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March 4, 2013 12:40 PM   Subscribe

"At the time, Groening was best known as the artist of the comic Life in Hell, as The Simpsons has not yet premiered. The brochure was titled, 'Who Needs a Computer Anyway' and interspersed Groening’s Life in Hell style illustrations with standard information on Apple’s Mac computers." Apple once hired Matt Groening to do some illustrations for them.
posted by gauche (36 comments total) 25 users marked this as a favorite
 
Worth it for the HyperCard nostalgia.
posted by sparklemotion at 12:49 PM on March 4, 2013 [3 favorites]


Neat find! Although it does take me back to buying an LC III (there was like a special shop on the second floor of an office building downtown, where I sat at a desk and ordered the damn thing) and then getting pissed when a newer, faster, cheaper Mac was released 2 months later. That computer lasted me until 1999.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:52 PM on March 4, 2013


Looks like it's "feel old" week for me. The other day a college student guesting at my library asked me "How did you do mix tapes?" the way I might have asked my grandfather how a coal stove worked, I just found out Ralph Macchio is now the same age that Pat Morita was in the first Karate Kid, and now this.

Of course, in 1989 I was still writing high school essays by hand. Like, with a pen.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:58 PM on March 4, 2013 [12 favorites]


Oh, the Internet's on computers now...
posted by You Guys Like 2 Party? at 12:59 PM on March 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'm sold!

Now where do I go to buy an Apple IIcx?
posted by mazola at 1:04 PM on March 4, 2013


Many of these have been collected elsewhere (I have most of the books, somewhere). Is it fully attested that he produced these specifically for Apple, or just licensed existing artwork?
posted by dhartung at 1:08 PM on March 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


I just found out Ralph Macchio is now the same age that Pat Morita was in the first Karate Kid

Holy shit.

I remember watching Karate Kid a few years ago and the thing that struck me was that even though Ralph Macchio was 23 or so, he looks like he's friggin' 12 or something in the movie.
posted by kmz at 1:13 PM on March 4, 2013


Wow, that is really awesome! I had no idea this even existed.

Also where's that Life in Hell omnibus you briefly alluded to at some point, Matt?
posted by griphus at 1:13 PM on March 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


I just found out Ralph Macchio is now the same age that Pat Morita was in the first Karate Kid....

I've never sworn at a MeFite's comment unless that MeFite in question was being, like, racist or something similar. So, congratulations, I guess, The Card Cheat.

Also, I wanted to make some sort of jokey comment about Matt Groening being a sell out even before The Simpsons, but I can't even bear to do it for a cheap laugh. Groening's talent and things that have sprung from it have given me so much joy that I could never, ever repay him. So I'm always glad to see that anyone did it. Ever.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:19 PM on March 4, 2013 [3 favorites]


That 'dream dorm' poster is so charming. It's like somebody with talented doodled my elementary school dream house.
This brings me back to reading Life In Hell in my local alt-weekly.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 1:28 PM on March 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


Also, I wanted to make some sort of jokey comment about Matt Groening being a sell out even before The Simpsons, but I can't even bear to do it for a cheap laugh. Groening's talent and things that have sprung from it have given me so much joy that I could never, ever repay him. So I'm always glad to see that anyone did it. Ever.

I feel the same way. It's why I can't bring myself to complain about new Simpsons episodes, which I still watch every week because why not?
posted by HostBryan at 1:34 PM on March 4, 2013 [2 favorites]


Ralph Macchio is now the same age that Pat Morita was in the first Karate Kid,

Reading this physically hurt me. How did I get so old? I was being so very careful.
posted by MoxieProxy at 1:37 PM on March 4, 2013 [8 favorites]


. How did I get so old? I was being so very careful.

it's incaution that prevents oldness, not the other way round.
posted by dubold at 1:40 PM on March 4, 2013 [5 favorites]


Not to derail* but the only way to not get so old is to die. So you were actually being just careful enough by my estimation.

* though honestly, waxing bullshittily about life and death is kind of a tribute to early Matt Groening in a way.

On preview: what he said
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:41 PM on March 4, 2013


How did I get so old? I was being so very careful.

That's just it - it's the not careful who don't get to be old. Usually.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 1:41 PM on March 4, 2013


One mouse button. One rabbit ear. It all makes sense.
posted by bondcliff at 1:51 PM on March 4, 2013 [6 favorites]


I still have this brochure. It's on my bookshelf will all my other Life in Hell books.

