Howard Student Scores with Cartoon While "Boondocks" Takes Sabbatical

Art credit: Cory Thomas The cast of "Watch Your Head," set at the fictional historically black Oliver Otis University, includes six students, five black and one white.

By Ashley R. Harris
Black College Wire

"Boondocks" fanatics may have a reason to stop fretting over the disappearance of their beloved, often-beleaguered comic strip.

Aaron McGruder, its creator, is taking what was announced as a six-month sabbatical from the daily strip, returning in October.

Like many papers, the Houston Chronicle put a notice in the "Boondocks" space to alert readers. "Bye-Bye Boondocks, Boondocks' creator has taken a break. In the meantime, we're reviewing fresh comic strips. Watch this space for something new," it said.

The Washington Post Writers Group, which syndicates features to newspapers, is hoping it has found the right something.

It launched Cory Thomas' "Watch Your Head" strip on March 27. The strip now appears in 15 newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press and Seattle Times, according to Alan Shearer, editorial director and general manager of the writers group. Some, such as the Washington Post, are running it as a test. "Watch Your Head" is one of three it plans to test for eight weeks.

Art credit: Cory Thomas A Cory Thomas self-portrait

For Thomas, 31, timing truly was everything. The comic was sent out to six different syndicates with the hope that one would bite, and in January, the Washington Post Writers Group did.

Syndication by the writers group was the payoff after years of drawing and sketching. He began as a child in Trinidad, encouraged by small surprises from his father.

"I've pretty much started drawing ever since I could hold a pen," Thomas said. "And I've been reading comics ever since I could read.

"My dad would come home from work with a comic for me."

At age 23, Thomas left his native San Fernando, Trinidad, and came to the States to begin a career as a mechanical engineer. He enrolled at Howard University in 1998 with a major in mechanical engineering and graduated in 2002.

At Howard, Thomas worked for the school newspaper the Hilltop, where he served as an editorial cartoonist and showcased some of the earlier versions of "Watch Your Head."

"I was mainly the editorial cartoonist," Thomas said. "Those were popular, but the strip didn't run long enough to get popular at the Hilltop."

However, his editorial-page work did win acclaim, including an award for best editorial cartoon in the 2004 HBCU "Excellence in Journalism" Student Newspaper Contest.

Thomas returned to Howard to begin a master's in engineering program and expects to graduate this summer.

"Watch Your Head" is set at the fictional Oliver Otis University and focuses on the lives of six students, five black and one white.

The time Thomas took to craft his characters impressed the writers group, which was also shopping other cartoons, such as Darrin Bell's "Candorville," launched in 2003, as a "Boondocks" replacement.

"He exhibited a lot of maturity as far as character development," Amy Lago, comics editor for the writers group, said. "He has a fully developed cast, along the lines of Schulz," a reference to Charles Schulz, creator of "Peanuts."

"There are some cartoonists that work off of one or two characters, but he has a true ensemble," she added.

The appeal of "Watch Your Head" does not stop with the relationships among the characters. Thomas has a comic voice that Lago said will attract audiences of all ages.

"The great thing is that he really appeals to young readers, but in a way that adults can appreciate," according to the comics editor. "He's really got a sense of what college is about."

The bottom line for Thomas is being funny.

"My number one priority is to make people laugh," Thomas said. "I want to create and explore different topics, but if I'm doing that and no one's laughing, then I'm not doing my job."

Until "Watch Your Head" takes the world by storm, Thomas plans to keep studying and working as a mechanical engineer, joking, "I'm gonna need a day job."

But maybe not for long. "This is not a short-term thing," Lago noted. "We have a long-term contract."

Ashley R. Harris is a senior print communications major at the University of Houston.

Posted April 3, 2006