Prewriting Assignment #1

The Boondocks is a web comic that discusses just about anything. Aaron McGruder is the author and illustrator. Color is not used in all of the comic strips. Color only seems to appear when Aaron is either signaling that a story is over, or something that is of grave importance to him. In the each comic, the characters seemed to have the same facial expressions, except when a joke was made to draw in the audience. In the individual blocks of the comic, the illustrations seemed to show movement. For example, you can see leaves blowing, hair moving, and clothes swaying. All of these things came to life when The Boondocks became a television show. The audience still remained the same but was able to reach more people.
The ideal audience for the comic would be mostly minority groups, but anyone can find humor in this comic. A lot of the comics discuss things that seem to be very popular in the news, for example, famous people and their relationships, disasters, and the hottest new hits. Anyone who keeps up with the news or the lives of the famous would be a good audience for this comic. Even people with a good sense of humor would qualify as a great audience for this comic.
Many people communicate by adding comments at the bottom of the comics that have been posted. I feel that those who comment feel connected to the story line. They seem to comment on the different character’s personalities and how they react with each other. One commenter asked the question, “Who’s more gullible, Jasmine or Granddad?” The responses were split, but they all gave good reasons as to why they believed so. These are the values of the audience.
The comic works so well because they have such a wide range of topics. Anybody can get with the comic, because it’s a comedy. Some of the jokes can be race related, but I feel that they aren’t offensive. With the look of comic and the story line, I don’t think the audience is going anywhere. The television show helps the comic out even more because more people are exposed to it. This is a good comic all together.