SPOOK (MAGAZINE) Q&A’S WITH CHRIS (SIMPSONS ARTIST)

Words: Marle Tyrrell

Few television shows unite a generation like ‘The Simpsons’ does. A well remembered quote at a party, or a lively debate about how it kind of went downhill after season 6 can forge a bond between someone you thought was a stranger, but may as well have been sitting next to you while you watched your bro, Bart and homegirl Lisa after school, and then again after dinner, on grubby carpet in front of the box. So it doesn’t come as any surprise that Chris (Simpsons Artist) known for his damn good, spot-on portraits of TV’s favourite family, has found such a great following on his Facebook page, ‘Simpson’s pictures that I gone and done’. We wanted to get to know ‘the real’ Chris, we wanted the lowdown, we wanted to hear PASSION about everyone’s favourite fictionalised town. We’re not sure we got that, but here it is anyway, in all its unpunctuated glory.

SPOOK: How did the Simpsons drawings that you gone and did start?
Chris: When my mum made me move into my own house because she was getting tired I just started my Facebook page on the internet so I could show my mum my pictures that I gone and done because I just used to show her all of my pictures when I was still living at my mum’s house so I just really started it to show my mum my pictures and then loads of people from all over the world started looking at them and it is really good because now I have loads of friends and it is really nice as well for myself.

SPOOK: How do you make them/do you have any methods of creation?
Chris: I can draw things loads of ways and I use my mum’s old computer that she gave me because she got a new one for herself and I can draw on bits of paper as well because I have loads of pens that my mum got me for Christmas and one is really thick and it is good for doing black bits in the middle of a eye.

SPOOK: Are you an artist by trade?
Chris: I sell my pictures all over the world now so I am an artist because people buy my pictures and it is like a job but it is fun for me to do because it is what I love to do for myself since I was really small or 5.

SPOOK: Why do you think people like your pictures so much?
Chris: I think it is because they are really detailed and people like to look at pictures that are really detailed because it is just dead good.

SPOOK: Who is your favourite Simpsons’ character?
Chris: I really like Apu because he is always doing things that no one else does and I would just ask him if he was feeling okay and I would tell him that he has a green top on I think.

SPOOK: Would you ever consider drawing another series? If so, which television show would that be?
Chris: I can only draw things that I really like and I just like films that I have on video like Big and The Princess Bride and I like He-Man and I like trees and swimming and Lady Gaga.

SPOOK; Have you seen ‘Futurama pictures that I gone and done’? By Andrew (Futurama Artist)? What are your thoughts on this ‘Andrew’ character?
Chris: someone showed it to me on my Facebook page on the internet on Facebook and I think it is a bit of the same and I think if you really want to be different then you should just be yourself.

SPOOK: Australians are not really like how they appear on the Simpsons. Do you think the Simpsons is a good representation of America? Why/Why not?
Chris: I don’t really know what you mean but I just think it is really good to talk to you and I hope you are having a really nice day and I can do the splits really well and I can go right down and it is the sideways splits and a lady outside of the shop said I was really confident at doing the splits and I said I know I can go all the way down.