Aaron McGruder (born 1975) is an American comic strip author, best known for writing and drawing the comic strip The Boondocks.

McGruder was born in Chicago and moved to Columbia, Maryland as a child. He attended the University of Maryland, College Park, graduating with a degree in African American Studies. The Boondocks made its debut in the campus newspaper, The Diamondback, in late 1996. Interestingly, New York Times plagiarist Jayson Blair was the editor in chief when McGruder's strip was launched.

A frequent public speaker on political and cultural issues, McGruder gave a Keynote speech at H2K2. He now lives in Los Angeles, where he is working on projects including an animated Boondocks. He is also the co-author, with Reginald Hudlin, of a graphic novel, Birth of a Nation, drawn by cartoonist Kyle Baker and published in 2004.

In 2002, he was contacted by the Green Party, which asked if he would like to run for president with the party. McGruder was forced to decline the offer on the grounds that he was only 28 - too young to run for president.

Controversy

The content of Mr. McGruder's comic strip has often come under fire for being too politically liberal, leading to its being published in the op-ed section of many newspapers.

At the same time, Mr. McGruder has himself amassed controversy, specifically following his visit with Fidel Castro in Cuba after requested to do so by California Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

At the NAACP Image Awards in 2002, he was approached by then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, who asked if McGruder would draw her into the comic strip. McGruder allegedly replied, to her face, "I don't draw mass murderers."

External Links

New Yorker profile
Boondocks.net