Who came first? Bart Simpson or Artie Stick

While studying art at Missouri State University, Artie Romero created the character Artie Stick. Mr. Stick's head is a broken piece of wood. His wife is a jar of mayonnaise.

Artie Stick starred in comics, fanzines, and newspapers, including Muskrat Flyer (1974), The Everyman Flyer (1974-75), Realm #6, #7, and #8 (1975-2016), Scrabbits Reno Comics (1976), Scrabbis Treno (1977), Everyman Comics (1977), Platinum Toad (1978), Hobo Stories (1979), Stick City (1983), Arnsrarngen Comix #0 (1991), Nutso Toons #2 (2016) and other wild and wooly Everyman Studios publications.

In 1981 Romero, William Kirk Kennedy (1953-2010) and Everyman Studios formed a joint venture, Oxo Films. The only film Oxo ever completed was "King's Elevator" (1982), a 6-minute animated rock video for the band Once, AKA Gibraltar. But the Oxo crew had big plans, and their biggest was a proposed short, "Leafy Wanders in Space," which was intended to showcase Kennedy's character Leafy Wanders, Darrel Anderson's Platinum Toad, and Romero's Artie Stick.

Although nothing was ever animated, character sheets were developed, a storyboard was completed, Romero appeared on local TV news promoting the project, and in 1981, the concept piece shown above was painted by William Kirk Kennedy (1953-2010), Darrel Anderson, John Peterson and Romero. It was published as the cover of the entertainment section Weekend in the Colorado Springs Gazette newspaper, and as a back cover on The Comics Journal issue number 62, March 1981. Also in the latter, "The Colorado Cartoonists and the Disney Dream" starting on page 81, TCJ animation columnist Jim Korkis interviewed Romero and Kennedy, and some of Kennedy's concept paintings for the production were included.

After "The Simpsons" first appeared on "The Tracey Ullman Show" in 1987, and especially after they got their own show, strange things started to happen. Upon seeing Artie Stick for the first time, some people would say "Wow, he looks just like Bart Simpson!" Naturally, Romero was very annoyed by these comments, since Artie Stick comics were published for over a decade before Bart Simpson was created.

To be clear, Romero doesn't suspect Matt Groening of trying to copy his character. In fact, there are many obvious differences between Bart Simpson and Artie Stick. Cartooning is a language, with new expressions developed every day. Cartoonists have always followed other artists, learned from each other, and been very open about their influences. It's all good! But please don't say, "I see you like to copy Bart Simpson" to Romero, unless you would like to hear a rant. Mr. Stick came first!

Finally, Romero would be flattered if his work contributed in some small way to The Simpsons. But since confusion over "who copied who" continues to this day, it must be stated once and for all that Artie Stick came first. As keepers of the Everyman Studios/Oxo Films legacy, we at ARG! welcome your comments.