Is "Boondocks" done for?

[JoDog]

According to the Chicago Tribune, yes:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-060925boondocks,1,3781726.story?coll=chi-news-hed

"John B. Matthews, vice president at Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes the strip, has informed the Chicago Tribune: "The news is in and it is not good for Boondocks fans. Aaron has decided not to restart the strip. The end date of the reruns ... is November 25th."

When he announced a hiatus last March, McGruder explained that he needed a break from the strip. He had been working on a Cartoon Network version of "The Boondocks." During the six-month hiatus, the Tribune had elected not to publish reruns of the strip, which debuted April 19, 1999."

The brief article doesn't say why Aaron McGruder has made this move. I hope the reports of the strip's demise are exaggerated. I need my Huey!

[goclark]

1. I must have my Huey!!! Bring him back!

[Demit]

2. Well wouldn't it be because he's busy doing the animated version?

[Teaser]

3. why do the brilliant always discontinue their strips?

while the hacks churn theirs out year after year? Don't the hacks ever get tired?

Come back Bill Watterson. Come back Aaron MacGruder.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Because they'd rather end on a high notes...

then turn into hacks doing the same thing over and over, day after day.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

27. And yet the Family Circus and Mark Trail go on and on and on...

sucking so hard they bend light.

Garfield used to be kind of amusing at first, when he was actually a cat and not a sort of catlike mutant troll.

[wickerwoman]

28. Garry Trudeau took a break for a few years

I think. Back in the early-Reagan presidency. He came back though. Hopefully, Mr. MacGruder can have a good rest and recharge.

[samsingh]

5. why?

[SteppingRazor]

6. About right for the life of a good comic strip, though...

Bill Watterson halted Calvin and Hobbes after ten years (1985-1995) because he didn't want it becoming like Garfield or Peanuts. And including the beginning of the series at the student newspaper at U. of Maryland, Boondocks has run since 1997 -- about the same amount of time. Berkeley Breathed did Bloom County from 1980-89, and Outland for even less time.

[HughBeaumont]

11. Garfield or BLONDIE.

Peanuts is timeless no matter WHAT year.

[Javaman]

14. Greatest lines about a comicstrip from the movie "Go"...

CLAIRE
What do you have against The Family
Circus?

GAINES
It's evil.

CLAIRE
Besides that.

GAINES
Okay. Location mostly. Bottom right
corner, just waiting there to suck. It's
the last thing you read, and it spoils
everything you read before it.

[Tesha]

25. "Peanuts" is timeless. "Blondie" and "Garfield" are just pathetic. (NT)

[JoDog]

7. Second article

The Trib has posted a second article on their site that clarifies things a little:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-060925boondocksrelease-story,1,5531909.story?coll=chi-news-hed

"Although Aaron McGruder has made no statement about retiring or resuming The Boondocks for print newspapers, Universal Press Syndicate is announcing that newspapers should not count on it coming back in the foreseeable future.

Numerous attempts by the syndicate to pin McGruder down on a date that the strip would be coming back were unsuccessful, says Lee Salem, president of Universal Press Syndicate.

"It was obvious that Aaron would not be able to meet his original six-month target of returning The Boondocks to newspapers," says Salem. "His Sunday strips needed to be in by mid-September to meet newspapers' deadlines of publishing The Boondocks by the end of October. We had to consider the newspapers currently running The Boondocks reruns and expecting its return. It was unfair to keep them guessing any longer." Salem added that questions from editors looking for answers on The Boondocks' return have been coming in daily for weeks."

So in other words, he hasn't told the syndicator that he isn't going to do "The Boondocks" anymore, but he hasn't told them when or if any new strips will be done.

It's possible that he may have decided to move on to other projects, or to concentrate on the animated series. Or this could be a ploy by UPS to push him into a solid date.

[SheilaT]

8. Aaron McGruder

was getting ready to end the strip early on, but 9/11 revitalized it and him. I recall him saying that in an interview several years ago.

And as much as I'll miss it, I'd rather he leave while it's still good, and not become second-rate.

