Not Good Riddance... Yet

Cartoonist Aaron McGruder announced late last month that he would be taking a six-month hiatus from his comic strip, the Boondocks, starting March 20. McGruder has declined to give his reasons for his break from the strip that has been in syndication since 1999. In a statement issued, he did mention the need to be free from the pressure of daily deadlines. Speculation is great that he intends to spend this time off working on his fairly successful animated version of the strip, running on Cartoon Network.

As a person who is a fan of the strip and not really in love with the show, I'm not sure how I feel about that.

For one thing, McGruder had been relieving his deadline pressure on the strip recently by passing off the artwork to another artist. He's within his rights to do that. The comics page is loaded with strips that are ghost-written and drawn, especially the older ones. But I think something has been lost on the strip in the name of expediency. If you were to compare the expressive art from McGruder's early Boondocks to the scrunched-up, get-it-done-by-deadline style of art on display in the past few months, you might agree something has been lost. And one might argue that the strip displays a personal vision more crucial than, say, Beetle Bailey.

As for the Boondocks show... Where do I begin? Aaron McGruder has made no bones about his ambition from the beginning. He left the Metropolitan Washington area soon after the strip started because things around here weren't "fast" enough for him. And the show business opportunities weren't so great, either. As he presumably tried to get a Boondocks show made, he networked with the show folk, and became a regular on shows like Bill Maher's Real Time. Finally, he found a seemingly compatible outlet for the Boondocks on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, and his deal got made.

Then the show debuted. Whereas the daily Boondocks regularly mocked the Bush Administration and poked fun at the more self-defeating behavior of Black folks, the Boondocks show seemed most concerned with breaking all existing records for television usage of the word "nigga." The anime-inspired animation style was cool, but the show's scripts regularly displayed pacing problems and obvious satirical humor. The original characters were rendered unlikeable (Huey and Riley- whiny pains-in-the-ass, Grandpa- killer of old blind men!), and the new ones strained credibility, like Ruckus, the self-loathing old coon and the two rich wannabe crminals, one of whom was voiced by Sam Jackson. At least the misogyny Mcgruder displayed in the show allowed him to fit right in with the rest of the Adult Swim show creators.

The Boondocks show even squandered its one chance to move from bullshit satire to thought-provoking humor: the MLK episode. In a brilliant what-if concept, Martin Luther King was not killed in 1968, but rendered into a coma, from which he awakened in the 1990's. The revived MLK, scorned for his rejection of post-9/11 bloodthirsty jingoism, is alienated himself from violence and sexual irresponsibility of hip-hop generation. An episode that could have inspired a good deal of discussion about how far we Blacks have fallen from our 60's ideals, was instead steered in a different direction when McGruder put his favorite (n-)word in Dr. King's mouth. Sigh...

Now, I realize that with the average 9-month lag time on a animated TV show, depiction of topical issues isn't possible. And let's face it, the Warner Group-owned Cartoon Network is not gonna let McGruder & Co. savage the Bush Administration week after week. But why not try SOMETHING, Aaron. Something other than obvious gangsta rap parodies and episode-long shoot-outs with wiggers. Make up with Reggie Hudlin. Maybe you can help each other.

At any rate, enjoy you vacation, Aaron. I'm not saying good riddance to you. At least, not yet.

Ready for Mindy Cohn.

Call it a reverse curse.

Out of the recent crop of Oscar winners, Best Supporting Actor (for Syriana) George Clooney is the glamorous, sexy, man-about-town. The Hollywood super-lefty turned cinematic triple threat. Paul Haggis is the producer, director, and co-writer of the Best Picture, Crash. With this movie and his adaptation of Million Dollar Baby for Clint Eastwood last year, Haggis has developed a reputation as a gritty chronicler of the human condition. He has crafted screenplays that have provoked thought on current issues, but offered no easy answers.

Sure, both these guys have gotten reputations for making well-received movies out of the Hollywood box. But it goes much deeper that that. Both men are graduates of an unlikely showbiz training ground: the Facts of Life. Haggis was a writer on the late 80's NBC girls school comedy, and the then-hapless Clooney was a regular character.

What seeds of liberal-leaning movie-making knowledge were passed along in those days? Is Charlotte Rae the Secret Mentor of the 78th Annual Academy Awards? We may never know for sure. But one thing is certain. The female players on that show, Nancy McKeon, Kim Fields, Lisa Welchel, and Mindy Cohn, have been on the periphery of showbiz the last few years, perhaps ticking like talented time bombs, waiting to explode. Imagine the tsunami of brilliance that could be unleashed, should the most prominent faces of this series choose to favor us with their virtuosity.

Don't leave us waiting, Jo, Blair, Tootie, Nat. We're ready now.