You can tell a lot about a piece of work by the hate mail it receives. "I don't think intelligent black people would like [The Boondocks] either... he uses language that is rebellious and hateful," writes a 72-year-old reader from Tacoma, Washington. She adds, "Once he knocked Bob Jones University, and that is a wonderful learning institution."

As you probably know, Bob Jones University is an independent, fundamentalist college located in Greenville, South Carolina. Its ban on interracial dating among its students was brought into the spotlight last year during the presidential primaries when the illustrious president-to-be George W. chose to speak there. I should add that the University lifted its ban shortly after the controversy, when the school's president came to the conclusion that "an interracial marriage is not going to bring in the world of antichrist by any means."

Well, gee golly whiz! Any administration that needs seventy-five years to figure that out deserves to be made fun of. Props, brother.

Fresh for '01... You Suckas! is the second Boondocks collection available since the strip debuted nationwide in 1998. It picks up where Because I Know You Don't Read the Newspapers left off, with Huey and Riley Freeman still trying to adjust to Woodcrest in their own little ways.

Huey, the older of the two brothers, is a young black revolutionary trying to bring about justice and freedom in the world any way he can. Huey decides it's time for revolution but has a bit of trouble marketing the idea, though his righteous quest gives McGruder the chance to make some hilarious and biting commentary on a number of subjects: BET, the fascination with black youth culture, the U.S. Census, and (of course) the 2000 Presidential Election.

Riley is still keepin' it real, but circumstances don't make it easy for him. He's still stuck with an eight o'clock bedtime and no piece, all while he's gotta deal with his own people keeping him down. It's just not fair.

The biggest development in this collection of strips is the introduction of Michael Caesar -- "Caesar" for short -- a freestyling dreadlocked cat from Brooklyn. Although Caesar's not as politically- and socially-conscious as Huey, he's still someone Huey can bounce ideas off of. Their interaction is hilarious as Caesar brings a coolness and mass-appeal to the revolution that was lacking before. They even get to argue back and forth about the X-Men Movie, which brought a smile to my face -- I had the same conversations with the PCS crew last year.

The Boondocks is an amazing piece of social commentary, but it doesn't let that get in the way of scoring laughs -- instead it uses that angle and is incredibly effective. McGruder's strip approaches the genius of Calvin & Hobbes and Peanuts, adds the politics of Doonesbury, and spins in a hipness that can be found nowhere else on the funny pages.