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Bartkira - AKIRA x Simpsons Project Drawn by Hundreds of Fans

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R

Ran rp

Member
SPRINGFIELD IS ABOUT TO E • X • P • L • O • D • E

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Bartkira is a huge project started by cartoonist James Harvey that aims to recreate every volume of AKIRA with Simpsons characters. So far over 300 artists have joined the project to redraw 5 pages of the manga in their own style.

Note: In Ryan Humphrey's original Bartkira comic Bart was Akira. James created the final cast list with Ralph as Akira after already adopting the old name for the project. So Akiralph can be used as an alternative title to reflect the change.

James Harvey said:
A comics event where every participant takes five pages from the original AKIRA manga, to collectively redraw the entirety of Akira, in our own styles, with characters from The Simpsons.

I saw Ryan Humphrey’s incredible Bartkira piece and realised ‘ok, this needs to be a whole book’. So I took this idea to him, he gave it the go-ahead. [snip] Let’s do it.

[snip]

If 468 people take part, we get to do all six volumes. Even if only 78 are down, we’d still get the entire first volume.

Since it’ll be non-profit, parody/satire, crowdsourced and distributed peer-to-peer, I feel like it’s juuust on the right side of the legal grey area it inhabits. If not- let’s do it anyway. I’ll take the rap.

if you want to be a part of this, drop me a line at

[email protected]
Click to expand...

Original Post


The Cast

Core Characters

• Kaneda - Bart
• Tetsuo - Milhouse
• Colonel Shikishima - Skinner
• Kei - Laura Powers

The Psychic Children

• Kiyoko - Todd Flanders
• Takashi - Wendell
• Masaru - Martin Prince
• Akira - Ralph Wiggum

The School Faculty

• Teacher - Edna Krabappel
• Gym Teacher - Groundskeeper Willie
• Superintendent - Superintendent Calmers

The Colonel's Men

• Dr. Onishi - Dr. Nick Rivera
• The Scientist - Professor Frink
• The Spy - Troy McClure

The Gangs

• Kai - Dolph
• Yamagata - Nelson Muntz
• Other gang members - Jimbo and Kearney
• The Barman - Moe Syzlak
• Joker - Krusty

The Resistance

• Mr. Nezu - Mayor Quimby
• Ryu - Ned Flanders
• Chiyoko - Lunchlady Doris

Lady Miyako's Order

• Lady Miyako - Lisa
• Mozu - Sherri
• Miki - Terri
• Sakaki - Janey Powell

The Great Tokyo Empire

• Tetsuo's Aide - Sideshow Bob
• Birdman - Homer Simpson
• Human Guinea Pig - Barney Gumble
• Eggman - Kirk Van Houten
• Kaori - Samantha Stankey

The Rest

• George Yamada - Rainier Wolfcastle
• Main councilman in any given scene - Mr. Burns
• Other Councilmen - Weylon Smithers, Blue Haired Lawyer, etc.

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Click to expand...

James Harvey said:
Whew. Just assigned pages to over 300+ artists. Feel a bit like I just ran a marathon. Anyway, here’s the final cast for the Bartkira project. Some aspects of the cast list might be surprising, but I’m confident that you’ll see the logic and consideration that went into the choices I ended up making when you read the book. Believe me, I went through nearly every reasonable combination of characters and this roster works the best, in terms of character motivation and interaction.

Lisa is Lady Miyako. I don’t mind if the artists draw lisa as an old lady, a woman, a teen, or a little girl. Since she’s a powerful psychic, it’s reasonable to imagine that she’s capable of changing her appearance.

As for minor/background characters, that’ll be up to the artist to decide who they’re gonna slot in there. There’ll be no co-ordination on this aspect of it, so it should lead to some interesting results. I don’t mind if you put in generic background cast or known characters we’ll recognise.

If you want to see the artist roster as it stands right now, it’s here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvXKD7Va1OYedFJDeTJRSk41RDVhQ2NSNERSV3NkVnc#gid=0

Here’s the rules and guidelines for the project. This is going to be in the email I’m about to send out to all the contributors, but in the eventuality that you’re a contributor and you see this before I have a chance to send out the email, I may as well stick ‘em here too.


