A Right to Be Hostile: The Boondocks Treasury

I've read the often ill-informed negative reviews here and it seems that most of the people deriding Aaron Mcgruder's work a) Don't know the meaning or purpose of satire, b) Didn't really read the book, c) Just have a personal agenda to badmouth the man.First of all, McGruder's probably reading all these negative reviews and laughing to himself, preparing to post them on his website or use them in future strips. Congratulations for giving the man more ammo to prove his point. If the nuances of satire (espcially the obvious satire contained in this strip) are lost on you then I advise you to stay far away from every single episode of The Simpsons.Second, it's odd so many people leap to call McGruder a hipocrite or a racist or whatever and site examples from the book to back these statements up when said examples do no such thing. McGruder never sings the praises of Kwanzaa and in the book even Huey comes to the conclusion that, as a holiday, it needs a lot of work before it can be considered legitimate. Also, Huey is a broadly painted caricature of a black revolutionary and the fact that he is never taken seriously by other characters in the strip shows that McGruder is poking fun at yet another stereotypical figure: The overzealous, conspiracy theory nut. True his personal politics spill over into the strip but he is far from projecting himself into the character of Huey Freeman; an immature, loney and misguided kid. And those who think he's a racist must have overlooked the fact that he lampoons black people far more than he does anyone else. As far as the kung fu getups on the cover, so what? McGruder's always said his art was steeped in Anime tradition and Asians are one of the few groups he hasn't directed his wrath at. Complaints about the cover are just desperate nit-picking.And last, there will always be those ready to tear down an artist for no other reason than they like to spit vitriol and hate toward anyone who's successful on their own terms. That they would actually take the time to read McGruder's work cover to cover for the sole purpose of blasting it online is pretty amazing . . . If I don't like something I just ignore it. But, then again, I'm not petty either. But I doubt anyone really takes these folks seriously anyway.Like someone else said, if you're curious about the book and unsure, you can always flip through it in the store before you buy it. I suspect real fans of The Boondocks already have it on their coffee tables.

Political satire was often the theme for most early American comics. Not only were they insightful, but oftentimes they contained a sarcastic humor that is absent from many of today's comic strips. Squeaky clean, "family values" (ie: family circus)taints the media of today, afraid to be daring, or ironically, the least bit funny. Physical humor is in, but social humor is dead. Then comes the Boondocks...With probably the most biting social commentary around, it brings White American politics to Black America. The results are Huey (the commited Socialist who sometimes get's too serious for his own good) and brother Riley (the product of corporate hip hop culture). This book isn't just for blacks, fans of hip hop, or political junkies, but anyone who is fed up Garfield sleeping, Doonsbury lacking, or Ziggy doing whatever the hell it is Ziggy does.Aaron McGruder is a prime example of everything modern day cartoonists aren't, and that's a good thing.

Comparing this comic to Doonesbury is easy. Comparing this comic to Bloom County and Lil' Abner, now THAT'S praise.Aaron McGruder can go from trashing BET and Star Wars one day, to lambasting American political policies the next, and never failing to get a laugh. His response to the knee-jerk patriotism that got him booted from the NY Daily News for reminding us that Bush Senior sent weapons to Afganistan years ago--The Adventures of Flagee and Ribbon, two loveable patriotic characters. Those characters reappeared in the basement months later, along with a rubik's cube a ColecoVision and all the other stuff people don't have a use for anymore.This is not a hip-hop strip. This is not a strip about how cool it is to be black and hate whitey. This is the best piece of daily satire to come along in a long time. Pick up on it.

Aaron McGruder's Boondocks is a daily dose of sanity in the funny pages. Biting, sarcastic, and funny, Boondocks has evolved from a plot and art-oriented strip (a la Calvin and Hobbes) to a more minimalist, political strip (a la early Doonesbury). Ever-present in an otherwise (almost) all-white funnies page, are subtexts of race and identity. Boondocks, amazingly, threads the needle with delicate wit, over-the-top satire, and touchingly human characters. Recommended.