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October 05, 2003
Ganked the link from the Milestone Delphi Forum
Haven't really visited the thing in ages -- I pretty much left Delphi Forums when the WEF closed -- but Stephanie posted a link to The Africana QA: Aaron McGruder:
Last time I talked to you, you were adamant that your primary job is to be funny. But I turned to C-Span the other day, and I saw you giving an impassioned speech about how important it was for young black journalists to relay unheard messages. Do you feel a stronger pull to making statements at this point than you did before?What I was also telling those kids was that whatever message you want to get across, make sure that you're doing it effectively, and that's the whole point when I say the primary job is being funny. The reason that is, is because if I'm not funny no one pays attention to anything I'm saying. People who are trying to sort of counteract all of this negativity that we all talk about that's in the media can often shoot themselves in the foot by being ineffective communicators, meaning that if you're in the entertainment business and you're trying to get a message across, you have to be entertaining first. Or else, you'll end up like some of these underground rap groups that are "positive," but no one's listening to them. It really requires a sort of sophisticated understanding of how to walk that line between being entertaining and giving your audience what it wants, and then trying to sort of do something to sort of raise awareness at the same time.
There's also a bit in the interview about the new collection, Right to Be Hostile: The First Big Book of the Boondocks.
And there are some other very interesting discussions going on at the Forum. So I think I'm getting sucked back in.
And while we're on the subject, the current issue of The Comics Journal also features an interview with McGruder. Been meaning to visit a shop and dig up all the released issues of The Crew anyway. . .
Posted by Aaron at October 5, 2003 12:27 PM
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Comments
I kept meaning to blog my San Diego Comic Con pictures, which feature the historic first meeting between Aaron McGruder and Keith Knight, or something like that. Aaron seems a decent chap.
--K
Posted by: Kynn Bartlett at October 7, 2003 10:15 AM