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Sometimes, you just happen to be in the right place at the right time. Such was the fortuitous
circumstances that befell me at Comic Con this year. On Saturday, I was approached by a camera crew
for the PBS station out of San Francisco, California. They were working on a profile piece for one
of their local artists, and were interested in some footage of the artist being interviewed by someone
in costume. Having my little pocket recorder handy, and covering the Con for Collector Times anyway,
I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to not only help someone else out, but help myself
with an impromptu interview.
I had not heard of Keith Knight before that, as his work so far does not appear in any of our
local publications. After the interview, however, I took the time to investigate his art on the
internet, and learned some interesting and amusing things about him. For instance, in 1999 and
2000 Keith posted flyers around the San Francisco Bay area advertising "Black People For Rent"
(you can see and/or buy your own copy of the sign at his web page at http://www.kchronicles.com/order.shtml ).
An artist, comic writer, and Rap performer, Keith is no stranger to controversy and "stirring
things up".
Nor, for that matter, is he a stranger to trying to make people think. I talked with Keith at
the Con, and I hope you enjoy this transcript of our conversation.
Collector Times:
So, you're in the "weeklies"?
Keith Knight:
Yeah, I do one comic strip called "The K Chronicles" and the other is called (Th)Ink. I've been doing
"The K Chronicles" for about 10 years, and it's an autobiographical, semi-autobiographical comic
strip. I've got three books out. My first book of (Th)Ink, I've been doing that for two and a half
years, that comes out in December. It's called "Red, White, Black, and Blue", and yeah, I've put out
t-shirts, I'm in a band. We've got a couple of CD's out here, and we've got our controversial
masturbation t-shirt. We were told that they were obscene, but with all the T 'n' A going on around
here . . .
CT:
Well, with the Australian Scientists determining that it was a good way to prevent Prostate Cancer . . .
Keef:
CT:
Yeah, the stories are on-line right now. I can just see it now. "Johnny, what are you doing in
there?" "Preventing prostate cancer. Mom, it's easier to shave my palms than go through prostate
cancer treatments!"
Keef:
CT:
Here's a question for you. What do you find more motivating: The letters you get about a comic
that says, "That was just perfect. It's completely true!" . . . Or those where people are just so
angry because it offends them so much?
Keef:
I think it's great either way. Like, I wouldn't want to receive all of one, or receive all of the
other. I sometimes feel like I'm not doing my job if I'm not pissing somebody off, but still, it's
nice sometimes to get some really nice feedback. The thing I get into with Editors is they say,
"Well, this was just too controversial this week. Somebody might write in mad." But it's like,
if they write in mad, great! You know? If they're feeling something positive or negative about
it, it's great, instead of being indifferent about it.
CT:
You're making people think. That's radical.
Keef:
CT:
What cities are you in now?
Keef:
I'm in about 10 with each strip I publish. I'm in Salt Lake City, San Jose,
Marin California, Boston Mass, Charleston South Carolina, Cleveland Heights Ohio,
I'm in the Key West Classified [Tampa, Florida] . . .
CT:
Salt Lake must be an interesting one . . .
Keef:
Salt Lake, actually, surprisingly, I get more letters from Salt Lake than anywhere
else, like people are either starved for it or what. But Salt Lake is like a crazy
city. When my band used to play up there, people get in fights, they actually get
crazy up there.
CT:
Yeah, we've got relatives that live up there, too.
Keef:
(to a visitor at his table) 128 pages of filth, pure filth, in each one of these
books. (back) The place I get censored the most has been the Bay Area. San Francisco
and Marin, they all think they're really open minded, but certain words are like "no way" . . .
CT:
The "Political Correctness"?
Keef:
CT:
You'd think it would be the opposite. Up in Salt Lake, with the heavy Mormon influence,
the heavy religious influence, you'd think they'd be . . .
Keef:
I've got no problems with all these places . . .
(Interview paused here while a loud PA announcement drowned out nearly everything else)
Keef:
But, yeah, "Dances with Sheep" [the first "K Chronicles" collection] came out in 1998. My first
two books, "Dances with Sheep" and "Fear of a Black Marker" on my first publisher, "Manic D Press",
and the latest one, "What a Long Strange Strip it's Been", which just came out, is with Top Shelf.
It goes through September 11th, and hence the Bush Administration. Once September 11th happened,
probably just after that like a lot of my work really started examining the whole "War on Terror"
and everything. It really got some of the best letters; the most positive letters and some of the
most negative letters. You know, "How dare you question the motives of our Government!" and blah
blah blah and all this different stuff. "This is a war on terrorism! Bomb everybody!"
One of the most controversial strips I did was like, I wanted to talk about Humanity and God's
faith in Humanity, and I was like, "How can I do this strip about God, and His faith in Humanity?"
I started it out as the most tasteless strip I could possibly do. So I started out saying, "I
was smoking crack with God the other day," and then God (who was represented by my pet Dwarf
Hamster) says, "I like your style, Knight. I can sit around and smoke crack with you and you don't
get all crazy like, 'Oh my God! I'm with God!' and blah blah blah. You won't go exploiting and
try to make money off me" and I say, "How do you know I won't?" He goes, "I'm God! Dammit, I
know this stuff!" But it goes on to say that people shouldn't be saying "God bless America, let's
bomb everybody!" It's kinda like we're all in it together and we should work it out.
CT:
What do you think is the common problem with the people where they don't understand that part of
the job of the press is to ask the questions? If the Government cannot answer the questions and
defend their position, maybe they need to reexamine their position. That's part of our job. It
isn't that we're saying they're wrong, we want to know why they're right.
Keef:
Well, the problem is, I don't think it's a problem with the Government. I think it's a problem
with the Press. After September 11th, the Press has become so afraid to question like, they
should be hammering; they should not be taking these evasive answers. It's like, ask the same
question over and over; don't give us the run-around type of thing, because, you know, everyone
has always talked about this "Left Wing Media" type of thing that's always talked about but it
never really, you know, after September 11th, it really showed that there isn't really a whole
lot of "Left Wing Media". I mean, the one main stream venue that was really questioning the
Government are "Doonesbury" and "The Boondocks". Like *Comic Strips*! Like, it's pretty wild.
CT:
And the "Alternative Press", like you show up in.
Keef:
Yeah, but as far as mainstream press, it's really hardly anywhere. And now, now that it's
blatantly obvious, people are starting to jump on the bandwagon. You know, like years later.
It's pretty lousy.
CT:
Have you ever had a paper drop your comic because it was too controversial?
Keef:
Oh yeah (laughs). I think what happens is they change editors. Editors get behind you, and
if they change an editor, then they're like "Listen, I want to wipe the slate clean and
bring in my own copy now." But actually, the one thing that, there's this one company "New Times"
that happens to buy up all the alternative weeklies. Whenever they buy up a weekly that I'm in,
they drop me. They've got their own stable of cartoons, so they just drop me. I've been dropped
by like 4 different papers.
CT:
Well, it's been a pleasure talking with you.
Keef:
Yeah, it was, I appreciate it.
From what I was told later, this interview footage didn't make it into the 10 minute segment on
the PBS show, but fortunately for us, it did make it onto Collector Times. You can visit Keith
Knight's website, where his artwork is featured, and information on his band, "The Marginal
Prophets" can be found, at http://www.kchronicles.com/index.html.
Reading back through some of the archives linked off his site, I was treated to some laughs, some
thought provocation, and some interesting insights into this artist.
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