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suicidalassassin — Free Huey Report
Published: 2013-03-27 23:13:14 +0000 UTC; Views: 1011; Favourites: 24; Downloads: 0
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Entry number five: Huey FreemanWhere would I be without having been introduced to Huey Freeman...
"The Boondocks", both the animated series and comic strip played a HUGE part in the development of my art. Aaron McGruder's comic strip was the first drawings of black characters in a comic that didn't look either boring, cliche, or silly to me. They looked COOL. And Huey's fro was the epitome of "cool" to me. Though I love Huey as the voice of reason in the cartoon, and his well executed fight sequences, I often miss the Huey from the comic strips.....angry, loud and just plain rude. I think the most of this version of Huey we see in the cartoon is in the episode where Huey directs the school Christmas play.
"I am often vexed by the behavior of my people......yeah......vexed is a good word." - Huey Freeman
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Comments: 16
Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaahhh!!!!!!!!!
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Truly an inspiration to a generation of Black comic artists. One of the few times where Black kids were not a cliche in comic pages. I do miss Huey's social commentary though. it's what makes his character which I feel is getting lost with each passing season of the animated series.
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Very true, though I kinda enjoy the animated version of Huey as well...I think what's missing is that he doesn't have Ceasar to play off of. God, I wanna see Ceasar make it into the cartoon.
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You.....And me....BOTH! Ceasar was such a great character. To be honest I miss Ottomo as well (From the old Diamondback paper days, I attended Univ. of Maryland)Both would be awesome on the TV show.
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Was Ottomo the asian kid that was a DJ?......
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Word. I always wanted to see more of him as well.
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So true. I remember finding the strip when I was like 8 and just going up to the bookstore each time I has heard he was releasing another. They actually knew what I was planning to buy when I walked inside.
I do miss him as well. The tv show diluted so much of their content and just replaced everything intellectual with the n word. Idk what happened to his franchise but I'm not his biggest fan anymore. He needs to bring his rawness back to his shows. Shoot, Black Dynamite is doing more for me and it's supposed to be Blacksploitation.
Very nice drawing though.
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I actually see the cartoon as his strip with a "no holds barred" feel to it. I never felt like he changed his content, so much as he was now able to say what he wanted without having to keep it "safe" for newspapers............though lord knows the strip often got pulled from many newpaers due to it's content. I guess that's why the show never came as a shock to me cause if he was already being told he was going too far with his jokes in news papers, then I KNEW he was gonna push the envelope with the cartoon. They even did strips where they simply said "N****", so when they said it in the cartoon it felt like I was seeing the strip come to life.
Though Black Dynamite is written by the same guy who helped Aaron write the Boondocks cartoon, I noticed that they don't say "nigga" in Black Dynamite....and the few times they do, they actually bleep it out.
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Yeah, that's what I like about it. I thought Boondocks would've bleeped it out as well. I didn't know that though. No wonder it's so good.
I don't think the cartoon is as political though. Huey's character seemed to be the only one that changed. They explained that he was an intellectual menace but not exactly why... The closest episodes to the original strip were probably the R Kelly and Martin Luther King ones. Pretty much the first season was cool for me. The other seasons were funny but less about race, politics, Huey, etc.
OMG and what happened to Jasmine? They don't even discuss her challenges with her identity not to mention Cindy's character. Now she's gangster? I knew they weren't going to bring Caesar back but Huey needs a bestie to discuss his problems with. Like really a CIA imaginary agent? It went with the storyline but then again, I didn't really understand WHY he was being followed.
It's like you have to know about Huey's past to understand his current predicament. Come on , you're telling me that you don't see an obvious change from the strip to the cartoon. He held things back just so it could be on television.
Don't get me wrong, I still love the show, it's just like...hm for me. I guess I expected more political humor.
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I see the changes, but I guess as a creator myself, I understand the transition....that, plus I've read interviews where Aaron explained the difference between the strip in the show. In a weekly comic strip, I think it's easier to tackle current events like politics cause the strips are weekly episodic entries. Where as, in a cartoon, a single episode alone takes months to make, so it makes sense to do character driven stories instead of doing politics, cause by time the episode comes out, that current event is no longer current.
However, like you, I'd still like to see more episodes where Huey goes off on the ignorance around him. But I also kinda like how he either simply says "Eh", or attempts to speak, only to be told "Nigga, hush" by Granddad. I dunno, it's like I like both Huey's but for different reasons lol.
I feel like they make up for Huey's lack of political view points by letting him have all the kick ass fight scenes....and man, I love his fight scenes
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Yep. So true. I didn't know he was into jujitsu..or whatever he does. Those are pretty neat to watch. Yeah I remember hearing Aaron explain that. Think he compared it to South Park.
It is a good show. Now the other characters get more attention. Always liked Riley's character but this show really brought his character to light. He is too cute. He smokes with cigarettes and everythang.
Maybe Season 4 will focus more on Huey's desires.
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I hope so. I mean, the Obama episode was a great chance to let Huey shine. I still enjoyed it, but "comic strip" Huey would've stole the show in that episode
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Great pic. The design of the characters was one of the things I really dug about the strip too. It does seem that they changed some stuff up between the strip and the show, and I too feel that the Christmas play episode was when we got to see the original Huey.
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Yup.
"What do you know about my vision?!"
That whole line was straight up "comic strip" Huey.
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