How will you cope??? "'Boondocks' Comic Strip Going on Hiatus"

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - How will you cope??? "'Boondocks' Comic Strip Going on Hiatus"

Posted: 2/28/2006 1:56:42 PM EDT

Amazing to read he actually has to hire illustrators to draw his crappy comic strip. It seems like is uses stock drawings as often as 'milkman dan'.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/02/28/entertainment/e144348S45.DTL

'Boondocks' Comic Strip Going on Hiatus
- By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, February 28, 2006

(02-28) 14:43 PST Kansas City, Mo. (AP) --

The Boondocks, the black comic-strip family living in white suburbia, are going on vacation.

Aaron McGruder, the cartoonist behind the strip syndicated in about 350 American newspapers, said Tuesday he would take about six months off beginning in March.

"Every well needs occasional refreshing," he wrote in a letter to be sent to editors of newspapers carrying the strip. "I hope that this fall you will agree that the time away from the demands of deadlines has served the strip, your readers and me."

McGruder offered no further explanation and declined interviews. He has been doing double duty on "Boondocks" since last fall when he brought it to the Cartoon Network as a weekly show.

His editor at Universal Press Syndicate, Greg Melvin, said McGruder simply needed a break.

"Deadlines are hard on everybody, but deadlines are especially hard on creative people," Melvin said. "When six months have passed, hopefully his batteries will be recharged."

The last new comic before the hiatus will appear March 26. Papers can run old "Boondocks" strips or a replacement until it returns in October.

"The Boondocks" has been distributed by Kansas City-based Universal Press since April 1999. It touches on racial issues, pop culture and politics as it chronicles the lives of Huey Freeman, his little brother, Riley, and their eccentric grandfather, who moved them from south Chicago to the suburbs.

The strip's frequent criticism of everything from the Bush administration and post-9/11 policies to black television network BET has made it a source of controversy.

A few papers temporarily pulled the strip for its attacks against the war in Iraq. And last year, several papers dropped it for a few days because of references to the n-word.

"You can talk about race in a way that might provoke some people," said Melvin, who edits 20 features for Universal Press. McGruder "was willing to talk about race and popular culture and politics in a way that really hadn't been done for people of his generation."

No topic has appeared off-limits for the strip, from finding Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a boyfriend to lampooning musician R. Kelly. Three consecutive recent strips poked fun at Vice President Dick Cheney's recent hunting accident, including one in which Huey's dreadlocked friend Michael Caesar offers, "I dunno ... maybe we're being unfair to the vice president ... I mean, if you really think about it, most days he doesn't shoot anybody!"

McGruder created "The Boondocks" in 1997 while attending the University of Maryland. When it went national two years later, it became Universal Press' third-strongest launch of a strip, behind "For Better or for Worse" and "Calvin and Hobbes," according to company spokeswoman Kathie Kerr.

Since 2003, McGruder has relied on illustrators to draw his comic, focusing his own efforts on the strip's writing and his animated series on Cartoon Network.

The decision of the 31-year-old McGruder to temporarily pull his strip is not unique among cartoonists. "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau and "Calvin and Hobbes" cartoonist Bill Watterson are among others who have taken sabbaticals. Watterson later ended the strip.

Posted: 2/28/2006 1:59:33 PM EDT

[#1]

So is this the same as that cartoon on spike?

Sounds like a pretty successful guy.

Posted: 2/28/2006 2:01:37 PM EDT

[#2]

Hopefully the Post will just drop it... and Family Circus, Garfield, Curtis, Frazz, and every other garbage comic strip that ruins its comic pages.

Well, a guy can dream, can't he?

Posted: 2/28/2006 2:03:00 PM EDT

[#3]

You know, I actually watched it when it came out on Adult Swim and found some of it to be pretty funny. I was a little surprised.

Posted: 2/28/2006 2:12:07 PM EDT

[#4]

As long as they keep cranking out the cartoon show on Cartoon Network, I don't care.
FWIW, that show gives it to blacks 1000 times harder than he gives it to whites.

