Carl Jones is one of the loudest voices in animation. After a chance encounter on a Los Angeles street, the writer/producer/actor was tapped by The Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder to help executive produce the Adult Swim adaptation of the political comic strip that skewered everyone from George W. Bush to BET. After three widely successful seasons, McGruder and Jones stepped back from The Boondocks to the dismay of many fans. The fourth and final season aired this past summer, and was produced without their involvement.

"I watched a couple of the episodes... a lot of things weren't working," Jones says over the phone last month while addressing the final season, declining to go into specifics regarding his and McGruder's exclusion from production. "Most people think 'The Man' shut us down, but that's not actually the case. You get a lot of passionate people together, and emotions are gonna raise high. Producing animation is not easy. It's like forcing a triangle into a circle." Still, he acknowledges the mixed reaction that the final season received from fans: "I share the same sentiment with the viewers that were critical. I understand why they felt let down."

Despite these creative roadblocks, Jones has persevered: in 2012, he re-emerged with Black Dynamite, a spastic, slapstick cartoon spinning off from the 2009 Blaxploitation-spoofing film of the same name. "They're always encouraging creatives to take liberties that, traditionally, you wouldn't be able to," Jones says of his latest go-round working under Adult Swim's umbrella. "Once they believe in you, they give you a lot of room." Visually, Jones drew inspiration from Japanese animator Takashi Koike's cinematic approach in the 2009 film Redline. "He uses heavy black shadows throughout the film, which I thought it would lend itself well to the world we were creating. [Black Dynamite] is a dark comedy with real stakes. People die."

This past weekend, Adult Swim aired his hour-long Black Dynamite musical "The Wizard of Watts," which featured guest appearances from Erykah Badu and Tyler, the Creator. "We used unconventional talent to deliver what we needed," Jones elaborates on casting left-field voice talent in a field typically dependent on animation-industry types. "When you do it right, it really resonates as something unique and special." Read on for FADER's Q&A with Jones on his thoughts on the murders of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, dealing with anxiety, and the troubles of working with overseas animation studios.