"Losers who Win"

"'I had this vague idea of invading pop culture,' Oregon native Groening said of his early days in Los Angeles, which he chose over New York as the warmer, drier place to live in poverty while planning that coup. 'I remember hanging out, just down this street, in Astro Burger with [artist friends] Gary Panter and Byron Werner and scheming how to do it. Gary had written an art manifesto about it and Byron said, no, that we were sell outs, as we split a burger three ways.'"

In the Los Angeles Times, Robert Lloyd talks with Matt Groening on occasion of the 500th episode of The Simpsons.