INTERVIEW WITH MATT GROENING

Here's why I adore the man... (that's two guys I "love" in one day...no one tell my wife!)

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Crave Online: Are you more involved now than you were in the past?

Matt Groening: The idea that I was not involved with the show or less involved with the show is simply not true. I've always been involved with the show. It's true there's only 24 hours in a day so then I have to work on Futurama. I can't be two places at once but the best thing about having two TV shows is I can go to each show and say I have to go to the other show and then I can go do whatever I want. Talk about a day job and night job, my night job after The Simpsons is Futurama, which is coming back on Comedy Central in 2008, 16 new episodes, and we're going to be running the old episodes, as well. Then, I a draw a weekly comic strip that locally appears in the LA Weekly and it appears in alternative news weeklies around the country. That's something I do just by myself. I get to go and sit at a drawing board. Generally, I put it off as long as possible. It's due on Fridays at 5:30, I have to get it on the computer. So I start drawing it Friday afternoon. I can't twist my ankle. I can't get the flu. I've got to do it. So far, 27 years I've been doing that.

Crave Online: Why do you still want to do a comic strip?

Matt Groening: It's me working by myself. It keeps me honest and The Simpsons is the biggest collaborative project I could imagine and this is me by myself. They serve different needs. The great thing about hand lettering is there's no editing. I don't turn my stuff in and it gets changed around at all. It is what it is and I love it.
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The man has more money than GOD and still produces a weekly comic! (although he says Family Guy is "funny." ewwwwwww...)