The Official K Chronicles and (Th)ink Website

*I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE DEAL IS WITH THIS BLOG…
you gotta scroll way down the page to get to it. eh, whatever…
[Webguy note: This was an issue with an update at Blogger.com, and they documented a fix. This was NOT Keef’s fault. It was the technology’s fault.]

*SAN DIEGO COMIC CON, NEXT WEEK!!
i’m pretty psyched. me and the ol’ lady will be driving down…and camping along the way. hope a dingo don’t steal my baby…

again, i’ll be in the SMALL PRESS SECTION-BOOTH M-15. and i’ll also be on TWO panels. one will be my own 10 year K Chronicles Retrospective, on Thursday, July 14th at 5pm in room 4. here are the details:

5:00-6:00 Keith Knight’s The K Chronicles: Ten Years and Counting—Help award-winning cartoonist Keith Knight celebrate ten years of The K Chronicles, his self-syndicated alternative weekly comic strip. Expect a slideshow retrospective of favorite strips, hate mail, rejection letters, bizarre censorship stories and, of course, sheep. As the cover of his latest book states: If you weren’t offended before, you will be now. Room 4

And then i’ll be doing “Minority Retort” on Sat., the 16th: here are the details:

2:30-3:30 Minority Retort—Jeremy Love (gettosake.com, Fierce), Keith Knight (KChronicles.com), Laurenn McCubbin (Rent Girl, Kitchen Sink), J Torres (Scandalous, Teen Titans Go!), James Lucas Jones (Oni Press), and Travis Johnson (Variance Press) engage in pointed discussion about working in comics and how to bring their own flavors to the world. Possible yelling about the Man keeping folks down will be kept to a minimum, thanks to moderation by Dan Evans (Jetix/ABC Family). Room 8

Oh, it’s gonna be a busy week…

*SAW THE FANTASTIC FOUR..
..for free, of course. like everybody who was in line at the free preview screening, i was saying that i wouldn’t pay actual $$ to see it. it just looks so bad in the trailers. the effects look cheap..the dude playing reed richards just looks wrong…and let’s face it: the fantastic four is too old school and outdated. i think it would’ve worked a lot better if they had the budget to set in the fifties…sensibility-wise, setting it then would work a lot better.

with all that being said, the movie was all right. they were a lot of cheesy bits, but they really didn’t take it seriously…and the guy who plays johnny storm is really good/funny. i would never pay full price for it, but a matinee with low expectations is a good way to go with this film. waaaay better than daredevil and catwoman. better than electra. not as good as the first two blade flicks. two stars.

*MY HEART GOES OUT TO..
..the victims in london. shit. and r.i.p. to luther vandross…i saw him in 1983 with debarge at the orpheum in boston. i was there with the girl i took to my prom. luther came onstage pulling a six foot tall bucket of kentucky fried chicken (this, i swear!!). he recently died of complications from a stroke he suffered a few years back. he was 54.

*SOME POST MOCCA NYC EMAILS…
Heya, Keith!

My name’s Chris. Met you briefly at MOCCA and bought a couple of your books, which I found mightily impressive (so much so that one of the reasons I’m writing is to buy the others). W. B. introduced me to you.

You have an illustration in ‘Passion’ which made me think you’d be interested in one of my pasttimes — taking photos of political protest signs. (The cartoon I’m thinking of is the one where you recounted some of the signs you saw during the Feb. 2003 anti-war march in SF.) Like a half-million other NYers, I was in the two NYC pre-war marches and then the anti-RNC one last August, and boy, some folks are pretty damn creative with their signs. I’ve collected some of the more interesting ones and put them on-line for viewing at:

http://www.pbase.com/csw62/nyc_protest_signs

It amazes me how rabidly people object to these; one commentator suggested I should be swinging from a lamp post. I invite you to take a look.

The other big love of my life is cartoons. I’m an avid collector, especially of the single panel gag sort. At one point I had close to a couple thousand hardbound volumes, but I’ve pared the collection down considerably of late. Because it’s relatively easy to read about cartoonists’ works but often much more difficult to actually see the books/collections themselves, I’ve put images of some of my better stuff on the web:

http://www.pbase.com/csw62/cartoons

I’m in the process of posting short biographies and anecdotes and anything interesting about the individual cartoonists, but it’s a sloooow process. Anyone who happens by will observe that (as of last weekend!) you’re there too: …Walt Kelly, B. Kliban, Ken Kling, Keith Knight!, John Knott, Ed Koren…. So the other reason I’m writing is to ask your permission about posting a picture of you (the one that’s there now is from a Google search — guess I should be asking the photographer, too) and just, in general, running by you the idea of including you on the site.

