Aaron Vincent McGruder (born May 29, 1974) is an American cartoonist, writer, and producer. He is best known for creating, drawing and illustrating The Boondocks, which was later turned into an animated series that McGruder also executive produced.
McGruder first started drawing The Boondocks comic strip for hip-hop website The Hitlist Online, before taking the strip to his university's newspaper. Soon after, he signed a deal with United Press Syndicate for The Boondocks to appear in 160 newspapers. Keeping the strip from being pulled from papers due to its controversial content about race proved to be a challenge. But the strip still proved to be popular, which eventually led to the animated series that premiered on Cartoon Network's [adult swim].
In addtion to The Boondocks, McGruder also created and produced Black Jesus also for [adult swim] and was a screenwriter for the final script for Red Tails.
Works and filmography:
Comics- The Boondocks (1999–2006) - Creator, writer and artist
- Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel (2004) - Writer
TV series
- The Boondocks (2005–2010) - Creator, writer and executive producer
- The Super Rumble Mixshow (2008) - Producer and writer
- Black Jesus (2014–2019) - Creator, writer and executive producer
Films
- Red Tails (2012) - Screenwriter
- The Adventures of Hooligan Squad in World War III (2017) (TV movie/pilot) - Writer and producer
Tropes found in his works:
- Author Appeal: Expect his original works to have the occasional Star Wars or Friday reference. The Boondocks is also full of references to anime, particularly Samurai Champloo.
- Author Tract: The Boondocks franchise has never been particularly subtle about McGruder's opinions on American politics or pop culture.
- Black and Nerdy: He doesn't exactly hide his geekiness.
- Descended Creator: He occasionally voiced Robert Freeman during flashbacks to his young adulthood.
- One of Us: He is evidently a huge fan of anime and Star Wars.
- Production Posse: With Carl Jones, John Witherspoon and Charlie Murphy (at least until the latter two passed away).
- Stop Being Stereotypical: A running theme throughout a majority of his works, especially The Boondocks, is that black Americans often feel the need to embrace stereotypically negative aspects of ghetto culture for the sake of being seen as part of the "in crowd" rather than reject them for fear of being labeled Uncle Toms.
