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Matt Groening on Internet and Cartoons
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."
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....
In college, really poor, need a flatscreen.
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) 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.
you can take the road that takes you to the stars...
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
-- It's always darker before it goes pitch black.
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"
It's better, in my opinion at least, because it's better written, more thought out with more interesting characters than current Simpsons episodes. The Simpsons have traded their old wit/biting satire in for unfunny sex humor, Saturday morning slapstick, and a shitload of bad bad guest stars. I'm sure it's funny to some people to see Homer getting cut up and bleeding in every episode and then yelling boobies, but not me.
Hmmmm.... that sounds a lot funnier when I describe it than in practice...
I don't agree at all.
Whilst Futurama is funny in parts, the fact is that the characters are completely dull and uninteresting. Whereas in the Simpsons, even rarely-seen marginal characters are interesting and amusing, Futurama's main characters are bland and lifeless. The only two decent characters are Bender and Zapp Brannigan. The rest, including the other main characters, are not in the slightest bit interesting to watch.