Drawing a "Simpsons"-like Fireman
By Ace Starry
My wife and I have a group of terrific friends. They are a great
bunch of people, but chances are pretty good that they will never
appear as Simpson characters. So for the record, these are
NOT
THE SIMPSONS! They in fact are just cartoon people
that couldn't make the Simpsons. Unlike the rich and famous that
become Simpson characters, these are a Simson parody not a
derivative work of fan art. Anyway so much for the legal mumbo, let
me tell you how this all came about.
It all started when one of my good friends, Kevin (who goes by the
nickname of "Snake,") was going to have a 40th birthday
party. He is a New York City Fireman. One of the guys who we talk
about as being "New York's Finest." And we mean it when we
say it. I had no idea what to get this NYFD,
rush-into-a-burning-building to save people type guy. He had many of
his friends and fellow fire fighters perish in the 9/11 attack on
The World Trade Center. I wanted his present to be something good.
Something that would make him laugh and feel good himself.
Well, I had a crazy idea that led me to a whole heck of a lot of
work. I'll explain. You see, I knew that Snake loved the Simpsons .
He was constantly quoting Homer Simpson, or Bart Simpson. He had a
Simpson bottle opener. He owned a "Dancing Homer Santa."
It wasn't a stretch at all to think that I could give him some sort
of Simpson paraphernalia. 
Well, I'm a little more creative than that, so I thought, "Why
not draw him as a Simpson's fireman?" I'd then make an iron-on
transfer and put it on a shirt for him. So I tackled the project in
Corel-Draw. I was familiar with what a Simpson looked like: the
yellow skin, the bulging eyes and no chins. So when I was finished I
had a picture that looked like this:
This
turned out was a great present. In fact it was too good. Another of
my good friends, Smelly Mike Kelly, announced that his fourtieth
birthday was coming up too. He wanted one for himself, and he loved
the Simpsons just as much as Kevin. I didn't realize that he was the
first of a group of thirteen friends that were about to turn forty
in the next couple of years. All of the sudden each of them wanted a
"Not Good Enough To Be A Simson" character. So the next
was an English teacher named "Smelly" Well here is what
ol' Smelly turned out to look like. Then it was my own wife, who has
due to the turn of a clever phrase from her sister, come to be known
as "Auntie Pasto."
Well, before I knew it I had a whole group of friends and for
Christmas I put them all together, just like one of the parties that
we have where we all do... well just look in the drawing, that's
pretty much what these "Not Famous Enough To Be A Simpson's"
do.
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