A Right to Be Hostile: The First Big Book of the Boondocks

The Hilarious Best of The Boondocks — the most controversial, multilayered strip to grace American comics pages since Doonesbury in its prime.

From the "stolen" election of 2000 and the war on terror to Attack of the Clones and Ja Rule, it's been a rough few years in America. Luckily, our hard times have also given us the satirical genius of Aaron McGruder to make fun of it all in The Boondocks, a comic strip that delivers the subversively funny rants of angry black children to 30 million readers in 250 newspapers every day. McGruder has been tabbed "the most dangerous black man in America" (USA Today), and hailed as an artist who "wants to force his readers to live — if only for a few seconds — examined lives" (Chicago Tribune).

His brilliantly funny strip tells the story of a family of suburban refugees from inner city Chicago, featuring Huey Freeman, a radical preteen conspiracy theorist, and his little brother Riley, a desperately cute thug-in-training. Their daily take on the cultural and political icons that make this country tick — from G. W. Bush to J.Lo — results in some of the funniest satire and sharpest dissent around. Featuring more than 700 strips (more than 400 never collected in book form) and including the much-debated and often-banned post-9/11 strips, this must-have collection will delight hardcore fans. And any reader hungry for no-holds-barred truth-telling — young or old, black or white — will be astonished by this savvy talent.

"With bodacious wit, in just a few panels, each day Aaron serves up — and sends up — life in America through the eyes of two African-American kids who are full of attitude, intelligence, and rebellion. Each time I read the strip, I laugh — and I wonder how long The Boondocks can get away with the things it says. And how on earth can the most truthful thing in the newspaper be the comics?" from the Foreword by Michael Moore

"Brilliantly funny and purposefully shocking, McGruder doesn't just want to make his readers laugh; he works mightily to make them think." USA Today

Heres the first big book of The Boondocks, more than four years and 800 strips of one of the most influential, controversial, and scathingly funny comics ever to run in a daily newspaper.

“With bodacious wit, in just a few panels, each day Aaron serves up—and sends up—life in America through the eyes of two African-American kids who are full of attitude, intelligence, and rebellion. Each time I read the strip, I laugh—and I wonder how long The Boondocks can get away with the things it says. And how on earth can the most truthful thing in the newspaper be the comics?”

—From the foreword by Michael Moore

AARON MCGRUDER is the creator of The Boondocks. He lives in Los Angeles, California. The Boondocks made its print debut in 1997 in The Diamondback, student newspaper at the University of Maryland, and now appears daily in more than 250 newspapers around the country and online at www.boondocks.net.