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Matt Groening on Internet and Cartoons 99

Posted by CmdrTaco from the let-the-man-speak dept.
prostoalex writes "Online Journalism Review posted an interview with Matt Groening, the mastermind behind The Simpsons and Futurama. Matt lists his favorite comic sites, talks about how Internet changed the cartoons, shares his view on Fox Network's idea to put Simpsons on cell phones, as well as his own plans for Web cartoons."
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Matt Groening on Internet and Cartoons More

Matt Groening on Internet and Cartoons

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  • When's the Simpson's movie coming Matt?

    It's been muttered about for years!

    • Re:Just one question..... (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      More importantly, what about the rumoured Futurama movie [tvtome.com]?


      I don't know whetrher it's safe to say this on Slashdot, where rabid Simpsons fans congregate, but Futurama is a much better sow than the Simpsons, and I'm really hoping that it will be resurrected in some form since no one has paid to make new episodes. A Futurama movie would be splendiforous!

  • Under Construction (Score:5, Funny)

    by mmoncur ( 229199 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @07:09AM (#5066169) Homepage
    Matt Groening is officially the last of the Web holdouts:

    MG: Um ... I've reserved mattgroening.com. (Laughs) It's said "This Site Is Under Construction" for three years now. I'll get around to it.

    I think he really took it down just before the interview, and it was full of Dancing Jesus GIFs.

    "Ooh. They have the Internet on computers now."
    -- Homer
    • All the muck that's fit to rake [mrxwebpage.com]

      [ No more offtopic than the parent, be kind ]

      "Can you give me faster pornography?"
      -- Comic Book Guy

    • Actually, pay attention to the show... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Jerf ( 17166 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @11:11AM (#5066703) Journal
      Actually, if you pay attention to the show, the websites they mention frequently really exist.

      The one that leaps to mind is WhatBadgersEat.com [whatbadgerseat.com] used in the episode where the town is split in half and Homer is the mayor of the sucky half [snpp.com].

      The TV show Alias set up a Followers of Rambaldi [followersoframbaldi.org] fake site, which I've seen but may not be working now. (Much info is on this fan site [alias-tv.com].) Also in alias they once mentioned an IP address directly, and while I couldn't determine what that computer was (legally ;-) ) because it wasn't running any obvious services, it did exist, which makes me wonder if it was deliberate or if the show's author's didn't consider that a randomly selected IP address stands a pretty good chance of existing now-a-days.

      And I once located the source information for a quick display on the Egyptian god Seth used on Daniel Jackson's screen in Stargate: SG-1. It was actually from a wierd site that I assume is info for a role-playing game, though it gave no hint that the site didn't really believe it and it's sometimes hard to tell... I often wonder if the web site was told what use their text was put to.

    • mmoncur wrote in another life:
      I think he really took it down just before the interview, and it was full of Dancing Jesus GIFs.

      Well, If you goto the web.archive.org [archive.org] mirror of the site you'll be able to see that it's been the same for the past few years.

  • The reason he hasnt gotten around to his site.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sheepab ( 461960 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @07:16AM (#5066181) Homepage
    Fox would C&D it faster than he could upload it.

    Right Dennis?

    Anyone who has owned a major Simpsons fan site should know what Im talking about....

  • Mozilla-unfriendly (Score:3, Informative)

    by Jugalator ( 259273 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @07:53AM (#5066234) Journal
    That site seem to have been made for IE's poor understanding of CSS rules. :-(

    Readable on Phoenix, but it looks awful, and it would be surprising if Mozilla was wrong here, with IE being the browser that hasn't had any major improvements to the parser for years.

