One of the highlights of this year's HeroesCon for me was meeting Keith Knight and buying this book from him. I Was A Teenage Michael Jackson Impersonator, And Other Musical Meanderings is a funny and entertaining autobiographical comic that mainly details the author's brief stint making crazy amounts of money as a celebrity impersonator. For about a year and a half in the mid-1980s, starting when he was 17-years-old, he lip-synched and danced at birthday parties and department stores, joined a cadre of other touring impersonators, dated a Madonna impersonator, and learned a lot about the entertainment business. Also, ironically, by pretending to be someone else, he learned much about himself, the world, and how to get by in it.
Certainly, this book has lots of voyeuristic thrills, and it is fun to watch as Knight gets into (and out of) various scrapes and uncomfortable situations. His artwork is wonderfully cartoonish and expressive, bringing life and vibrancy to the proceedings, and the pacing makes the gags and witty dialogue land in hilarious fashion. As a bonus, interspersed between the chapters are passages from Knight's various comic strips that celebrate various musicians from David Bowie to Run DMC (RIP Jam-Master Jay) to Prince. If you have a fascination for 1980s pop culture and a sense of humor, this is the book for you.
The aforementioned Keith Knight created this book, and he has been celebrated for his past strips The K Chronicles and (th)ink. He is also a rapper and had his life and comics adapted into the comedy series Woke, which ran for two seasons on Hulu. I love this show and am glad it got two seasons, but I wish there were many more. Knight speaks about his MJ years and this book in this interview.
I Was A Teenage Michael Jackson Impersonator was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication in 2024. It was published by Keith Knight Press, and there is more info about it here. This book was originally funded by a Kickstarter campaign.
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