Bad news: Aaron McGruder does not appear to be resuming his strip anytime soon. I learned this yesterday, when Universal Press Syndicate called and said that “Boondocks” would not be back, as was expected.
We picked up the strip right around the launch of the Iraq War in 2003, and ran it until McGruder announced he was going on what was supposed to be a six-month hiatus. Of course, considering he has a Boondocks TV show now on Cartoon Network, and considering doing a daily strip can be a major grind, his lack of a return can’t be a total surprise.
So, we at the Weekly are debating what to do with that space, currently occupied by “The Last Days of Roland and Cid” and “Tom the Dancing Bug.” If you have any thoughts, let me know.
This article appears in Sep 21-27, 2006.
ABC’s “World News” webcast did a story on “Boondocks.” You can watch the video here: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2493638
Check it out.
Tom the Dancign Bug is the smartest strip out there. Please keep it.
It is not a political strip, but I always got a laugh from the work of Kenneth Cleaver: Consumer Correspondent (which used to be in alt. weeklies like Spokane’s Pacific Northwest Inlander and the Colorado Springs Independent). However, it appears that the third week of August 2006 marked the final column from Mr. Cleaver.
With that in mind, I would encourage the Weekly to consider replacing The Boondocks (and what currently is there) with a similarly minority-minded political strip that helps give a voice to the often editorially voiceless.
(Or, keep Tom the Dancing Bug and replace The City by Derf — personal opinion).