1984 Malden High grad takes on the state of the nation in his work.

One thing is for sure: Keith Knight is no Bil Keane.

The 1984 Malden High graduate and the late “Family Circus” creator may have worked in the same medium, but Knight’s message is decidedly different, focusing on issues like race relations, police brutality, politics and the current state of our nation -- such that it is.

Knight’s autobiographical comic strip “The Knight Life” is syndicated throughout the U.S. in papers like the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle, and he tackles weightier issues in his panel “[Th]ink” and his strip “The K Chronicles,” which appears on dailykos.com and elsewhere.

A Malden native who now lives in North Carolina, Knight was at the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo in Cambridge on Oct. 21, delivering “They Shoot Black People, Don’t They? A Cartoonist’s 20-year Look at Police Brutality in the U.S.,” a multimedia presentation culled from 20 years of his cartoons.

Wicked Local: What I really enjoy about your work is how you somehow take serious issues and find a way to make people think, while making them funny at the same time.

Keith Knight: Well, I want people to understand that I don't do that with with all of them. There are ones that aren't funny at all, that people go, “Oh, comics are supposed to be funny!” And I explain to them, no, comics don't have to be funny. Comics can be informative. They could be sad, they could be touching, they could be all these different things.

I like to use humor because humor makes hard issues go down a little bit softer, and I consider cartoonists to be sort of modern-day court jesters. So we can sort of take shots at folks that will end up in other professions [getting you] tortured and dismembered.

WL: Unfortunately that's a realistic statement at this point.

Keith: I've been on panels with cartoonists who have to leave the country because their government was going after them for a cartoon they did. So, I'm fortunate that it's not gotten to that point here yet. But the way things are going, it wouldn't surprise me if it did.

[It's a scary time] for everybody. I think not only not only for people who are direct victims of this, but also the indirect reality of people who never considered themselves to be racist or fascist, but are looking around and justifying what's going on, and saying to themselves, “Oh, OK, maybe I am fine with this. Maybe I don't want any of this taken away” -- even though none of it will be taken away!

But if you scare people enough, saying, “Oh, you know, this caravan of people are coming and they're gonna take YOUR job.” It's such silly bullsh--.

WL: So what becomes your role when you see all of this happening and you sit down at the drawing board?

Keith: Well, I think there's a number of different roles that you could take. I mean, I'm fortunate enough to have a venue for me to get my stuff out. But everybody does -- that's what the Internet's for, I guess.

But I suggest not to argue with people on the Internet. I suggest you argue with people in person, and just addressing this stuff in person, because the Internet is just a hole of bullsh--. I just know that when you engage people in person they're not as cruel and you can discuss things with them. And they might actually think about it a bit longer and more thoroughly.

And people say, “What can I do? I can't do anything.” But I got a Facebook message about a year ago from somebody I went to college with a long time ago, like 30 years ago. And she said, “You know Keith, I just want to say that when we were in college I was telling a joke [and] you explained to me why [you] didn't think it was funny. And why it was offensive.”

And she said, “You didn't do it in any angry way. You just explained it … I never thought of it that way.” And it made her reconsider all the jokes that her family would say and she started calling people out on stuff.

And she said, “That changed me. That one time that you said that to me.” And you know, I don't really remember her, I don't remember the incident. I was probably stoned at the time [laughs]. But that little thing stuck with her, and so you don't know.

Everyone always talks about, oh, I can't say anything to my racist grandad or my racist aunt. If you said something to them, they may be pissed, but they'll think twice about saying that again, at least in front of you ... Even if it's a little bit of a change.

The thing is, the most obnoxious, terrible people are the loudest people. And the good people have to start being loud, too. I know it's against our nature. But we have to be louder, frankly. We have to be louder.

WL: At the MICE expo you did your presentation, "They Shoot Black People, Don’t They? A Cartoonist’s 20-year look at Police Brutality in the U.S." How did it go?

Keith: It went great. And I appreciate the folks giving me the opportunity to do it, because it's interesting they do it at a comic book convention ... I did it at San Diego ComiCon. You know, people are going there for the fantasy thing. And I got a standing ovation -- it was completely insane.

And I think that there are people, that, sure, it's great to be in the whole fantastical fantasy world and everything. But I also think that people want to engage in reality, too. And in different ways. Because I think one of the biggest problems in this country is being able to talk about race in this country in a sincere way, and [I'm] using this medium to address that type of stuff.

And also mental health issues -- I'm seeing a lot of people do [comics] about mental health and about identity, gender equality and all that different stuff. It's great. This is the meat and potatoes that should be part of the dialogue of comics.

Knight’s latest collection of “Knight Life” strips is “The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Behind.” For information, visit kchronicles.com.