| Sitting down to do an interview with Calgary author Chris Turner is a surprising experience. Given the fact that his first book, Planet Simpson, is a lengthy, oversized tome billed as "How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation," it’s easy to think you’re going to be sitting down with an obsessive, superior-sounding nerd. In other words, you expect to get the Comic Book Guy – the obsessive, pony-tailed recurring Simpsons character who sits behind his store counter, ample gut exposed, sneering at everyone who doesn’t appreciate the genius of Radioactive Man comics, Star Trek and Itchy and Scratchy cartoons.
Chris Turner is not that dude. Rather, he is a welcoming, thoughtful married guy who is comfortable talking to you regardless of your Simpsons knowledge quotient. He is so laidback and approachable, you almost have to match the photo on the back of the book to his smiling, bearded visage to ensure you’re talking to the man who has written this formidable, detail-laden examination of the world-shaping TV institution.
Planet Simpson’s origins lie in an article ("The Simpsons Generation") Turner wrote back in 2002 for the 10th anniversary issue of the now-defunct Shift Magazine. Charged with looking back at a decade’s worth of culture, Turner decided to do it through the Simpsons. He knew, as all Simpsons loyalists know, that the series, now into its 16th season, has a reference for almost any intellectual point you’d ever want to make.
"This show has an educated fan base," says Turner. "I wanted to show my skills to (these viewers) by unearthing some things they had never heard of. But, I also thought that for people who are not huge fans of the show or the ones who’ve only seen a few episodes, I wanted it to be coherent. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just an insider kind of thing."
Turner is well aware that there are real Comic Book Guys who live and breathe The Simpsons and will be ever-so-ready to dissect his findings. "I know those fans are out there and I know I can’t please them all, " he says, "but I also think I have come closer to the tone of the show and its fans than the other stuff written about the series. Other than whatever segment of the hardcore fan base that cannot be pleased, I think it’s a book most will find is their sort of thing."
From the identification of Bart Simpson as a punk icon to evidence of how a Canadian sensibility has been stamped onto the show, the insight provided by Planet Simpson is relentless. It’s all the more impressive when one realizes that Turner put everything together without the advantage of interviews with the show’s creators (Matt Groening and James L. Brooks), or its top writers and directors. "I had anticipated my access would be less than complete," says Turner, "but I was a little surprised and disappointed that I didn’t get any access at all." But, he contends that, even if he had done the interviews, "the fundamental structure of the book wouldn’t have changed. The way I had it planned out, it wasn’t going to be a behind-the-scenes narrative history of the show."
Instead, it is an all-encompassing look at the significance of an animated show that, while well past its golden age (seasons four through eight, according to Turner), still has the ability to stir things up, get people talking and make you laugh until you pee – all at the same time. |
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