’m sure a man of colour needs no introduction to.
It might be nice if you were to make a post of some sort ackowledging that
this was kind of a problematic choice? I feel certain this was
unintentional on your part, but (as I know you know) that doesn’t undo the
harm it can do.
Thanks for hearing me about this, whatever you choose. And I really do love
your work, I wouldn’t have said anything otherwise.
Respectfully,
CaitieCat
Waterloo, ON,
Canada
(she’s right on..and I’m glad I got called out on it..-kk)
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I just read your take on democratizing the papacy. Nicely subversive.
I really wanted to say I love the candor in your style. I grew up on MAD magazine and I think your work would have added some class to the joint.
Signed, a typically crazed internet fan.
(I actually do contribute to MAD, though not as often as they, or I, would like!-kk)
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I save my alt-papers ’til I get down time to go through ’em, so just read the subject-referenced strip.
As an original TV Trekker (and fan of actual hard core sci-fi – which have occasionally merged, as Harlan Ellison wrote at least one episode of the Shatner/Nimoy ST series) – and who found the original three Star Wars films to be mere barely tolerable shallow pop culture, quest story fairy tales incidentally clothed in sci-fi/FX trappings, and the second three so totally intolerable I started to carry garlic, less I be assaulted by one, I’m nonetheless happy to hear that your “Kick-ass director wish” seems to have been granted (if you’re a JJ Abrams fan), even while fearing cross-contamination back into the far more vital blood stream of ST.
And as a long (long)-time comics nerd – of comics, comix (I have Crumb’s Zap #0 among many others in my collection), syndicated mainstream strips, the pre-“Seduction of the Innocents” Mad Magazine, alt cartoonists (Jules Feiffer, Ron Cobb, Vaughan Bode, et al, ad infinitum), will take the opportunity to note you’re my fave among current practitioners of the art.
In my (admittedly biased) view, generally “never depart from the party line propagandists” sit at the bottom of my list. Using examples outside of the comics world, give me a Christopher Hitchens or Gore Vidal, committed leftists both, but both (unlike nearly all today on the left or right or libertarian or whatever sides) never afraid to bite the hand that fed them.
And while your politics (and entertainment and sports opinions, etc.) are not identical to mine, what I love about your work is its lack of pretention, gentle but simultaneously trenchant humor, taking time to recognize the everyday moments that tap into the deeper themes without hitting us over the head with a sledge hammer), charming self-effacing-ness, and in particular “Life’s little victories,” etc. And (this is a compliment for sure), there is a good bit of Pogo Possum in you.
Anyway, all of that plus the sense you’d just be a good dude to hang out with for awhile at a pub or coffeeshop.
Be well and keep up the good work!
M.
(i’m sooooo lookin’ forward to that new star wars flick..-kk)
*SONG OF THE WEEK
Watched this killer documentary about the great guitarist/producer/ mastermind Nile Rodgers, which explains why I got into bands like INXS, Duran-Duran, David Bowie and more..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVmAXWZu_PQ
and then I found some strange footage of another Rodgers produced hit, channeled through the Wonderous Lynda Carter and Sister Sledge..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-PF2cKAQb0
Cheers!
Keef
Thanks for sharing your fan letters; I learned a lot about you.
What a great doc on Nile Rodgers!
A great education about the greatest musician I’d always heard but never heard of.