Congratulations Bongo Comics!

Congratulations to Bongo Comics and the team that's been working non-stop to bring you your favorite Simpsons comics as they've published their 200th issue this week! The first issue of the Simpsons comics was released over 20 years ago, Can you believe that?! Bongo Comics was founded in 1993 by Steve and Cindy Vance, Bill Morrison and of course, Matt Groening.

The special issue features the extra hilarious 'Mass Historia!' by Ian Boothby and Phil Ortiz, 'Moe meets his match' by Tony Digerolamo, Max Davison & John Delaney and 'The sweet taste of Justice' by Dean Rankine. Wraparound cover by Bill Morrison, Mike Rote and Nathan Kane. Go Here for more on the Simpsons and Bongo's other monthly comics, or here if you want to dig into every detail the history of the Simpsons comics have to offer. Congrats guys, and save some cake for me!!

Below: Bongo's covers of their first issue of the Simpsons from November 1993 (left), the celebratory 100th issue from November 2004 (middle) and the 150th issue from January 2009 (right). 

Best Animated Short - 2012

Well, it has been three weeks since the Oscar nominees were announced, and once again reviews have been popping up all around the internet trying to make sense of the always-unpredictable short categories. So you can say that the last thing that the world needs is another review of the nominated short films, especially since I'm not privy to watching the films in advance and had to make it to one of the theatrical showings of the nominated films just to watch all of them. But you know what? This is a blog where I try to review all the nominated films in the category's history, and even though I'm on hiatus (because reality sucks), it would be wrong for me to go without a review for the latest nominees. Especially since I've "followed" this race on this forum from the longlist to the shortlist to the final roster of nominees. So yeah, it would be nice to take this all the way to the end.

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Module 14: Past, Present, and Future of Animation

This last module was a bit of an odds and ends thing, which I guess it's fitting because it was listed as like an epilogue. It had three topics: the first was on television animation, from its introduction in the 1950s to the heydays of the 1960s including Rocky and Bullwinkle into the 1980s. Next it went into the art of the film title. Finally it ended with a look at some subversive animation, ones that explored either societal norms or pushed the boundaries of decency. I kind of procrastinated on this module, writing my discussion post the day it was due, so I don't feel like it was as strong as it could be, but eh. I got it done.

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The Simpsons return for 24th season.

Last night, The Simpsons visited New York City in 'Moonshine River', the episode that kicked off the 24th season of the longest running cartoon series in history.

In the episode, dedicated to singer Andy Williams, who past away only days before, Bart revisited several old girlfriends and learned that one of them, farm girl Mary Spuckler, was in trouble and has ran off to the big city. In search for his lost love, he takes the whole family on a trip to the Big Apple and while there, Lisa gets to visit Broadway.

Actress Zooey Deschanel returned to the show to voice the character of Mary Spuckler (as she did in the 19th season episode 'Apocalypse Cow') while an all star cast including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman and Sarah Silverman voiced Bart's other girlfriends from the past. This was the first episode from the two additional seasons Fox committed to after long contract renegotiations last year, although producer Al Jean still hopes the show will go on to see it's 30th season by the end of the decade. Next up, is another 'Tree house of Horror' episode (the 13th time!), a recurring theme on 'The Simpsons' around Halloween each year, which will include a parody on the Mayan calendar this time around.

On February 19th last year, the 500th episode 'At long last leave' aired, written by Michael Price and directed by Matthew Nastuk, it featured founder of Wiki-leaks Julian Assange among the voice cast. Click the images below to check out some of 'The Simpsons' model sheets!

John K. on 'the Simpsons', show canceled?

This week fans of the Simpsons were in for a surprise, as animator John Kricfalusi ('John K.'), creator of the 'Ren & Stimpy show' had animated part of the opening sequence for the episode 'Bart stops to smell the Roosevelt'. But while John's work on the show was quite astounding, the producers of the series were in for a shock themselves, when FOX decided that this season would be the last.

FOX announced that the series had to take a huge budget-cut in order to survive and later even suggested the series would definately end next year, even if the cast would be okay with a lot less income, meaning the voice actors would earn at least 45% less.

Dan Castellaneta (Homer), Julie Kavner (Marge), Nancy Cartwright (Bart), Yeardley Smith (Lisa), Hank Azaria (Moe the bartender, Chief Wiggum and Apu) and Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns) make about $440,000 per episode. The reason given for the cancellation was that, althought the ratings dropped considerably (20% over the last five years), the cost of production only seems to be rising. Others however figure that the contracts Newscorp, the owner of FOX, has for worldwide syndication, will earn much more if the show was cancelled today. When production of the serie would stop, it would give opportunity to negotiate new deals for the reruns. Some say the contracts in today's market are at least 750 million dollars worth more (the original rerun deals were signed in the mid 1990s). Over the last two decades the show has been on the air, Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp already made more than $ 1 billion dollars off the show.









Above: designs by John K. for couch-gag scene. The voice cast agreed with a 70% pay cut if they would get a small piece of the back end profits of the series, but that idea didn't go well with FOX. The negotiations are now over and it's been decided to keep the Simpsons on the air for two more seasons, until 2014, so season 25 will have the very last episodes.

Have a look at the Simpsons intro below. John K's stuff begins at 00:50.



Banksy's intro.