    • Re:Mozilla-unfriendly (Score:5, Informative)

      by blufive ( 573081 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @08:23AM (#5066273) Homepage
      That site seem to have been made for IE's poor understanding of CSS rules. :-(
      Nope, just dumb webmasters. As far as I can tell, they're using a server-side browser-sniff to send different code to different web browsers. Thing is, they're mis-identifying mozilla (and presumably other mozilla-based browsers) as Netscape. Then, it looks like they still subscribe to the theory that there'e only one Netscape, and are using one tailored for NN4.x, hence it looks crappy. Opera gets given the IE style sheet, and renders everything just fine. I suspect Moz-based browsers would similarly work fine if they got given that CSS.
      • Nope, just dumb webmasters. As far as I can tell, they're using a server-side browser-sniff to send different code to different web browsers. Thing is, they're mis-identifying mozilla (and presumably other mozilla-based browsers) as Netscape. Then, it looks like they still subscribe to the theory that there'e only one Netscape, and are using one tailored for NN4.x, hence it looks crappy. Opera gets given the IE style sheet, and renders everything just fine. I suspect Moz-based browsers would similarly work fine if they got given that CSS.

        Isn't there a way in Moz to fix this? I did a search at Mozilla.org on browser sniff, which led me to general.useragent.override [mozilla.org] and user agent strings [mozilla.org]. The documentation says the user can redefine the user-agent string and make a Mozilla browser tell websites that it is IE, but it doesn't tell how to do this.

        This could be a cool Mozilla hack - a sidebar panel where you can choose what web browser you want Mozilla to pretend to be, and see how the pages are rendered differently. It could also get around the stupidity of some webmasters.

        It looks like they are working on something like this, but it's hard to get right [mozilla.org].

    • What the hell are you talking about?

      Looks the same in IE6, Mozilla 1.1, and Opera 7 beta 2. It took all of 15 seconds to test...

      • Looks the same in IE6, Mozilla 1.1, and Opera 7 beta 2. It took all of 15 seconds to test...

        To me, it took 15 secs to see it did not look very nice at all. Barely readable. No line spacing. Actually... Negative line spacing. I'm not lying to you. Perhaps it's a bug since after Moz 1.1 was released? I have no clue how Opera acts, just commenting on my problem.
    • Note to Mac OS X users browsing with Safari: if you've enabled [macosxhints.com] the Debug menu, change the "User Agent" setting to either Mac or Windows MSIE. Site instantly becomes readable.

  • Interesting... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by doubleyewdee ( 633486 ) <wd@NosPam.telekinesis.org> on Sunday January 12, 2003 @07:57AM (#5066239) Homepage
    I'm surprised he didn't say more about how godawful the quality of syndicated comics is these days. They're so bland and unentertaining that it hurts to even look at them. I think the best thing the internet has done for comics is to allow some really great offbeat stuff (like Diesel Sweeties [dieselsweeties.com]) to exist and get some recognition. In a print-only world some really good, funny comics would never be seen by most people.

    In fact, I think the great thing about the internet in general, and something that still hasn't been fully embraced, is the ability to self-publish. In days gone by it was only possible to self publish in a small geographic region without spending a lot of money. These days I can self publish media of many forms online with no muss or fuss, and people from all over the world can look at my writing, listen to my music, or watch my home videos(heh, right..).

    I guess at the end of the day it's about empowerment. The internet empowers me by allowing me to find what I want, to separate the wheat from the chaff. I'm certainly better equipped to do it than the suits who only look for the lowest common denominator and play to that. Also, of course, it empowers the artist to not only be able to create and publish, but to reach a large global audience without the aid of a middle-man. Overall, it's the removal of a rather shoddy bidirectional filter.

    On the flip side, of course, the internet has caused the downfall of the community artist, and it's only going to get worse. Around here, local alternative press is all but dead. I mean, who wants to read poorly printed dead tree stuff when you can go to poorly designed websites instead, and for no money? And since that's the mentality, why pay to print it at all? The sad thing is, of course, that local "scenes" will continue to fade away like this, especially as music and movies become more easy to retrieve online, and to publish. I guess it's the death of the local community in order to give birth to the global.
    • I think the best thing the internet has done for comics is to allow some really great offbeat stuff (like Diesel Sweeties) to exist...The internet empowers me by allowing me...to separate the wheat from the chaff.

      Diesel Sweeites? I think you're confused. The idea is to keep the wheat and throw away the chaff.

    • Re:Interesting... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by nomadic ( 141991 ) <.moc.liamg. .ta. .dlrowcidamon.> on Sunday January 12, 2003 @07:45PM (#5069346) Homepage
      You have two sides; one are the comics editors and midwestern housewives who like their comics family-oriented, bland, and predictable.

