Bart Simpson #76

“TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS IN CASH!” — Bart Simpson

“Fund-Razing”

Bart and Lisa must resort to sabotage when their classmates are misled into believing that there’s easy money to be had in their most recent school fundraiser!
Published by Bongo • October 31, 2012

Written by John Jackson Miller

Pencils by John Delaney

Inks by Andrew Pepoy

Lettered by Karen Bates

Colored by Art Villanueva

Cover by Jason Ho and Mike Rote

Edited by Nathan Kane and Terry Delegeane

Also contains “Flight of Fantasy” by Evan Dorkin and Eric Shanower and “Southern Fried Simpsons” by Peter Kuper

Seven years passed between my first and second stories for Bart Simpson; I got a little busy in there. But I wrote two stories that were accepted in quick succession, and they were tremendous fun.

Probably the most fun thing about “Fund-Razing” was the fact that the inspiration, as with my previous Simpsons story, came from real life. I was in high school when a speaker came in to promote a fund-raising effort — and he kept rattling off a list of things students would win if they sold such-and-such number of boxes of candy. As he reached the crescendo, he tried to name the top prize — only to be drowned out when a kid in the bleachers yelled “Ten thousand dollars in cash!” The audience broke down in laughter, and the speaker couldn’t get anyone’s attention after that.

So naturally, in my story, Bart took that role. And naturally Gil took the role of the poor salesman. I don’t know where you are now, school marketing-type, but thanks for the inspiration!

“C’mon, guys — there’s still some chip gut at the bottom of the snack machine.” — Moe

I am delighted to have gotten a joke about Marvin Kalb into a comic book. I have no idea exactly why.

And “Freedom!” is naturally a Braveheart joke. And so it goes…