Aaron McGruder, �A Right to be Hostile - The Boondocks Treasury�
Oh, you won�t fucking believe this. Not twenty minutes after we open, I get a call at the bookstore.
�Hey, are you still doing the ticket giveaway?�
�Excuse me?�
�The ticket giveaway for Breaking All the Rules.�
�Uh... I�m afraid I have no idea what you�re talking about.�
�It�s in Wave Magazine. It says to bring in a story about a breakup, and you get free tickets.�
�You�re not funny.�
�What?�
�You mean you�re serious? You said this is in Wave? I have a Wave here, did you know the page number?�
�Uh, yeah. 35.�
I turn to the page.
Tell us your most devastating break-up line. Write down the words that ended your relationship and bring them to Recycle Book Store on Monday, May 10.
I work on Monday.
You know what, God? Fuck you too.
Without a doubt, The Boondocks is the saving grace of the comic page in major newspapers today. If your living in an area and your major daily doesn�t carry this strip, you really need to start a letter writing campaign. After all, Peanuts and The Family Circus (in its original form, not my improvements on the strip) appear in every major daily across the nation.
Not that I�ve checked. Since the demise of The Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes, and most importantly, Bloom County, there�s been a series lack of intelligent political satire in daily papers.
And don�t throw me that crap about Doonesbury, because while that strip can occasionally be poignant or funny, it rarely manages to be both.
When this book came out, I happened to hear an interview by chance with McGruder on NPR�s �Fresh Air.� During the short commute to my work, I heard McGruder say that he was almost ready to stop the strip. He had run out of things to say, and was becoming as complacent as the rest of the world. Then the planes flew into the buildings, and our administration started all this �close the barn door after the animals had already escaped and had premarital sex with welfare babies� policy changes and McGruder suddenly had a slew of topics to skew. His flag and ribbon strips deserve a Pulitzer Prize, as they managed to pinpoint American hysteria in three small panels better than any New York Times journalist ever could.
Anyhoo, when he made to comment about almost quitting, I was a little shocked. I had no recollection of a half-assed effort put out on deadline he was describing. But then again, I don�t check the comic page with any sort of regularity, as it�s usually such a disappointment. There�s funnier stuff on the front page.
But with this collection, I can see what he meant. There are times where things seemed forced or rushed. McGruder mentions in his introduction that he faced threats of cancellation by numerous papers because of his problem with deadlines. You can almost tell which ones he submitted right under the wire.
So, hopefully, the political situation in the United States will continue to be as fucked up as it has over the last three years. At least one good thing will come out of it: armed insurrection. But until that happens, at least we have The Boondocks.
