Kesher Talk

Comix. If you guys think Ted Rall has a complicated relationship with consensual reality, check out Aaron McGruder.

In "The Boondocks," post-9/11, Huey was quick to announce that he planned to "stay cynical." He began calling the F.B.I. to suggest names of terrorist financiers and war criminals worthy of prosecution: Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Henry Kissinger. John Ashcroft appeared on television to explain his new "Turban Surveillance Act," and the prospect of a congressional "anti-evil" bill, it was suggested, would force Vice-President Cheney into hiding once again. . . . "The strips were writing themselves," he said. Their primary focus had shifted, as he put it, from "life and love and teachers and lawnmowers to Bush and Bush and, well, Bush."

. . . "I was very disappointed that I didn't get the Pulitzer that year," he said. "That sounds like some really egotistical shit to say" - among funnies-page artists, only Trudeau and Breathed have ever won it - "but I really felt like that was mine by a long shot. The shit that I was able to get away with after September 11th was really astounding."

Last October, McGruder granted Condoleezza Rice's wish and put her in the strip. In the Monday installment of a weeklong series, Caesar announced that he had a "simple and easy plan to save the world." On Tuesday, he elaborated: "Maybe if there was a man in the world who Condoleezza truly loved, she wouldn?t be so hell-bent to destroy it." Huey agreed. "Condoleezza's just lonely and bitter," he said. And so on. The boys began composing personal ads: "Female Darth Vader type seeks loving mate to torture?"; "High-ranking government employee with sturdy build seeks single black man for intimate relationship. Must enjoy football, Chopin, and carpet bombing." Huey even anticipated his critics (this is a favorite device of McGruder's) by observing, "What I really like about this idea is that it isn't the least bit sexist or chauvinistic."

OTOH, the description of him of him telling off the fat, smug, aging white Nation crowd (what Andrea calls Leftovers) is priceless. (via Oxblog)

posted by Judith @ 5/05/2004 04:36:22 PM