So this week’s episode of The Boondocks wasn’t as good as the first. The whole “re-vitiligo” bit was really funny, but Dave Chappelle already did a stand-up routine that used many of the bits Aaron broke out for the R. Kelly trial. Still good stuff, but nothing as funny as, “I bet you wish you had your raincoat right now.”
But I was reading the strip today, and I realized the cartoon has changed the way I read the strip forever.

The biggest thing about the cartoon is that it gives all the main characters voices. Instead of relying on the ones I’ve used in my head forever, I now hear Regina King, John Witherspoon, et al. when I read the strip every morning.
I kinda like my voices better.
That’s really unfair, isn’t it?
Well, not quite. Most of us pictured Huey as being a precocious child, but the cartoon has sorta eliminated that. Huey and Riley are definitely children on this show. They’re frequently irrational like children are, and they frequently oversimplify issues like children have a tendency to do. Using King for his voice makes him more child-like than anyone of us had given him credit for being, and that sorta changes the dynamic when I read the strip.
And I’m just not sure how I feel about that.
Talk to me after the season, and I’ll be able to tell you if the television show has killed the strip for me. I don’t think that’ll happen, but it’s entirely possible.