Cartoonist Matt Groening, creator of the Simpsons, revealed some big news to Hindustan Times earlier this month. In his first trip to India he was inspired to create his next cartoon series. According to HT, the Simpsons creator is hoping to collaborate with friend and fellow cartoonist, Lynda Barry on a comic book based on his Indian experience.” “It’s very sketchy now, but Lynda and I have stories to share and hopefully, it’ll come out in the next couple of months,” he says.

The famous cartoonist, screenwriter and producer explained, “I love Indian culture, art and food. I had an image of India in my head, but I had no idea how colourful it was. The way people dress is much flashier than I have seen elsewhere and I like that a lot,” he says. “Also, the people here are very optimistic and ever-smiling. That’s an image of India I’ll take back home.”

As you know this is not Groening’s first desi character, his first, Apu, the proprietor of Kwik-E-Mart, “got his name from Satyajit Ray’s celebrated, Apu Trilogy.” “I’m a big fan of Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar. And Ravi Shankar’s music for these movies is just priceless,” he disclosed.

—NATASHA KAZI

More posts:

Posted on 25 December 2010