The Boondocks

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Reading the first collection -- Because I Know You Don't Read the Papers -- reassured me that The Boons really was REALLY good at one point, though I was surprised at where my sympathies lay with the characters. Of the young characters, Riley is the buffoon whom we're supposed to laugh at, as is Huey in his more turgid, righteous and paranoid moments, but Jazmine Dubois, in spite (because?) of her naivete, almost consistently won me over with her pathos, her wanting to belong in a setting that demands her difference-ness.

But that was then, before McGruder introduced Caesar, who basically took over the mellow foil/voice of reason to Huey's "White man's conspiracy" theorist; in the recent Xmas arc, was Jazmine the girl who was conflating Jesus w/ Santa? (Before reading the collection, I'd always had trouble keeping Jazmine and Cindy apart, because, see, all cartoon girls look alike to me.) If it is her, could the fact that Jazmine became less innocent (though equally naive) be the reason that the strip isn't even close to being the best thing I read in the papers nowadays? (That honor goes to FBOFW!) (Sorry Marmaduke!)

― c(''c) (Leee), Friday, 30 December 2005 20:43 (twenty years ago)

That was Jazmine. Who is Cindy?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 31 December 2005 11:06 (twenty years ago)

I think that Cindy is the white girl wannabe who sat behind Huey in class for a while.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Saturday, 31 December 2005 11:54 (twenty years ago)

How is it surprising that Jazime was the most sympathetic character?

― Dan (Crazyville, Population: YOU) Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 12:42 (twenty years ago)

Because when I first started following the strip, she had been displaced by Caesar and already started to overcompensate for her blackness.

― c(''c) (Leee), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 19:04 (twenty years ago)

I dunno, I don't think that she ever overcompensated. When McGruder couldn't figure out what to do with her he came up with some half assed story about her hiding out, afraid of terrorists. I just think she became superfluous, it's not a comic, this is really only my opinion by the way, that does well with that kind of cuteness.

That said, I don't think I'm too clear what you're on about but dammit I will have my say anyway :)

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 16:33 (twenty years ago)

I don't think I'm too clear what you're on about

I've been found out!

What I wanted to say was that I was surprised at how affecting Jazmine was in a strip that's dominated by Huey and Riley, and then by Granddad and later Caesar/Ruckus, and that when she was featured, those strips were among my favorites. I agree that McGruder took her in a silly direction when he ran out of good ideas for her character; I mean, if he'd concentrated, the strip might've become something like Peanuts.

― c(''c) (Leee), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 19:48 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

McGruder's taking a six-month break.

― scamperingalpaca (Chris Hill), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 15:31 (twenty years ago)

Is that true about the illustrators? Iirc he says in the into to Menace to Society that he didn't. WHO TO BELIEVE?

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:09 (twenty years ago)

According to the New Yorker piece on him awhile ago, it's actually a lady illustrator who sometimes just draws Huey/Riley/Grampa watching TV and later McGruder'll "think of something 'funny'" to write.

― c(''c) (Leee), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:29 (twenty years ago)

Ouch. This is of course where I ask for a link please (lazy bastard that I am!)

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Monday, 6 March 2006 12:22 (twenty years ago)

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040419fa_fact2

― pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Monday, 6 March 2006 13:25 (twenty years ago)

Cheers. What a humourless and mean spirited individual! I kind of regret reading it now :)

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Monday, 6 March 2006 16:25 (twenty years ago)

six months pass...

McGruder tacitly admits he's out of ideas, officially ends strip

― c('°c) (Leee), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 01:49 (nineteen years ago)

They've been rotating a bunch of stuff in and out here in Austin, the worst of which was probably Prickly City, but I found Candorville perhaps more embarassing, because leftie strips at least have a history of being funny. With precedents like Mallard Fillmore and the worst of Lil Abner's as forbears, conservative strips don't feel such pressure.

― It's the lazy and immoral way to become super hip. (Austin, Still), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 02:14 (nineteen years ago)

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