Aaron McGruder, creator of "The Boondocks"

Yet what makes your strip successful, I think, is that it's going against the grain of American society. Don't you think you would lose that if you were living in some other country?

I don't need to live here to know how stupid this place is. I don't know G.W. Bush. What I know, I get from the television and the newspapers, and I can get that anywhere. I have been successful to a large degree because of controversy, but I have no intention of living my life mad. And I'm not so in love with making people mad that I want to live my life around it. Trust me, I would rather the attacks had not happened and not have anything to talk about. Sure, the U.S. of A. gives me lots of material, but I would rather things be good. So in the abstract, I would leave. I haven't had the chance to seriously explore it. But I'm 27, so I have some time. This is just not the best place in the world for black people, even the U.N. knows that. They did some study ranking living conditions by ethnicity, and white American men were No. 1. I don't remember where black American men were, but they were a little bit further on down.

Do you think your strip reflects in any way a certain skepticism among black Americans toward the government?

I cannot be made into the commentator for the unspoken black masses. But I will say that the strip represents a political perspective that people black and white hold that is not being put out in the mass media. I just happen to have incredibly wide distribution in a medium that doesn't draw a lot of attention to itself. It's not like Bill Maher, where you say the wrong thing and the powers that be can just pull the plug. Comic strips don't really work that way. The message gets out there 20 million times a day, but it's still very subtle and very small. The medium itself, not just me.

I'd give you more credit than that. Because most comics don't deal with political issues, it makes you and "Doonesbury" pop out.

Yeah, we pop out, but it's not a dynamic medium. It's not TV, it's not movies. In that sense, it doesn't capture people's attention in the same way. What happened to Bill Maher is a good example. His show is done, I think.

What do you mean? You think "Politically Incorrect" is a goner?

I think it's going to be soon. I've heard things, but I don't want to say. I think they already know it's not [going to survive]. Maybe I'm wrong. I watched "Politically Incorrect" recently, and I felt like I was watching "Crossfire." The jokes were gone. It was like, everybody was nervous. Nobody wanted to say anything. You can't have a show called "Politically Incorrect," and have everyone be afraid to be politically incorrect. It doesn't make sense. I mean, I've been on the show before back when the strip launched, and I think Bill Maher got a raw deal. But that's the difference between TV and comic strips.

You're working on a "Boondocks" TV show now. Will your show still retain the political flavor of the strip? Will this be on Comedy Central?

Well, it's going to be prime time cable as opposed to being network. I can't say the channel, because we've been through this with three networks and every time we think it's going to happen it falls through. But with a year lead time, you can't talk about current events. So the show's mainly going to be about the characters. It's still going to have a heavy political slant to it, but it's not going to talk about specific incidents.

Doesn't "South Park" do stuff that's timely?

Yeah, but we're talking about animation of a quality that's far superior to "South Park," so it takes a long time. I love "South Park," but it's animated very simply.

By the way, here's one vote for you not moving to Canada. Huey in Toronto just wouldn't be the same.

Thanks, but no matter where I live, it's more an issue of how much longer I want to do this. It's a very demanding job. How long am I going to feel like I have something relevant to say day in and day out? How long before I get bored with it or get fed up with the deadlines? A lot of guys who do this job do it for 50 years. That's not me. I don't feel like I'm going to be a lifer. There are weeks where I hate the strip more than anything. And then there are times, like recently, where everyone else is out of work, and I'm like yeah, I've got a job, woo-hoo! But am I going to do this another week, or am I just going to quit now and hope this Hollywood stuff pans out? It's always a debate.

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