      The other side are the edgy l33t comic crowd who think that a comic is only good if it's an incomprehensible mishmash of bad art, pop culture references, and unfunny punchlines.

      It's a lose-lose situation.

  • Groening just became an ennemy of the MPAA... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Max von H. ( 19283 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @07:58AM (#5066244)
    I bought myself an all-region DVD player so I can watch British TV shows that aren't broadcast over here. But you can't play them here [without it]. I don't know if that's a phenomenon, but I think it's overlooked.

    [Jack Valenti mode ON]
    Well, not only his shows are unamerican but he now admits to being a criminal! Fortunately for us, the MPAA shall remind him about the laws of this country with a copy of the DMCA tattooed on his forehead. Our business model is endangered by such evil communists!
    [Jack Valenti mode OFF]

    Gee, serioulsy, finally someone from the USA complaining about this absurd DVD region coding. It's basically a requirement to have a region-free player if you enjoy films and shows that weren't produced in your region of the world (or don't appeal to the General Audience - foreign stuff mostly). It's easy for big US media corporations to flood the world with their (mostly) crappy productions, but smaller european, asian or wherever-they're-from companies have no way to penetrate the North-American market. Say you're in the USA and wish to watch that great British humour DVD your european cousin sent you for xmas, you have to get a region-free player and thus perform an illegal operation. Mind you, if you can play all 5 regions the MPAA will even consider you got at least 4 illegal players, since that's the MPAA math nowadays. The same problem occurs if you dare travelling with your laptop and wish to watch a DVD you rented locally. Where's the sticker saying "this laptop only for use in USA, Canada and selected nations"?

    I've noticed some DVDs have no region coding at all, mostly the ones from small, indie film production companies. I've tried and they play in any player. I hope we'll see more of those, now that ppl really seem to get pissed off by that region coding thing. It's maybe not too much of a problem in North America, but the rest of the planet isn't in Zone One and thus can't access such DVDs, and has to wait for the local copyright owner to allow distribution of said DVDs to your country of residence (you can just forget about it most of the time). C'mon, if I buy a DVD, I want to be able to play it wherever I goddamn want it! Hey, with the actual system I can't even buy a DVD and offer it to my cousins in the USA... How crappy is that? Wait, they want to extend the system to audio now... Next thing will be news, maybe. Given the fascist manners of the actual US government, we ain't too far from it.

    Time to practice civil disobedience again, eh...

    Cheers,
    max
    • Er, who's the nuthead who moderated me 'offtopic'? I actualy read the article and quoted it in my comment. How much more on-topic should I get?

      Slashdot has really become rotten in some ways... :( Off to K5 now.

      max
      • an article on science has in it: "I was just driving in my car, when I finally worked out the last part of this equation on the color of the universe vs sex with dolphins!"
        you say:
        "...I was driving in my car" GAS PRICES ARE TOO HIGH WE SHOULDNT GO TO WAR WITH IRAQ!!!!

        that is fucking off topic. Even ignoring that the DMCA is too long to be tatooed to a forhead
      • Slashdot. News for Nerds. Stuff that matters.
        The format is linking to stories of interest.
        The reality is that at least some of us almost never read the linked articles and read the comments instead. The assumption is that with so many comments and limited time it's best to concentrate on the higher ranked comments. It's not just nerds reading Slashdot.
        Astroturfers with mod points know this and will mod down significant comments detrimental to their cause. Doesn't always work though :-)
        Slashdot isn't rotten, but it is a war zone and sometimes the good guys will take a hit.
    • Region-free DVDs. They do exist. Why don't they make more in Europe & Asia?

      • Re:Groening just became an ennemy of the MPAA... (Score:4, Informative)

        by tempmpi ( 233132 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @09:12AM (#5066374)
        Region-free DVDs. They do exist. Why don't they make more in Europe & Asia?

        They are quite common in Europe, in some countries in Europe more than 50% of all DVD players are codefree. On the other hand the movie industry is fighting against it. Codefree brandname players are often much more expensive than the regioncoded ones, they are also harder to get than their regioncoded counterparts.

