Comics / Comic Reviews / Comic Strips

A Right To Be Hostile: The Boondocks Treasury

By LJ Douresseau
June 24, 2004 - 14:37

As much as I love BOONDOCKS, with its biting satire, acerbic wit, and aggressive social and political commentary, I don't think that Aaron McGruder's strip is quite ready for a giant-sized treasury collection.

A RIGHT TO BE HOSTILE contains a lot of hilarious material, but this large collection reveals a weakness about the strip that becomes glaring only when it's read in large chunks; the strip is too opinionated. To call it didactic is way overboard, but McGruder often seems more determined to commentate than he is determined to make people laugh. Luckily, he has a genuine streak of self-deprecating wit. Though it doesn't appear often, he does aim his mighty pen at himself on occasion.

His art is rather ordinary, and he doesn't show much imagination in terms of layout. Like a lot of modern newspaper strip cartoonists, he's probably going to settle into an easy to draw style, and although newspapers stopped giving strips the room to show off great art a long time ago, cartoonists like McGruder can do more than draw talking heads and stiff figures. [DRECK, DULL, READABLE, VERY GOOD, EXCELLENT]

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12