Posted: 2/28/2006 2:18:22 PM EDT

[#5]

AFAIK, we can, at some point, accept that we, the people, are Americans.

We can choose to register to vote

We can choose not to.

Black seperatist comics aren't funny to me.

Maybe I'm a killjoy....I feel the smae way about white speratist comics.

Posted: 2/28/2006 2:28:10 PM EDT

[#6]

The Martin Luther King Jr. episode of Boondocks was the the best they've shown.

MLK Jr. calling BET the worst thing to happen to the black race was gold. MLK Jr. doing a rant on "niggas" was gold. Him saying, "I want no part of this, I'm going to Canada" was icing on the cake.

If you haven't watched the Cartoon, give it a chance, not just one episode but a few. The creator is beating up on certain aspects of the culture and giving it a fair shake in many cases.

Posted: 2/28/2006 2:29:24 PM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
Black seperatist comics aren't funny to me.

The Boondocks on AdultSwim is about as far from "black seperatist(sic)" as I can think of. Maybe the comic is different, but I doubt it.

Posted: 2/28/2006 2:34:01 PM EDT

[#8]

'bout fucking time....

Posted: 2/28/2006 2:36:48 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Black seperatist comics aren't funny to me.

The Boondocks on AdultSwim is about as far from "black seperatist(sic)" as I can think of. Maybe the comic is different, but I doubt it.

I shut off cable a bit back.

I guess I don't have a dog in the fight.

All I know is I saw the strips in the paper.

If you don't think they are black seperatist.......Ok...You are entitled to your opinion there.

I have no respect for the strip, or it's creator.

Posted: 2/28/2006 2:39:32 PM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
You know, I actually watched it when it came out on Adult Swim and found some of it to be pretty funny. I was a little surprised.

Pretty funny? It was frikkin hysterical! I hated the actual comic, I guess the sarcasm was lost on me and all I saw was "black pride." After seeing the show, it looks more like a Bill Cosby take on black culture....with a little "kill whitey" in as well.

Posted: 2/28/2006 3:12:34 PM EDT

[#11]

My favorite episode was the one with "The Itis" where he makes food so fattening that people go into a cholesterol induced sleep.

People get addicted to it like crack and everybody is turning to crime to feed their fat food addiction.

In the end, a supermodel winds up suing because she got fat, had to get lipo, then went to have one of the last burgers of the restaurant only to die of a heart attack.

Posted: 2/28/2006 3:29:08 PM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:
All I know is I saw the strips in the paper.

The strip is probably different (read: political and unfunny) since McGruder don't have a staff of writers like the TV show does.

Posted: 2/28/2006 4:24:54 PM EDT

[#13]

Quoted:
My favorite episode was the one with "The Itis" where he makes food so fattening that people go into a cholesterol induced sleep.

People get addicted to it like crack and everybody is turning to crime to feed their fat food addiction.

In the end, a supermodel winds up suing because she got fat, had to get lipo, then went to have one of the last burgers of the restaurant only to die of a heart attack.

"My friends told me I just had to come check this place out! So tell me about the food, what's good?"

"Oh, everything here will kill you...run."

Posted: 2/28/2006 6:57:46 PM EDT

[#14]

I havent read the strip in awihle -but I used to and liked it.

The show on Cartoon Network is FANTASTIC.

I really like Aaron - I think he is pretty funny. And hes a huge star wars geek.

Try to check out the episodes with Samual L Jackson has a voice role. Those were great.

ETA - its not a black seperatist strip. Even when it was just a comic. He got flak from "black leaders" calling BET the worst thing on television and some other comments.

He tells it like it is. And that includes the plethora of black "culture" that is either stupid, or in the end, harmful to blacks.

And yes - the MLK JR episode is going to be a classic television moment, I belive.

I also like it when the Grandpa re-introduces spanking to a white yuppy women.