Aaron McGruder, who in February put his strip “The Boondocks” on what was supposed to be a six-month hiatus, has not decided when, or if, he will return to the newspapers.
According to an article from Editor & Publisher, Universal President Lee Salem said “it was obvious that Aaron would not be able to meet his original six-month target of returning ‘The Boondocks’ to newspapers. His Sunday strips needed to be in by mid-September to meet newspapers’ deadlines of publishing ‘The Boondocks’ by the end of October. We had to consider the newspapers currently running ‘The Boondocks’ reruns and expecting its return. It was unfair to keep them guessing any longer.”
Mike Peters, of the Dallas Morning News, shows that perhaps the demands of TV put pressure on the strip.
Universal Press Syndicate, though, may not aggree. Greg Melvin, McGruderâ??s editor, said in March that the stripâ??s hiatus had little to do with the additional demands of the TV series.
â??I remember the deadlines taking a toll on Aaron as far back as 2000,â? Melvin said.
I should point out that it was around in 2000 when he started pitching “Boondocks” to TV. It was originally greenlighted on FOX, but was declined.
This, I believe, is the primary reason Aaron began hiring other artists to draw the strip.