        The movie industry is also using minor protection laws to fight against imported DVDs. Imported DVDs don't got the local ratings marks. Many european countries got heavy restrictions on selling unrated videos and DVD. For example in UK selling DVDs not rated by the BBFC isn't permitted and in Germany mail-order of DVDs not rated by the FSK (and stuff rated 18) isn't allowed.
    • Technically speaking, region free in the USA would be a waste of time. Even if your DVD player could play the disk, you won't be able to watch it.

      The problem is the NTSC and PAL standards, which are a completely different on how the colour component of the picture works. If you don't sort this out, you'll be watching black and white. To fix it, you need either a multi-standard television, capable of using PAL and NTSC, or a DVD player and TV that has component video (e.g. RGB) which doesn't use PAL/NTSC to encode the colour information.

      Both of these things are pretty uncommon in the US televisions, but fairly common elsewhere. That, and the abundance of media, is why modded DVD players are rare in USA/Canada.

      Of course, the MPAA will probably tout this as a success story for region encoding.

      • //or a DVD player and TV that has component video (e.g. RGB) which doesn't use PAL/NTSC to encode the colour information

        Actually, many newer mid-sized and large screen TVs and mid-ranged to high quality DVD players over here have component video as an option, it's just the cheap stuff that leaves component out nowadays. Just last month picked up a 25' Samsung TV for $350 Canadian and while it lacks S-Video input, its got Component, figure that one out!
      • Actually, you are wrong.

        The DVD itself has no direct coding in NTSC or PAL. A Region 1 DVD and a Region 2 DVD are identical, save for the region code. It is the PLAYER that controls the output. Thus, if you have an NTSC region free DVD player hooked to an NTSC television and you stick a Region 2 DVD into it, it will display perfectly.
        • Actually, you are wrong.

          Actually, I'm not. I've been importing DVDs for personal use ever since the format came out. I was one of the early adopters, who had trouble with the limited selection of Region 2 disks in the early days. What disks there were had little or no special features, or cost much more than the region 1 alternative.

          You are arguing with an AV/hi-fi autophile. I'm speaking from personal experience and research on all counts.

          A Region 1 DVD and a Region 2 DVD are identical, save for the region code.

          Nope. A Region 1 DVD has a frame rate of ~30 fps (60 Hz scan rate), a Region 2 DVD has ~25 (50 Hz). It's another thing that can go wrong in playing foreign media, but I never mentioned that because most TVs made in the last 5-8 years can handle either. On old ones, you could adjust the V-HOLD dial to compensate. Have a problem here, you'll get a rolling screen with no option to fix other than a new TV.

          Thus, if you have an NTSC region free DVD player hooked to an NTSC television and you stick a Region 2 DVD into it, it will display perfectly.

          Nope. Try it. You need component video, or a PAL supporting television. The DVD player still has to encode the colour information into either PAL or NTSC, if you want to feed it through composite or S-Video. That's the way those hook-ups work. It does this based on the original format of the disk; put in PAL disk, you'll get a PAL signal.

          Component video doesn't require PAL/NTSC encoding because the colour information doesn't need to be encoded. I'm cool on both counts, my TV has RGB inputs as well as being capable of displaying either PAL/NTSC.

          If you don't believe me, try a google groups search for "DVD black white region free", or take a look at this FAQ [reviewer.co.uk].

      • Re:Groening just became an ennemy of the MPAA... (Score:5, Informative)

        by isaac ( 2852 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @12:40PM (#5067184)
        The problem is the NTSC and PAL standards, which are a completely different on how the colour component of the picture works. If you don't sort this out, you'll be watching black and white. To fix it, you need either a multi-standard television, capable of using PAL and NTSC, or a DVD player and TV that has component video (e.g. RGB) which doesn't use PAL/NTSC to encode the colour information.

        No.

        The important difference between PAL and NTSC discs is the frame (really, field) rate of the encoded MPEG2 stream: ~59.9 fps for NTSC, 50 for PAL.