I remember when it came out. The college bookstores had "School is Hell", "Work is Hell", and the like, so it just kind of made sense - Matt Groening is kind of edgy, this Macintosh thing is kind of edgy, okay cool...
posted by jazon at 2:23 PM on March 4, 2013


Groening-filter: I had this taped to my fridge for the longest time.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 2:43 PM on March 4, 2013 [2 favorites]


Ralph Macchio is now the same age that Pat Morita was in the first Karate Kid,

Ouch! Between this offhand comment and the 1963 thread from a few weeks ago, my looming 50th birthday just keeps getting better and better. Thanks.

Now get off my lawn.
posted by mosk at 3:06 PM on March 4, 2013


Well, I guess nobody wants to hear that Mark Hamill is now older than Alec Guinness was when the first Star Wars was filmed.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:10 PM on March 4, 2013 [4 favorites]


The Card Cheat: I hate you.
posted by litlnemo at 3:27 PM on March 4, 2013 [3 favorites]


Well, I guess nobody wants to hear that Mark Hamill is now older than Alec Guinness was when the first Star Wars was filmed.

No. No, we don't.

You're mean and I don't like your news; I'm turning off my hearing aid.
posted by mosk at 3:44 PM on March 4, 2013 [5 favorites]


Worth it for the HyperCard nostalgia.

Yep, I just came here to say awww, HyperCard...
posted by limeonaire at 3:44 PM on March 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


Of course, in 1989 I was still writing high school essays by hand. Like, with a pen.

At least you were in high school in 1989.
posted by JanetLand at 3:53 PM on March 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


I used to have those two posters hanging in my cubicle at work. It is possible I might still have them in storage.

Groening-filter: I had this taped to my fridge for the longest time.

I have this on my fridge right now.

I wish I could find one of the other comics in this series, "So You Want To Be An Artist."
posted by charlie don't surf at 4:00 PM on March 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


Ahhh, the dream dorm poster. I had one, for the longest time, before an apartment fire trashed it. Sigh.
posted by ZeusHumms at 4:18 PM on March 4, 2013


I have this on my fridge right now.

Wow, that is cutting.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:22 PM on March 4, 2013


Well, I guess nobody wants to hear that Mark Hamill is now older than Alec Guinness was when the first Star Wars was filmed.

Is there an "unfavorite" button?
posted by MoxieProxy at 4:22 PM on March 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


Oh wow, this brings back memories. I still have my collection of fake magazine cover cards that Groening did around that time, though it's something I can't seem to find much about on the interwebs. His wikipedia entry mentions Lonely Tyrant magazine; I had ones for breakups, office workers (with an article titled "501 Ways to Say I Don't Like It"), and my favorite, which will probably get my feminist card revoked, Crazed Bitch, a monthly magazine.

I always wished I'd saved the Apple things, but I still have enough of his stuff to make me happy -- including my prized possession, a drawing he did for me on my birthday, on the inside cover of Work Is Hell, featuring Bongo dreaming lazily under a puffy tree, in a field of flowers, and wishing me happy birthday.
posted by emcat8 at 4:35 PM on March 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'm getting a "page not found" error. Taken down?
posted by DarkForest at 4:45 PM on March 4, 2013


Berke Breathed did this sort of thing for the sort of free "college life" magazine that was given out on campuses as a marketing scheme a few years after he started Bloom County, and was very much of this nature, although Groening's is a bit better, I think.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:32 PM on March 4, 2013


Is this stuff collected anywhere else? I would love to see two of my favorite flavors combined.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:01 PM on March 4, 2013


> Is it fully attested that he produced these specifically for Apple, or just licensed existing artwork?

Probably somewhere in between. When I was 13 or so, after about a year of my dad and I rocking a "Bongo's Dream Dorm" poster in his bachelor pad, we bought some Life In Hell books and observed it was a very slight tweak of "Bongo's Dream House", with the generic "Computer" replaced by a Macintosh.

Thanks for the post!
posted by churl at 9:28 PM on March 4, 2013


emcat8: "I still have my collection of fake magazine cover cards that Groening did around that time, though it's something I can't seem to find much about on the interwebs."

These were definitely included in one of the Life In Hell collections.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:52 AM on March 5, 2013


One of my favorite cartoons of all time is a Groening.
posted by lslelel at 7:24 AM on March 5, 2013


The Card Cheat: "Well, I guess nobody wants to hear that Mark Hamill is now older than Alec Guinness was when the first Star Wars was filmed."

That's not quite right, is it? Principal filming for Star Wars was started March 1976. Guinness was born April 1914, so he turned 62 during filming. Hamill was born September 1951, so he is about 61.5 now.

We are safe for about six months.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:10 AM on March 5, 2013 [2 favorites]


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