Your Thoughts Exactly

December 31, 2005 marks the end of a year that can’t end soon enough. It also marks the tenth anniversary of the last Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, which has been celebrated by the release of the beautiful leather-bound collection of all Calvin and Hobbes strips in two giant volumes. I have yet to buy these books because I lack disposable income, and because I already have every Calvin and Hobbes strip in my collection, although many of these strips are in books that have spent years on my bathroom floor.

I think that Calvin and Hobbes probably shaped my sense of humor more than any other source material. Calvin, the main character, can be gross, sarcastic, satirical, mean, and of course, a numbskull. His relationships, most importantly with Hobbes, but also with his parents, are not boxed into one type of interaction as most characters are portrayed on sitcoms, in movies, and in comic strips. Bill Waterson was able to use the comics’ daily format to mirror real life, in that you interact with people differently on different days. So some moments Calvin can be deep and philosophical and some moments he can be banging nails into his mother’s coffee table.

Since the Calvin and Hobbes ended, the Comics page in the Boston Globe has not been the same. Nothing has filled the void; to the point where ten years after the fact, the Globe has begun to run old C+H strips. I am not opposed to this at all, as there is an entire generation of ten year olds that can have their senses of humor and outlooks on life improved by this resource. But it would be nice if some new comic could come along, inspired by Waterson to carry the mantle.

The closest any strip has come to doing this is Aaron McGruder’s the Boondocks, in its early years of existence. In The Boondocks, McGruder was able to replicate the depth of relationships between the strips’ characters, although the characters in The Boondocks were very different than those in C+H. First, he split his protagonist into two different characters, the good: Huey, smart and philosophical, and the bad: Riley, troublemaker. Both are descendents of Calvin and both share his anti-authoritarianism. Second, he had a deeper stable of supporting characters: Grandpa, Caesar, Jasmin and her parents, Cindy, Huey and Riley’s teachers (one of whom is named Ms. Peterson, after one of the parents of Taylor James Peterson.)

Third, the premise, urban youths move to suburbia, allowed McGruder to examine an issue Waterston never covered in his strips: racial relations in the U.S. Sometimes McGruder’s characterizations seem a little over-the-top, particularly his characterization of Cindy, a young white girl who goes out of her way to impress Huey of his knowledge of black culture, thus coming across as totally naïve. In general though, McGruder was able to infuse the racial background of the Freeman family into the relationships of the strip in a realistic, and of course humorous, manner. Plus he made lots of hip hop references which I adored.

Following 9/11 the content of the strip changed, however. McGruder addresses this, saying that he was unable to continue the strip in its past format, even if it was a format that everyone liked. To avoid burnout, he stripped down the number of characters and changed the strips focus, from emphasizing the relationships forged between members of different races living in suburbia to emphasizing Huey’s take on current events. This had the dual effect of limiting the breadth and potential of the strip and garnering The Boondocks more attention. In the hyper-patriotic atmosphere of 9/11 The Boondocks was one of the only voices speaking out against suspect legislation like the PATRIOT Act and questioning the motives and competence of the Bush Administration. What followed was a TV deal for The Boondocks cartoon as part of Adult Swim and of course, increased fame for McGruder, who began to brand himself as one of “America’s angriest black men.”

The Boondocks TV show has grown out of the second incarnation of The Boondocks comic strip. The show looks at one issue per week, (the R Kelly trial, golddiggers,) and while the half hour TV slot allows the show to put the issue into a greater context than a comic strip, the lack of continuity and development of characters still hinders the show's potential. In choosing to label himself the angry black man, McGruder has limited his characters’ ability to grow and develop into something else. Of course there is a lot to be angry about, and Huey Freeman will always be a rebel and always be looking to give it to the man. But in its older format, Huey had the potential to give it to the man and at the same time grow and learn to live with these crazy white people around him, and to make his own mistakes based on his prejudices. As all people do.

I hope on this tenth anniversary of the ending of Calvin and Hobbes, McGruder can go back and read into Calvin’s nature, his complexity, and attempt to apply this same complexity to his characters. Nothing will ever replace Calvin and Hobbes. But there is much we can still learn from it even ten years later.

# posted by Marmaniac @ 11:43 AM