Weirdness from the Simpsons Universe

I came across something a while back that I decided, when the time was right, I would get my hands on it. 

It started as an art project by Ryan Humphrey in 2013. His goal: recreate every page of Katsuhiro Otomo's landmark manga "Akira" using characters from the Simpsons. A few years later, and many conversations later, a volunteer group of at-present-count 700 artists have completed about three of the six volumes, making it about halfway through.

The project is called "Bartkira":

This is the "Nuclear Edition". It is an oversized hard-bound collection of some of the pages that these artists are working on. The original is over 2000 pages, and this little copy has maybe 50. They are lovingly composed.

Seeing as how neither Fox, Matt Groening, or Katsuhiro Otomo were contacted about this project, the artists involved decided to make whatever proceeds generated by this particular piece of the project are donated---half to Otomo's charity of choice: OISCA Coastal Forest Restoration Project in Miyagi Prefecture; and the other half to Sam Simon's charity of choice: Save the Children.

If you know Akira, from either the great manga collection or the wildly popular and influential anime film from 1988, then the following information will not be lost on you:

• Ralph Wiggum is Akira
• Milhouse is Tetsuo
• Bart is Kenada

Some of the other characters are recognizable, like the following picture: check the crowd in the bottom frame (Bart, Skinner, Eddie and Lou, Flanders, Otto, Laura Powers, Bumblebee Man...)

I wanted to share some of the images from the various artists just so you can get a sense of the scope and work that goes into a cultural mashup/labor of love like this.

Here's another one, with a dead Marge, the busted out Sprawl-Mart, and the "Embrace Nothingness" at the church:

Milhouse as Tetsuo beginning to lose his shit:

Ralphie as Akira, near the end of the story...this two page spread cracks me up:

If you haven't see the film Akira, I suggest taking the two-plus hours it takes and watch it. The Japanese don't have the cultural hold-up that Americans (generally) have about animation being only for young people. It is a very serious sci-fi look at disenfranchised youth, rebellion, and government testing on psychically-abled kids.

It is the film, nearing thirty years now, that all Japanese animated films is measured against, and rightfully so.

The Simpsons has so profoundly shaped American humor values that it remains a cultural phenomena.

That these two things came into existence at nearly the same time probably says more about the combined global society than luck and happenstance.

If you have the time and desire, this is a pretty cool way to toss less than thirty bucks to some charities.