        Also, the type of component outputs available differ depending on region - US component outputs are explicitly NTSC (Luma [y], and two Chroma channels [Cr, Cb]), not RGB. This is a requirement of DVDCCA licensing, actually. Why? RGB signals can't carry macrovision! Seriously, that's why no US (non-computer) DVD player has an RGB output. RGB output exists on just about every DVD player in the UK, though, through the SCART output. Why? Got me. I guess most or all UK VCRs can't record the RGB signal. Neither can US VCRs, so who knows what logic's at work here.

        Anyhow, all region-free DVD players I've seen in the US will perform the necessary frame rate conversion for you - my cheap Apex player certainly does.

        Appropriately enough, I use the region-free capabilities of my DVD player for watching... Futurama, which is only available on DVD in Region 2.

        -Isaac

        • The important difference between PAL and NTSC discs is the frame (really, field) rate of the encoded MPEG2 stream: ~59.9 fps for NTSC, 50 for PAL.

          Nope, I still stand by what I say. See my earlier reply to another "you're wrong!" post, or do a web search for "DVD black white region".

          RGB signals can't carry macrovision!

          Ah! I wasn't aware of that! Macrovision is irrelevant to me, had that disabled on my DVD player before I got it home. Allows me to pipe the DVD player signal thru my VHS into the RF feed around my home. DVD/VHS/Cable in every room. Macrovision is mostly irrelevant anyway now, thanks to DeCSS.

          US component outputs are explicitly NTSC (Luma [y], and two Chroma channels [Cr, Cb]), not RGB.

          Must be US specific, my Euro player has Cr,Cb,Y outputs as RCA jacks, a normal S-Video out put, and two SCART sockets, one outputing RGB and the other as RGB input for pass-thru connection of my other RGB gear (PSOne / PS2), as well as some composite/audio jacks that are wired to my VHS. The number of hook-ups on the back was the deal clincher. It's a Sony 725D model if anyones interested, but they might not sell them anymore, it was four years ago it came out.

          I guess most or all UK VCRs can't record the RGB signal

          Yup, that's right. In all my (expensive) AV years, I've never seen a video with RGB inputs, only S-VHS/S-Video units and they were rare and expensive.

          It also explains the PS2 having a green picture when playing a DVD over RGB. I never did find out why they did that, until you dropped the macrovision hint! Thanks! ;-)

          Anyhow, all region-free DVD players I've seen in the US will perform the necessary frame rate conversion for you - my cheap Apex player certainly does.

          Another new thing learned for me, some of the new(ish) DVD players can allow you to choose the colour format you want. In my older DVD player, that's not an option, it bases it on the disk.

          This gives another option to the "must-have" table:

          1. Use RGB
          2. Use a TV capable of using either NTSC/PAL colour
          3. Use a DVD player capable of sending either NTSC/PAL colour.
      • Haven't you ever noticed the p/n key on most dvd players?

        Most players - including my 60$ apex can play in either pal or ntsc mode.

        • Most players - including my 60$ apex can play in either pal or ntsc mode.

          Yup, that was the only thing I omited from the original post. I wasn't aware of the fact that some of the new players can do this. Every one I've heard mention it has mentioned Apex players, are they unique in this way?

          My 3/4 year old one can't

      • Why is this post ranked informative? I own a number of region free DVDs, I live in the US, and I don't have any "technical speaking" problems...


        Not only do many players handle PAL, but most of the world uses NTSC - everywhere except Europe, I believe.


        Indian movies are almost all region-free, because there's a big demand in foreign countries, and their region is grouped in with Eastern Europe or something bizzare. Chinese movies are almost all region-free, because they're pirated :)

        • I don't have any "technical speaking"

          Apparently some of the NTSC region free ones can output PAL disks as NTSC, probably because of this problem. So I was mostly right...and you got lucky. (unless you bought your DVD player with region free in mind)

          The problem does still exist in the PAL world though, I have a number of friends who have this issue when playing NTSC disks.

          Is your DVD player an Apex one by any chance?

          most of the world uses NTSC - everywhere except Europe, I believe.

