Moe Moe Moe! How Do You Like Me?

Moe Is My Muse

This is the fourth year of Moevember, a celebration of everyone’s favourite Springfieldian bartender. What started out as a silly excuse to do some puns has become a yearly tradition for me, and back in April I decided to try something a bit different this year.

If you follow me on basically any social media, you’ll see that this year I’m doing Moe-dern Art, a celebration of Moe by homaging various famous artists, this time featuring Moe (and a Moe-based pun). Thirty days of original paintings (plus some exclusive to the book I’m releasing simultaneously). It’s very silly, and people seem to enjoy it.

From a personal development standpoint, it has been really fun to try and stretch my wings a little, experimenting with classic styles I’m not well-versed in. Some of the artists were quite intimidating to attempt, but I found I could get a reasonable and recognisable approximation of most of my attempts, which was very rewarding! I’ll definitely be bringing some of this experience into my work moving forward.

One thing I like about Moevember is the way it allows one figure to be portrayed in a wide variety of ways. No-one is set in stone, defined only by one thing, and people have told me they enjoy being able to see sadsack Syszlak in a new light. Even if they’re all one interpretation (mine), it’s fun to explore how the same subject can be seen from many angles.

My main goal with this project was to make people smile. That’s basically it. Sure, it would be nice to make money from something like this (it has been a LOT of work with no financial reward), but ultimately I wanted to give people something to look forward to each day this month. An accidental theme of my work in recent years is putting a lot of effort into really silly things, in an attempt to make the internet seem like fun again. Doomed Love and Legend of the Mole-Man are further examples of this - they’re really stupid ideas, but I worked hard to present them as fully formed, and I hope people enjoy them.

Because the world is a scary place, and times are tough for many people. I can’t solve a lot of the world’s problems right now, but I hope I can make it slightly more bearable for people, at least for a moe-ment. I acknowledge that it’s not an important job in the grand scheme of things - if my art disappeared forever, it ultimately wouldn’t affect the balance of the universe - but maybe if we all attempted to do things just to make strangers smile once in a while, we might make a society slightly more pleasant to exist in.

I do not want to overstate the importance of this silly project, but creating feels more and more like an act of rebellion and defiance, in some small way. In the face of soulless corporate entertainment and art led by algorithm and profit margins, it feels good to be able to make things that come from a source of authenticity, to be able to create for the sake of creation. To be able to present this in a way that also pays tribute to influential artists of the past is very satisfying to me, personally.

But, perhaps most importantly: it’s really fun doing silly Moe puns.

If you’re enjoying this approach to art, some form of payment is always appreciated, but not necessary. If you want to help, sharing something I’ve made with someone who you think would like it is always nice. Or, if it inspires you to make something yourself, that’s good too.

Have a Moe-vellous week.

Legend of the Mole-Man, Pages 47-49

“Legend of the Mole-Man” will be taking a break shortly, while I catch up with panels and plans, but it’ll be back very soon! In the meantime, catch up on all the whole story so far here.

Shameless Promotion!

I have a new book out, featuring all the silly Moe paintings from this Moevember!

It features all 30 of the daily Moe pieces as well as some exclusive ones that won’t be posted online! I’m very proud of it and you should buy it here. Or if you want a digital copy it’s available on Patreon!

Speaking of the Patreon, the Moevember print has been announced!

If you want this A5 print of Claude Moe-net, go find out how here! Who’s gonna stop you? Not me.

ALSO

I’ll be at THOUGHT BUBBLE COMIC CON this weekend in Harrogate! Come say hi and browse my wares!

That’s the BUBBLEBOY hall, at table D10a! I look forward to seeing you there!

Every Simpsons Character Ever #0352 - The Devil

Hmm, this might be a tricky one to define.

This is the first appearance of "Devil Classic", as I am going to call him. He appears a few times very early on, in the "Do The Batman" video, or three episodes from now in "Homer vs. Lisa and the Eighth Commandment":

As far as the show is concerned at this point, this is Satan, Lucifer, The Devil, The Big Guy...um...Downstairs, even as far as 1994 when he gets his own trading card:

If the show had been a flash-in-the-pan success, this would have remained the only version of The Devil that appeared in the show, and that would be that. But then The Simpsons did the very rude thing of existing another 30+ years, and needed to redefine the concept of Satan beyond this scrawny little Shearer-voiced dude.

I think the last "regular" appearance of Devil Classic is in season 5's "Rosebud":

before he is redefined twice just one episode later - both in a painting as a Flanders - in "Treehouse of Horror IV":

Obviously Devil Classic doesn't really fit into the story they're telling here, so The Devil is redefined for the sake of this episode. This seemingly gives them permission to ignore Devil Classic completely, and in future appearances he is altered to a scarier design, mostly in Treehouse of Horror episodes:

Although even then this newer design is somewhat inconsistent, as another design is used in season 17's "The Monkey Suit":

(Yes, this is an actor in an educational video, not literal Satan. Let's not complicate things further.)

So past season 5, Devil Classic is most dead and buried...until season 28's "Friends and Family", where he suddenly pops up with a completely different voice:

And, oddly, as the album art for season 34:

Devil Classic is therefore in some sort of limbo, which is ironic. He appears when the creators remember this version. Perhaps his shifting appearance is the greatest trick he ever pulled.

This does complicate things for out little project here so I'm going to go with my gut and do what feels right: Character #0352 is The Devil, and any future appearances of him will still be known as this character and not new versions - EXCEPT for Devil Flanders, who is enough of a presence in his own right to count as a separate character when we get to him.

Except...didn't I already cover Flanders? Oh, I'm so confused...

This post was taken from my Patreon, subscribe now to see over 300 blog entries about every Simpsons character ever.