Matt Groening on licensing and merchandising

GROTH: How do you feel about the Simpsons being used as advertising shills?
GROENING: When it was first on The Tracey Ullman Show, one of my goals was to get The Simpsons its own TV show. I knew Fox was dubious so I agreed to do the Butterfinger commercials in order to convince Fox that it had a moneymaker on its hands. Even that was enjoyable because I wanted to try my hand at TV commercials. In an ideal world it would just be a pure show and there would be no commercial endorsements. But I don't own The Simpsons, Fox does. The next project I probably will own, and it will be handled in a slightly different way.
GROTH: When you say you agreed to do the Butterfinger commercial, could you have not agreed to do that? Did you have that power?
GROENING: I'm not sure, if push came to shove, whether I could have stopped anything, but I didn't want to stop it; I wanted to do it.
In order to get at some of the things 1 wanted further down the line, I did stuff that maybe wasn't specifically something I was most enthusiastic about. In order to be able to design the Simpsons pinball machine we had to create an extravaganza which lent itself to that kind of license. I'm really excited about the pinball machine, which is the best-selling pinball machine in the world right now.
GROTH: My God.
GROENING: It's a good machine, too. I also get to work on the Simpsons Nintendo game, and the Gameboy game, and the video arcade game, which will really blow people's minds.
Here's another thought about cartoonists: our medium is about as low-tech as you can get. Ink and paper and that's it. I think because there's resistance to other forms of technology, but cartoons can be a real springboard into other entertainment media. I'm glad I haven't resisted.
GROTH: How much of Fox's decision to do the half-hour Simpsons had to do with the merchandising possibilities?
GROENING: I'm sure a lot. It's something that they weren't really involved with - merchandising - and think was something new and exciting for them to try. But I think even they were astounded by the bonanza it turned out to be.
I've taken some heat for the amount of Simpsons merchandise from a number of different people. Not only has my comic strip been parodied, and The Simpsons been parodied, but I personally have been satirized.
I have friends who have been the subject of parodies get upset, but I've always found it amusing.
To me, part of the problem with The Simpsons was that it was so outrageously successful, beyond anybody's wildest dreams, that the ubiquity of Bart Simpson's face annoyed sensitive types. Going back to the days when Gary Panter and I were sitting in the Astroburger, Gary had grown up in Texas where his father ran a five-and-dime store, and Gary said, "I really want to design my own line of toys," which he ended up doing with Pee Wee's Playhouse. I always thought that was a good idea, too. I got to help design bendable Simpsons figurines and the pinball game, and all sorts of other really fun, fascinating things.
GROTH: You have no control over the merchandising, right?
GROENING: I couldn't stop the tidal wave if I wanted to, but I can surf on it.
GROTH: That's a good way of putting it.
GROENING: I respect Bill Watterson's resistance to all the offers to exploit Calvin and Hobbes, but I don't think it would compromise him personally, and certainly not financially. I think people love his comic strip so much that they just want to participate in it in a greater way. And in our culture that means wearing your favorite cartoon character on a T-shirt. To me, a cartoon strip is merchandise, anyway, in and of itself.
GROTH: Just by virtue of the fact that it's sold?
GROENING: Yeah. I don't think that a comic strip is innately superior to a T-shirt.

[It would be difficult to find a statement about comic strips that I disagree with more.]