John Krisfaluci's creative opening sequence for the episode of last week wasn't the first time the producers hired a known guest artist to do the so called couch-gag in the intro. In 2010 the producers had contacted renowned British street artist Banksy to come up with an original intro. Known for his critical statements in his graffiti, Banksy's identity still remains unkown today.

(Above: Posters for Banksey's documentary, hiding his identity behind a mask (right). Was it his art or the mask that got the Simpsons producers excited? He sure looks like Bart to me!)

The producers never met Banksy and contacted him through the producers of his film 'Exit through the giftshop'. (in the movie he appears only rarely, face hooded and voice distorted). The film was nominated for an Academy Award in 2010 for 'Best Documentary' (which was won by Charles Fergusons' 'Inside Job').

Personally, I think Banksy never guessed the producers would go through with it. In his intro you see the Korean animators working at an assembly line, living under the worst of circumstances underground and being abused to create the Simpsons episodes week after week. ('The Simpsons' is created by AKOM productions in South Korea which of course is a lot cheaper than having the work done in the US). There's even a unicorn held prisoner in the sequence, it creates the holes in the dvd's that are sold worldwide! Still, his ideas for the opening sequence were carried out almost exactly as he had designed it. (The segment was lightened after critique from Nelson Shin, founder of AKOM animation and designer of George Lucas' original lightsaber).

For more on John Kricfalusi, visit his official blog or check out what he had to say about his cooperation with Matt groening in an interview he did posted over at cartoonbrew.

The Simpsons return with season 23!

D'Oh! Waiting some time for this, but 'The Simpsons' returned with the first episode of their 23rd season this sunday, Woohoo! The last episode, 'The Ned-liest Catch' aired May 22 on Fox.

As always, this season will see it's share of voice actors doing guest appearances. Among them Joan Rivers, Andy Garcia, Jeremy Irons, Michael Cera, Jane Lynch, and Bryan Craston of 'Breaking Bad'. Kiefer Sutherland appeared in the first episode this week, called 'The Falcon and the D'Ohman' (episode #NABF16). He did the voice of Wayne, the new security guard at the Nuclear power plant where Homer ehm...'works'. Unlike Larry (the previous guard who now resides at the 'crazy house') Wayne doesn't want to fist-bump, which makes Homer go out of his way to befriend him (as you can see from the scene above, Homer had his way in the end!). Wayne appears to have been a secret goverment agent who learned to many secrets, while doing dirty jobs for the powers that be. Something like that will kill your social life, of course. The climax had a nice reference to Robert de Niro's action hit film 'Ronin', in which Wayne and Homer rumble with some figure-skating Russian moguls on the nearby ice-skating rink. (well, it's in 'Little Ukraine'!)

'The Simpsons' is now the longest-running American animated program and since 2009, the longest-running American primetime scripted television series, winning 27 Emmy Awards. Time magazine even called it 'the best television series of the 20th century'!

This season we will also wittness the historic 500th episode, which will air on February 19, 2012! The first full episode aired on December 17, 1989, after creator Matt Groening had previously created a series of shorts, which became part of 'The Tracy Ullman show' for three seasons.

Matt Groening lives in Hell.

Before Matt went into cartoons, he had his own underground comic strip titled 'Life in Hell' in the alternative newspaper 'The L.A. Reader' in 1978. It was based on his day to day experiences in Los Angeles, after Groening had moved their from Portland the year before. Matt also had a music column in the paper, but his reviews were completely made up and included bands that didn't exist or records that were never released! Hilarious!!

Matt´s comic caught the attention of producer James L Brooks who wanted him to do some animation based on the strip for 'The Tracy Ullman show'. Groening decided to create some new characters instead, which became 'The Simpsons family'. Matt's father (called Homer, like the Bart's father on the show) was also a writer and cartoonist. Fifteen volumes have been published so far of his comic, the last one in 2007.

Futurama

Matt Groening also created and developed the animated sci-fi comedy series ´Futurama´ with David X. Cohen, which is set in the 31st century. The first four seasons aired from 1999 to 2003 on Fox after which the show was sadly cancelled.

However, between 2007 and 2009 four straight-to-dvd movies were released: 'Benders Big Score', 'The Beast with a Billion Backs', 'Benders Game' and 'Into the Wild Green Yonder', which were picked up by Comedy Central and chopped up into 16 episodes as 'season 5'. Fox decided to create 26 completely new episodes for a sixth season, which were broadcast in 2010/2011. The season recently ended with 'Reincarnation', the 26th episode that aired on September 8.

In March it was announced that a 7th season with 26 more episodes will be produced, thirteen of which will be broadcast in 2012, the second half will be broadcast in 2013. Fox will release the sixth season on Blu-ray and DVD just in time for Christmas, on December 20th. Check Matt Groening 'My wasted life' for a nice chat with Matt on watching TV all day (which he called 'doing research'!)

Digital animation

Since season 14 of 'The Simpsons', traditional cel animation was replaced with digital inks and paint, while season 20 in 2009 was the first in HD format. As of 2010 the series is produced by Film Roman with overseas production handled by Nelson Shin's AKOM productions in South Korea. The animation of the series is done using Toon Boom software. Click the images below to check out some of 'The Simpsons' model sheets!

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Want more? Check 'The Simpsons return for 24th season'.

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