Aaron McGruder Talks the Comic/TV Transition

Since the untimely demise of Calvin & Hobbes six hundred years ago, there has been little in the great wasteland once known as "the funny pages" that is either funny or much worth turning the page to read. Enter "The Boondocks." And then exit "The Boondocks." And then enter "The Boondocks" as a mainstay of TV's Adult Swim lineup.

The Washington Post chatted with strip creator Aaron McGruder recently about the strip and the role of satire in society:

How difficult was the transition from a static newspaper strip to your animated show?

McGRUDER: I went in knowing the show couldn't be the strip, aside from the topicality. Those jokes don't "land" at all on television. We didn't re-create the strip on TV -- we wanted to keep the characters the same but make it stand on its own. That's hard -- we certainly didn't get it right away. We struggled with Huey for a long time. Granddad just worked right from the bat. A lot of those Season One episodes were really rough. ... That first season was rough. it almost killed me and everyone around me.