I’ll send you a check or do the PayPal thing for the other books in short order. It was nice to meet you; I wish I’d been familiar with your work beforehand, though.

Regards,
–chris

dear keith,
tis I, Jake Friedman.
you probably don’t remember me, when you came to SUNY Binghamton in April 2001 to do a talk about comics. But i remember you. I was the comics page guy of the school newspaper, and in your lecture, you started bashing the comics in the school paper. thanks a lot, by the way… They were all about getting drunk, getting laid, getting high,,, ,you know, college stuff. But what’s the point, you argued, of using a vast venue like comics if you don’t use to SAY something that means something to you.
anyway, you gave me your 1-on-1 time, i bought your stuff, and from that point on my comics were me ranting to the school administration, the student population, and to the way things were instead of how they should be. For a time i had a lynch mob of frat guys after me. But i transferred to NYU to study animation, made a final student film speaking form the heart about issues that i waas concerned about, and got an award and a job out of it.

so in a flakey sort of way, i’ve been meaning to tell you that you changed my entire approach to creative arts, and made me much more critical of everything from indie films to the sunday comics page to modern art. And you know my friend and mentee Nina, so what a perfect excuse to drop a line.

i’m typing this from Nina’s sofa. just wanted to thank you for changing my life.
awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

ttfn
jake

*MY FAVORITE RADIO SHOW NEEDS YOUR HELP…

here is a missive sent out by my man, weyland, from kpfa’s hardknock radio:

Folks,

I hate that I have to reach out to you like this. Some of you know whatsup,
but most of you are hearing this for the first time. Hard Knock Radio is
under attack. This is not a joke. HKR is in jeapordy, and only your support
can save it. We are asking for our supporters to speak on our behalf at
Pacifica’s National Board Meeting tomorrow 11am-1pm at Doubletree Hotel 200
Marina Blvd in Berkeley. Supporters and allies will gather at 10am for
breakfast and strategy at Westside Café located at 2570 9th St in Berkeley.

We have exhausted ALL internal processes, and putting this on BLAST is our
last resort. Pacifica and the Local Station Board have ignored requests
from KPFA staff and the KPFA Union to resolve the situation. The situation
is this: KPFA GM Roy Campanella assaulted me on the job; KPFA GM Roy
Campanella has sexually harrassed several women at the station; there is
increasing evidence that KPFA GM Roy Campanella and members of KPFA’s Local
Station Board are spreading rumors that I am accepting payola from local
artists and that I’m laundering money. A recent “anonymous” note sent
around the station states that I have “a rep for abusing young women” and
that I’m racist and an Anti-Semite.

I know this is last minute, but Pacifica just now told us when public
comment would be. I hope some of you can join us for breakfast. For those
who can’t come through, there will be other opportunities to help us. Thank
you for your support.

-Weyland

DON’T LET THIS SHOW DIE!! I WILL KEEP FOLKS UP TO DATE ABOUT WHAT’S GOIN’ DOWN..

*AND OF COURSE…THERE’S PBS AND NPR…

A House panel has voted to eliminate all public funding for NPR and
PBS,
starting with “Sesame Street,” “Reading Rainbow,” and other
commercial-free
children’s shows. If approved, this would be the most severe cut in the
history of public broadcasting, threatening to pull the plug on Big
Bird,
Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch.

The cuts would slash 25% of the federal funding this year—$100
million—and
end funding altogether within two years. The loss could kill beloved
children’s shows like “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” “Arthur,” and
“Postcards
from Buster.” Rural stations and those serving low-income communities
might
not survive. Other stations would have to increase corporate
sponsorships.

The next vote on the cuts will take place tomorrow (Thursday). Help us
reach
400,000 signatures to be delivered to the committee members.

http://www.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/?t=2

Thanks!

P.S. Read the Washington Post report on the threat to NPR and PBS at:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=745

*GO SEE “BATMAN BEGINS”
it’s what the latest star wars movie coulda been… in fact, the early sequences with liam neeson shoulda been qui gon jinn and obi wan in the phantom menace…

cheers!!