          Pretty much. There are a few other places with PAL such as Austrailia. I could start the "my system is better than yours" argument, but I won't. Oh, wait...I just did. ;-)

        • but most of the world uses NTSC

          LOL. Only if you measure "most of the world" neither in terms of population nor geography. Otherwise, PAL is used by most of the world.
          Of the 5 populated continents, only 2 (North and South America) use NTSC - oh and Japan. The rest of the world (including the most populated bits - China and the Indian subcontinent, and the largest bits - Russia) use PAL.

    • I said it when the region encoding started, eventially only the US films will be region encoded. It makes no sense for any other film distributor to do so.

  • Nice line heights (Score:4, Funny)

    by Wylfing ( 144940 ) <brian&wylfing,net> on Sunday January 12, 2003 @08:05AM (#5066251) Homepage Journal
    [rant on]

    Let me guess, "This page is best viewed in Internet Explorer." Mm hm.

    I followed the link for the web design company and checked out some of the other sites they designed. I guess I need to "upgrade my browser" because Mozilla nightlies aren't cutting edge enough for these guys.

    [rant off]

  • DVD Revolution and Online Shows (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dWhisper ( 318846 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @08:42AM (#5066300) Homepage Journal
    I'm surprised that they didn't bring up how rampant TV-show trading had become on the internet. Simpsons is probably the hottest ticket out there, and Futurama is a distance behind that.

    Nice to see him giving the whole "region free" thing a nice kick. He's an actual major voice in entertainment, so it'd just be wonderful if he wasn't pro-MPAA. Since I already have the Simpsons Boxed sets, I'd like to see the rest go "any region"
    • Is there any region in the country that doesn't have access to twice-daily Simpsons reruns? Set a Tivo (or your homebrew PVR if you really have to) with a big enough HD up, and you'll have the entire collection of the Simpsons withing a couple months.
  • Well.
    I think he will get to know about us now...

    Wait... could it be he already knows about /. and thats why he so openly said his site has been under construction for the past 3 years?
  • Has anyone seen Love in Hell online anywhere? I get one or two cartoons in it a month in Cleveland's "Funny Times" (delivered up to me in Boston) but I think it comes out weekly, so I'm missing a lot...

  • Changes in Simpsons Animations? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gozar ( 39392 ) on Sunday January 12, 2003 @11:01AM (#5066677) Homepage

    I noticed in the last episode, Special Edna, it appeared to me that they are starting to use some of the Futurama computer techniques. I noticed several busy backgrounds with parallax scrolling and subtle shadows on the characters. Did anyone else notice it or was it just me?

    I noticed it at the IMAX movie and at the amusement park.

    • supporting evidence courtesy of Google:

      from http://bit.sit.ac.nz/olsen/kenny/Season14.html:

      The Simpsons style of animation is changing from episode The Great Louse Detective (EABF01) onwards, as the show will now being using computer digitised animation from then on. The reason: Because it's hard to find professionals who still use the old medium. The show will still keep the same consistant look, and will hopefully be improved slightly. There will also be a piece of digital animation in the "Send in the Clones" segment in the upcoming Treehouse of Horror XIII (DABF19).

  • Just wondering if anyone has read some of the stuff Matt did on textfiles.com? Not really sure if it was him, but theres some stuff there by a guy called Matt Groening (or however its really spelt).

    Just love that stuff about why should anyone buy comic books if they can read them online. So Matt won't be expecting anyone to be buying any of the Simpsons comic books once I buy a few, scan them and stick them online?
  • Don't know how many of you have seen this, but it is funny. Apparently some animators made some drawings of the Simpsons characters doing scenes from pulp fiction.Simpson Pulp Fiction [zenandjuice.com]

  • 'You can go online and play games and interact with kids.'

    hmmm. doh!
  • I expected to go on there and find Matts coolest comics etc, but they are all editorial ones and not so good ones.

    I also hoped he'd managed to stick Life Is Hell online somewhere. Being in the uk, you don't get it distributed over here, like _at all_.

    I'll just have to put forward my daily comics browse... www.dilbert.com (of course, but both Luann and Get Fuzzy on there are good ones). www.goats.com is getting too infrequent for me. I love the bizarreness which is www.achewood.com and the www.wigu.com is one of the cutetest, and occasionally _extremely_ dark comics I've read.

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