The Boondocks (comic strip)  The Boondocks was a daily syndicated comic strip written and originally drawn by Aaron McGruder that ran from 1996 to 2006. Created by McGruder in 1996 for Hitlist.com, an early online music website, it was printed in the monthly hip hop magazine "The Source" in 1997. As it gained popularity, the comic strip was picked up by the Universal Press Syndicate and made its national debut on April 19, 1999. A popular and controversial strip, "The Boondocks" satirizes African American culture and American politics as seen through the eyes of young, black radical Huey Freeman. McGruder's syndicate said it was among the biggest launches the company ever had. McGruder sold the television and film rights for the strip to Sony Pictures Entertainment. An animated TV series based on the strip premiered on Adult Swim on November 6, 2005. McGruder launched an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign for a live-action movie featuring "The Boondocks" character Uncle Ruckus in 2013. On February 6, 2019, McGruder revived the comic strip on Instagram, which were made with the help of former supervising director of the TV series, Seung Eun Kim. The strip debuted on Hitlist.com on February 8, 1996. It later appeared in the University of Maryland newspaper "The Diamondback" under editor-in-chief Jayson Blair on December 3, 1996, paying McGruder $30 per strip—$17 more than other cartoonists. McGruder ended the strip's run in "The Diamondback" on March 18, 1997, two weeks after the strip was omitted due to a technical error and a "Diamondback" staffer printed the word "OOPS" in its place without an explanation. He pulled the strip after the paper refused to run an apology. (Upon the revelation in 2004 of news article fabrications by Blair, by then a reporter for "The New York Times", McGruder's comic strip joined others in lampooning Blair.) The strip was rejected by six syndicates — including the Washington Post Writers Group, Creators Syndicate, United Media, and Chronicle Features — before finally being picked up. Many of the syndicates that rejected the strip were supportive but felt that "The Boondocks" was "too edgy." An article from the summer of 1997 asserted that Universal Press Syndicate (UPS) was taking a "hard look" at the strip; UPS eventually picked it for syndication in April 1999. In Fall 2003, Boston, Massachusetts-based artist Jennifer Seng assumed art duties from McGruder.