ARE WE FEELING SAFER YET? A (TH)INK ANTHOLOGY #2
KEITH KNIGHT PRESS/Top Shelf Productions
CARTOONIST: Keith Knight
ISBN-13: 978-0-9788053-0-2; paperback; (January 2007)
128pp, B&W, $12.95 U.S., $16.95 CAN
Keith Knight is a cartoonist, musician, and television creator and executive producer (Hulu's “Woke”). Knight also produces a weekly multi-panel strip, The K Chronicles, and he has previously contributed to MAD Magazine and ESPN The Magazine.
One of Knight's other comics is (th)ink, a socio-political (mostly) single-panel cartoon. It began life in 2000 as a digital comic on the now defunct website, Africana.com. Over the years, (th)ink has appeared on numerous websites and has been published in daily and alternative newspapers (including the San Francisco Chronicle, The Rocky Mountain Chronicle, and the Haight Ashbury Beat). It currently appears in the Nib, Daily KOS, Antigravity, and The Funny Times, to name a few.
Published in 2007, Are We Feeling Safer Yet? was the second paperback collection of Knight's (th)ink cartoons. What follows is the edited and revised text of a review of Are We Feeling Safer Yet? that I wrote for another website in late 2006:
THE LOWDOWN: Although Knight probably calls (th)ink a comic strip, it's more like an ongoing editorial cartoon. Knight's work is certainly related in terms of comic strips to work of cartoonist, Garry Trudeau, who is best known for his award-winning newspaper comic, Doonesbury. As an African-American cartoonist, Knight's work is similar in tone to Aaron McGruder newspaper comic strip, The Boondocks. However, while, Trudeau and McGruder deal with a cast of continuing characters and use them to comment on politics, society, and culture, Knight's cast is America itself. Essentially, that is what an editorial cartoonist generally uses as his cast – our nation, even if, as a group, editorial cartoonists seemed fixated on politicians and in particular, the sitting President (in this case George W. Bush).
Knight is sharp and clever, and his humor and commentary are even sharper. He is, though, not mean-spirited, and he only draws blood when he has to do so - such as when he uses a guy discovering that his color and white laundry have been mixed to comment on integration (p. 46). Sometimes he cuts a subject because they handed him the blade, as in a cartoon featuring Snoop Dogg which comments on the rapper-actor's behavior on stage (p.78).
Knight is probably often compared to McGruder because both are Black cartoonists/commentators and both take the Bush Administration to the shed, but there, the similarity ends. Knight belongs on the editorial page. Because he uses Black characters and often deals with African-American or Hip-Hop culture doesn't make him different from white cartoonists and commentators who ply their trade on our nation's newspaper editorial sections.
Keith Knight is a funny guy, but he is astute like the good editorial cartoonist should be. What Knight says with pen and ink makes sense, and he's ready for the big time. [End of text of original review.]
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of Keith Knight and (th)ink will want Are We Feeling Safer Yet?
A
★★★★+ out of 4 stars
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
Readers can buy copies of Are We Feeling Safer Yet here or at https://keithknight.bigcartel.com/product/are-we-feeling-safer-yet-th-ink-book-2 or https://lastgasp.com/products/are-we-feeling-safer-yet-a-think-anthology?_pos=1&_sid=19da0e2ca&_ss=r.
Find Keith Knight on the Internet:
https://keithknightart.com/
https://kchronicles.com/
https://twitter.com/KeefKnight
https://www.patreon.com/keefknight
https://www.instagram.com/iamkeithknight/?hl=en
https://keithknight.bigcartel.com/
https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/1446
https://www.facebook.com/keithknightcartoonist/
https://www.gocomics.com/thekchronicles
The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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