Boondocks Comic Strip Goes On Hiatus

The television may be the only place to catch the gang from the popular comic strip The Boondocks from now on. The comic's distributor Universal Press Syndicate, announced Monday (Sept. 25) that the Boondocks will not return from its hiatus "in the foreseeable future." The Houston Chronicle reports that a six-month break was taken earlier this year by Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder, who was expected to return this fall. Despite hopes of working with McGruder in the future, Syndicate president Lee Salem said the former University of Maryland student could not commit to a return date for the strip. The Boondocks first caught the public's eye after debuting online in 1997. The strip, which centers around two black kids from Chicago who move to a mostly white suburb to live with their grandfather, later appeared in the University of Maryland student newspaper before achieving syndication status in 1999. At one time, The Boondocks ran in about 300 newspapers, according to Universal Press. "Aaron McGruder has been a huge creative force, but it's unrealistic to expect a comic strip artist to commit to 20 or 30 years these days," said Kyrie O'Connor, deputy managing features editor for The Houston Chronicle, one of the publications that carried the strip. Despite the strip's cancellation, however, The Boondocks television series has been renewed for another season on Cartoon Network. The show premiered last October on the network as an animated adult television program.