by Abel Horwitz
Daily Lobo
For all the controversy that Aaron McGruder puts into his daily comic strip, "The Boondocks," his most controversial moment might come from the first episode of the cartoon version he's making for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.
Huey Freeman, a 10-year-old African-American boy, walks up to a microphone at a garden party filled with rich white people and clears his voice.
"Attention white people: Jesus was black, Ronald Reagan was the devil, and the government is lying to you about 9-11."
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The crowd freaks out and runs around in madness while Huey smiles. Welcome to the world of "The Boondocks."
"The Boondocks" comic strip has fashioned itself as an outlet for McGruder to voice his opinions on race, politics and pop culture. It follows the adventures of Huey and his 8-year-old brother Riley, who moved into a predominantly white suburb of Chicago when their grandfather, Robert, became their legal guardian.
In 1999, when the strip first began, it was published in more than 150 newspapers, one of the largest launches of a daily comic ever. Six years later, it can now be read in more than 350 newspapers nationwide.
"I don't think anybody could have predicted how quickly the strip got notoriety and an audience," McGruder said. "At first I felt very ... not educated enough to be in the position I was in. It was a bit confusing as to why everyone was looking at me, but I was one of the few people (in the comics section) actually saying things."
The transition from a daily comic to a television show was difficult, he said.
"The learning curve was brutal to say the least," McGruder said. "I had been doing the strip myself for five years and suddenly I'm in charge of a ton of very creative people who have their own ideas about the strip."
One of the major changes is that in the comic strip McGruder can comment on current news topics, but the cartoon is much more story driven.
"I decided to tackle news and take on the world in the strip and save the stories for the show," he said.
McGruder always been a fan of Japanese anime, and he was concerned with the look of his comic when it became animated.
"I wanted 'The Boondocks' to look like it was made in Japan," he said. "We spent a whole lot of time trying to deconstruct anime and reconstruct it for an American audience. It was quite a challenge, but I believed that we could make a beautifully animated comedy that makes adults laugh."
Because his comic tackles controversial issues, McGruder has been labeled as a prominent voice in the African-American community. Yet he refuses to accept this label.
"If people say that I am, then it's out of my hands," he said. "I personally don't want to mislead people into thinking that I'm a political leader or that my show or strip is a political movement."
McGruder defends his show, insisting that he's just making jokes.
"It used to be that we had politicized entertainers and political leaders," he said. "James Brown made political songs, but he wasn't a political leader. There's a void in black political leadership, so people have turned to the satirists and I think that this is wrong."
