I Was A Teenage Michael Jackson Impersonator, And Other Musical Meanderings

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.

Good On Both Sides: A (Th)Ink Anthology

Good on Both Sides is a collection of political and historical comics strips by Keith Knight, who has been publishing regular comic strips such as the K Chronicles since the early 1990s. Knight's work here is contemporary, commenting not only on current events but also the current state of our country. I love his point of view, acerbic sense of humor, and his insights. 

Note: I got images from Knight's website. The book is in black and white.

The general issue with collections like this is that the humor often gets lost as time goes by and people forget the contemporary references that make the jokes work. I think Knight smartly protects against this by including many historical portraits that add their own context. By including several celebrations of and quotations from historic figures like Thurgood Marshall and Edna Lewis he provides a long view on how long certain struggles have been going on. Many of the issues we deal with today in terms of civil rights and race have been fomenting for a long time. 

Reading over what I have written above, I am making this book of comic strips sound like a textbook, which is entirely not the case. Knight's artwork is a delight, offering lots of energy and character with seemingly simple and streamlined line-work. Good On Both Sides made me laugh several times. It is funny, insightful, and provocative, and I very much enjoyed catching up on strips that I had not seen.

As I mentioned above, gentleman cartoonist Keith Knight has been a fixture in the alt-comics scene for decades now, and he has also received added exposure by having his life/works used to make the Hulu series Woke. He has won a number of accolades, including a Harvey Award for his strip K Chronicles, multiple Glyph Awards, an Inkpot Award for his career achievements, and an NAACP History Maker Honor. He spoke about the current state of his life and work in this interview.

I was not able to find many reviews of this book online, but the one I found was positive. Joel Oliphint wrote that although "the subject matter in Knight’s cartoons...can be heavy, he uses humor to help the medicine go down."

Good On Both Sides was published by Keith Knight Publications, and you can find more info about it here. You can also support Knight on Patreon here.

Thank you to the author/publisher for providing me with a review copy!