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An unlikely firestorm
was ignited on the 19th of April, 1999. The Universal Press
Syndicate made the largest launch ever of a single comic strip in
the history of the printed page when it debuted an off-beat work in
more than 160 newspapers that day (and 40 more by year's end). The
strip, centering on two prepubescent Black youths transplanted from
the inner-city of South Chicago to the lily-white fictional suburb
of Woodcrest, immediately set off controversy with its daily
skewerings of race, politics, music and every other slice of
Americana considered taboo to the "funnies". And yet both the
success and controversy of the comic happened so fast that few knew
about the man behind it all. The strip is "The Boondocks",
brainchild of Aaron McGruder.Born in Chicaco, Illinois in 1974 under
the sign of Gemini, Aaron and his parents soon moved to from their
largely-Black neighborhood to a mostly-white suburb in Baltimore,
Maryland when Aaron was about to start school. Spending the majority
of his life there, young Aaron got a first-hand education on race
relations; often feeling like an outsider as a minority. Yet, he was
never unhappy. It was during his productive and highly influential
youth that McGruder would come in contact with the things that would
change his life forever. The first was Star Wars (1977). After his
first viewing of George Lucas' galaxy far, far away, McGruder become
one of many children his generation to have a life-long obsession
with the film (not unlike Jersey-borne filmmaker Kevin Smith). The
second was Hip-Hop. The uniquely African-American musical style
became to new generations what jazz and the British invasion had
been years before. As the civil rights movement ended and
Reaganomics took over, Hip-Hop became the only viable, uncensored
outlet for Black youth to express themselves unchallenged. The third
was comics. Not just the "funny books" containing the adventures of
Superman and Spider-Man, but comic strips. Aaron's tastes over the
years ranged from the funny-yet-true child's POV as shown by Charles
M. Schulz with "Peanuts" to, eventually, the irreverent humour of
Berkeley Breathed and Bill Waterson "Bloom County" and "Calvin &
Hobbes" (respectively) to the biting political satire of Garry
Trudeau's "Doonesbury."After graduating high school, McGruder
enrolled in the University of Maryland where the budding artist
found his first widespread outlet for his creativity. After fellow
UofM student Frank Cho (author of the cult comic "Liberty Meadows")
graduated in the mid-90s, the school newspaper, The DiamondBack, was
left without a leading comic strip. The paper's lead editor, Jayson
Blair (who would later court his own controversy with his infamous
run at The New York Times), doubted that anything would grab as much
attention as Cho's work. Aaron gladly volunteered for the job,
creating a strip that would combine elements of his own life with an
all-around "Hip-Hop perspective" of world events as told through the
eyes of young Black children wise beyond their years. With that,
"The Boondocks" premiered in The Diamondback and became an instant
hit, introducing UofM students to Huey Freeman, an afro-sporting,
self-appointed revolutionary (named after Huey P. Newton, co-founder
of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense); Riley Freeman, Huey's
unapologetic "gangsta"-wannabe younger brother; and Jazmine DuBois,
a bi-racial girl with little more control over her racial identity
than her own fussy hair.With the help of fellow student and aspiring
DJ, Rhome Anderson, McGruder began showing the strip on the
internet. The strip achieved enough popularity to the point where in
1998 it received its first national print publication in the pages
of the Hip-Hop magazine "The Source" for three months straight
(details of why it was removed vary). After graduating UofM with
degrees in Afro-American studies, McGruder and Anderson courted
several offers to publish the strip in national newspapers before
finding an agreeable one with Universal Press Syndicate. The strip
made its national premiere April of 1999 with the largest debut for
a new comic in a record 160 papers nation-wide. The strip
immediately caused controversy. Everything from the characters'
(anime-influenced) designs to the handling of the bi-racial Jazmine
seemed to stir the ire of someone no matter where the strip was
published. Some Blacks claimed it was stereotypical and derogatory;
many whites claimed it was outright racist, hurtful and divisive.
Parents found such common strip activities like the boys being
spanked by their Grandfather and young Riley's bullying of other
children undeserving of print space alongside such veteran "G"-rated
fare as "Garfield" and "Peanuts". Even fellow UofM alum Frank
Cho--whose strip "Liberty Meadows" was taking heat for its blatant
sexual content and toilet humour--called McGruder's strip "racist
and hateful."Yet for all the angry resentment, the positive response
to the strip was equally-strong. In fact, many papers struggled with
whether or not to drop the strip because of strong following. Many
fans celebrated its genuine Hip-Hop references and championed it as
a long-silent voice for the Black community now having the
opportunity to be heard. The characters were championed for the way
Aaron had the characters ask questions from "Why are there no good
Black TV shows?" to "Why is Black History Month in the shortest
month of the year?" McGruder himself seemed to take it all in stride
frequenting the late-night rounds on such series as "Politically
Incorrect" (1994), "BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley" (1998), and
"20/20" (1978) among others.Over the years, the strip's controversy
and popularity have only continued to grow. McGruder has had his
characters speak on everything from exploitative rap videos, the
NRA, Black conservatives, and inter-racial marriage to such trivial
pursuits as lawn-mowing as a form of illegal child labour and the
surge of rappers as movie stars over the past ten years. The strip
is constantly a hot topic with several paper often moving it out of
the "comics" section to "Editorials" and some removing it from the
paper altogether. Recognizable personas from BET founder Robert L.
Johnson to conservative columnist Ward Connerlly have publicly
condemned the strip (and have often found themselves the subjects of
its jibes). Right-wing "avengers" often criticise the strip's
constant "attacks" on George W. Bush.Nothing seemed to escape the
wrath of the Freeman brothers, not even McGruder's beloved "Star
Wars". In the weeks leading up to the highly-anticipated released of
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), Huey and Riley
were shown lining up in eager anticipation. After the film was
released, the boys expressed reactions felt by many life-long fans
when they skewered the movie and its supposedly racist character
Jar-Jar Binks. Ironically, the strip found one of its biggest fans
in that film's co-star, Samuel L. Jackson. In late 2001/early 2002,
the strip found itself with more controversy than usual (if that's
at all possible) when, after the attacks of 9/11, McGruder swayed
away from mainstream opinions of the country and had his characters
criticise every thing from the mainstream media's cheerleader-like
support of war and Bush to the false patriotism of flag-wavers in
light of the attacks. The strip was pulled from several major papers
(particularly in New York). Rather than back down from this
position, McGruder satirized his "banning" by pretending the strip
was being replaced with mock characters in the form of a US flag and
ribbon. Many assumed that the strip has actually been canceled and
that the new "patriotic" comic was permanent, unknowing that
McGruder himself was proving his point all the more.In the years
since its introduction, the strip has gone through minor changes:
Rhome Anderson is no longer involved with the strip; several new
characters have been added; McGruder has compiled two books of
collected strips (with a third due late 2003); he's gotten the
opportunity to meet his influential heroes, including Garry Trudeau
and he is currently teaming up with filmmaker Reginald Hudlin in an
attempt to get an animated version of "The Boondocks" off the
ground. Love him or hate him, Aaron McGruder finds himself in that
great pantheon of classic satirists: his opinion may not be yours,
but he has a basis from which he speaks that makes his a voice worth
listening to. Were his strip nothing more than senseless rambling
(something he himself has often joked about), it wouldn't have
nearly gotten the amount of attention it has. It is a sharp
perspective from someone whose generation is constantly said to have
none. You needn't agree, but you'd do best to give it a listen. |
