Little Gardens for Invalids

Day Nine: Your Favourite Cartoon Character.

Dudes! I’m so sorry that this post is coming a day late. I don’t use the internet on saturdays, and the days are extra long now that it’s spring, so I didn’t make this until last night and then was too tired to do a post. Wah-wah.

Here’s Huey Freeman from Aaron McGruder’s comic-turned-tv-show, The Boondocks. Obviously, it’s a controversial strip/series, and I find some of it pretty problematic. How I consume McGruder’s work as a white person is also tricky, but that’s something I could write an essay or four about, so if you have a question or would like to call me out, please do so!

All that said, I think Huey Freeman is an amazing character. Obviously, since it’s a comic strip/tv show, he’s ridiculously intelligent and hyper-conscious of racial politics for a 10-year-old-kid, but I think there’s definite truth to him, too. Kids of colour of course will have a heightened awareness of race dynamics, because duh, they deal with them daily. He’s a good big brother, a smart and sharp student, a brilliant creative mind, and super-critical and analytical of pretty much every aspect of American cultures - the ones he participates in, and the ones he rejects wholesale. Oh, and he can speak and understand Mandarin. Pretty badass.

I decided to sort of pay homage to McGruder’s style, which is super blocky with lots of thick lines, but made it my own. And I drew him more as a teenager, because he’s the kind of kid I wish I had known in high school.

Today’s drawing will go up later tonight!