In 1993, ‘The Simpsons‘ was in its prime (which would last until 1998, with the end of season 9). In the middle of Bartmania, Matt Groening and his team didn’t know how to grow the franchise beyond the usual merchandising. A movie? Video games controlled by them? Or better yet: Why not comic books? At the time, Groening noticed that there weren’t enough comedy comics on shelves overpopulated by superheroes, and decided to open the door to anyone who had talent and wanted to change the rules of the game: Bongo Comics was born.
Oingo-Bongo
The truth is that Bongo Comics, beyond a couple of limited series (‘Mylo Xyloto’, created by Coldplay, and ‘Roswell, little green man’, which was nominated for four Eisner awards) only published comics related to ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Futurama’ and, to a lesser extent, ‘SpongeBob’. In total, ‘Simpson Comics’ had 245 issues, each with its own particular style, expanding on the stories of the series and getting carried away. For example, there was an issue in which Mr. Croquet, Homer’s head that served as a detergent logo, ended up with the manga, and another narrating the family’s reunion with Spider-Pig.
The problem came with overproduction: in addition to ‘Simpson Comics’ so many series were published that it was impossible to keep up. ‘Bartman’, ‘The Treehouse of Terror’ (fabulous, by the way), ‘Bart Simpson Comics’, ‘Futurama Comics’, ‘Simpson Classics’, ‘Simpsons Super-Spectacular’, ‘Simpsons Illustrated’… Even Ralph Wiggum, Milhouse, the guy in the comic store or Professor Frink had their own title. It couldn’t go on for long.
There were magnificent comics during this time, mind you: all the Halloween specials, where they had different guest stars, were a joy, and Bartman’s parodies were very well channeled, but, although the comics still kept their DNA intact, the fame of the series began to decline along with the quality of their scripts and, little by little, ‘The Simpsons’ was running out of that redoubt of humor in comic book stores that Groening was looking for.
Bongo Comics went out of business in 2018 after publishing things like a crossover between ‘Futurama‘ and ‘The Simpsons’ that was much better than what we would later see on TV and a story about Chief Wiggum. Would it have survived if they had opened up to other kinds of comics or was Bongo doomed before it started? In any case, it’s a shame. It only remains to tell the American readers who doomed it to multiply by zero. There is no other way.