His Thanksgiving Prayer is something we like to read ourselves each Thanksgiving"
"In this time of war against Osama bin Laden and the oppressive Taliban regime, we are thankful that our leader isn't the spoiled son of a powerful politician from a wealthy oil family who is supported by religious fundamentalists, operates through clandestine organizations, has no respect for the democratic electoral process, bombs innocents, and uses war to deny people their civil liberties. Amen."

[dragonlady]

24. That Thanksgiving strip is still on our refrigerator

five years later.

[tridim]

9. IMO he should drop the animation and go back to his strip

He was much better in print.

[last_texas_dem]

29. I agree

I've watched the cartoon, and I think the strip is more entertaining and effective.

[YOY]

10. Why won't Jim Davis or Bill Keene do this

I could definitely do with a hell of alot less Garfield and Family Circus...

[LTR]

12. I can think of many cartoonists that should hang it up

The idiot who draws "Mallard Fillmore", for one.

And while I detest "Family Circus", "Garfield" is one of the few strips I can tolerate. Maybe because I have cats.

[YOY]

16. Agreed on Mallard Fillmore

Whoever is doing 'Prickly City' maybe seems to be waking up (libertarian?)

I love cats as much as you, but Garfield stopped being funny when I was 6.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

19. Prickly City is Scott Stantis. He has his moments of clarity but

mostly he still assigns the correct/reasonable position to the conservative character and the incorrect/wacky position to the established liberal character-- even when it runs counter to the typical political continuum.

[HughBeaumont]

20. Bwoooce Tinsely is the suck.

He draws with a marker and his characters look like feet.

[HughBeaumont]

13. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

At least on Jim Davis' part.

Family Circus is the winger's and Repub old folks' favorite strip.

[LTR]

15. I prefer THIS version of "Family Circus"

http://www.drivenbyboredom.com/gallery/gallery.php?x=26

http://www.geocities.com/familycircuss/

[YOY]

17. I always call these new versions 'Freeper Family Circus'

[HughBeaumont]

18. HA!

PATENTLY offensive and funny as hell.

[TlalocW]

21. Which is funny

Because Family Circus used to get panned by the religious fundies back when it first debuted. They thought the various questions/antics the kids had or did concerning God and being in church were disrespectful.

The last Garfield strip I laughed out loud at (and I used to be a big fan) was one where Garfield grabs a mouse, winds the mouse's tail around its body and sets it spinning like a top across the table where it stops next to Jon's coffee cup and then sticks its head into it to throw up with the sound effect of "*HUUUURRRRK*" I thought that was pretty edgy for Garfield.

TlalocW

[yodermon]

22. Only Garfield cartoon I ever laughed at out loud:

... of course I was in 6th grade, go fig.

[dback]

23. Garfield watching "Mickey Mouse" club was pretty droll

He has the mouse ears on and is watching TV; "M-I-C...K-E-Y..." emits from the TV, and Jon chortles, how cute, a cat that likes Mickey Mouse." He leaves the room, and Garfield deadpans, "Shake it, Annette."

In all seriousness, "The Boondocks" is some of the best satire the comics have. It's a damn shame he's packing it in.

[tomreedtoon]

26. Have you considered "The Other Black Cartoonist," Keith Knight?

His "The K Chronicles" are also very good, very funny, very political and very human.

Most of you guys are too afraid to go to science fiction conventions, but I've met Mr. Knight several times at San Diego Comic-Con International. Two years ago (the last time I could afford to go) he had his own panel, and he's a funny guy on the stump, too.

Check out his books like "Fear of a Black Marker" and his "The K Chronicles" strip on salon.com.

True story: A few years ago Comic-Con, which is politically conservative (in a Navy port town, yet!) wouldn't let him post a T-shirt with a controversial message. Even with the offensive word covered up and unreadable. (The message was "I'd Rather Be M******ating.")

This, in a convention with half-naked pictures for sale, and the Society for Exposing Our Nipples selling their chain-mail bikinis, or only pictures of themselves in their bikinis. Of course, Keith only had a cheap artist's table; the SEON people had expensive paid-for booths.

I bought one of the "offensive" shirts, and a friend of mine wore it around the convention and told people about how the convention was trying to censor Knight. Knight sold out of the t-shirts that year. I'm glad I had a small part in it.

[donheld]

30. Lord have mercy on a boy from down in the "Boondocks"

:banghead: