Aaron McGruder
Aaron McGruder created a comic strip that reflected both his love of hip-hop culture and the true racial diversity and complexity of the world in which he lived. The result was The Boondocks, the story of a group of African-American city kids adjusting to life in white suburbia.
In March 2006, he retired the newspaper comic strip, deciding to concentrate on television. "The Boondocks" premiered in October 2005, on Adult Swim, Cartoon Network’s late-night block of animation for adults. Reruns of the comic strip are still available at www.gocomics.com.
After an initial debut on the Internet, The Boondocks made its print debut in 1997 in The Diamondback, the independent student newspaper of the University of Maryland. It received rave reviews and quickly drew national attention. After Aaron "escaped" from the University of Maryland with a degree in African-American studies, The Source, one of the country's largest urban music magazines, began publishing the strip. Universal Press Syndicate began syndicating The Boondocks to newspapers in 1999.
Through his work, Aaron seeks to provoke thought, help improve the state of racial discourse and expand the types of humor found on newspaper comics pages.
Aaron currently resides in Los Angeles, where he's working on a host of other interesting ideas for The Boondocks. He is a near-fanatical "Star Wars" fan and a hip-hop enthusiast of the greatest magnitude.
