The Boondocks comic strip will not return “in the foreseeable future,” Universal Press Syndicate, its distributor, announced Monday.
Creator Aaron McGruder took a six-month break earlier in the year but was expected to return this fall to his provocative strip about two black kids from Chicago who move to a primarily white suburb to live with their grandfather.
Syndicate president Lee Salem said McGruder could not commit to a date for when his strip would resume. (Salem added he hopes to work with McGruder in the future.)
“Aaron McGruder has been a huge creative force, but it’s unrealistic to expect a comic strip artist to commit to 20 or 30 years these days,” said Kyrie O’Connor, Houston Chronicle deputy managing editor for features. In April, the Chronicle filled the vacant spot with F Minus.
F Minus is mildly amusing. Boondocks is funny. This stinks.
The Boondocks show is probably better than the strip, if only because it adds narrative, and preaching is easier to take when it’s accompanied with narrative (compare Doonesbury and Mallard Fillmore).
The Boondocks TV show also has demonstrated an impressive range of imagination, an ability to strange the boundaries (at least my boundaries). I haven’t made up my mind completely yet, but casting Samuel L. Jackson as the voice of a thug wannabe white teenager (who quotes Samuel L. Jackson movies) is probably brilliant.