Aaron McGruder

Cartoonist

Aaron McGruder is the creator of The Boondocks, the controversial comic strip and animated series that features the political and social musings of two African American Chicago boys living in a predominantly white suburb. McGruder began the strip while he was in college at the University of Maryland. After a few months of publication in the hip-hop magazine The Source, McGruder's strip was syndicated for national distribution; it debuted in more than 150 U.S. newspapers in April of 1999 and immediately gained national attention. McGruder, through The Boondocks, casts acerbic barbs about social and political issues. Race is a common topic, and McGruder, who is black, gets heat from all sides. The strip's open attacks on the Bush presidency caused some newspapers to move it to the editorial page, but in 2005 McGruder began focusing on an animated version. With the success of the cartoon, he put the daily strip on hold in 2006.

Extra credit: McGruder's original writing partner on The Boondocks was Rhome Anderson... With Reginald Hudlin and Kyle Baker, McGruder co-wrote the graphic novel Birth of a Nation (2004).

Other cartoonists include Charles Schulz, Bill Watterson and Johnny Hart.