RULES AND GUIDELINES

I want to keep this as free-wheeling as possible, but I came up with a couple of rules to make sure the book reads nicely as a whole.

-Please put the page number bottom-centre of each page you work on. Be sure to write your name discreetly on the bottom right of the last page you do, too, so people will know it’s you.

-ALWAYS always change character names in the dialogue to their Simpsons equivalent. So Tetsuo is always ‘Milhouse’, ‘Akira’ is always ‘Ralph’. Mr. Nezu is always Mayor Quimby.

-When spoken in dialogue or narration, ALWAYS change the words “Neo-Tokyo” to ‘Springfield’. ‘Japan’ to ‘America’. ‘America’ is now ‘China’.

-however, DON’T change inner-city location names when they’re referred to in the dialogue. if you want to change the council chambers to look like Burnsie’s power plant, though, that’s up to you.

- it’s up to you whether a character wears their outfit from The Simpsons or their equivalent’s outfit in Akira. Sometimes costume changes are worked into the plot, though… so if Tetsuo puts on a cape or a fur coat, then you should probably give Milhouse a cape/fur coat too.

-in the few occasions where I’ve cast against gender, you should swap the gendered pronouns- so ‘Kiyoko is in her room’ becomes ‘Todd is in HIS room’.

-Make it awesome


SUBMITTING YOUR WORK

Eventually, I’m going to put this all together in one torrent file available for everyone to download. To make things easier on me, when you’re finished, send your work to the [email protected] inbox in the following format:

Subject header: SUBMISSION

attach your files as one .zip file

JPEG format- highest quality compression

dimensions: 1020 x 1492

filename : Bartkira_X_pYYY.jpg (where X is the volume number and Y is the page number.)

DEADLINE IS MAY 24th!

Feel free to put your work on social media as soon as you’ve done it, too! There’s no moratorium on breaking ‘street date’, or anything like that. tag it with #bartkira, of course. and if you want to help out, include a link to my tumblr at harveyjames.tumblr.com, since we’re still in need of artists. I’m also @jamesharveytm on twitter.

GETTING THE BOOK

If you don’t have a copy of the book, you can get it from your local library- or [GAF Abuse: Buy it!]

I could probably say a whole bunch more, but I feel like the less guidelines I give you, the more surprised we’re all going to be at the end.

Good luck!

“Embrace Nothingness” - Lisa Simpson


If you still want to apply, email [email protected].
Click to expand...

Cast List Post


And the original Bartkira comic by Ryan Humphrey. Link.

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Click to expand...

There are still pages left if anyone wants to hop onto the project. Just send an email to [email protected] All gone!


I've already seen a few WIP from artists on Tumblr and the project is definitely off to a good start. The final book is going to be incredible.
 
R

Ran rp

Member
I scanned through the list of artists and there are some seriously talented people working on this. Reading through the book with a fresh coat of paint every few pages is going to be as trippy as those style-swapping/ tribute episodes of popular television shows.
 
R

Ran rp

Member
Bombadil said:
If Milhouse it Tetsuo and Bart is Kaneda, then why does the art in the OP seem to show Bart as Tetsuo?
Click to expand...

That was the original setup for Ryan Humphrey's comic. When James Harvey decided to turn it into a community project he changed the cast list.

James Harvey said:
Whew. Just assigned pages to over 300+ artists. Feel a bit like I just ran a marathon. Anyway, here’s the final cast for the Bartkira project. Some aspects of the cast list might be surprising, but I’m confident that you’ll see the logic and consideration that went into the choices I ended up making when you read the book. Believe me, I went through nearly every reasonable combination of characters and this roster works the best, in terms of character motivation and interaction.
Click to expand...
 
R

Ran rp

Member
Exterminieren said:
Why is it Bartkira if Ralph is playing Akira?

Boy, I hope somebody got fired for that blunder.
Click to expand...

Because it was Bartkira in the original comic. James created the final cast list with Ralph as Akira after already adopting the old name. He said people can call it Akiralph if they want.
 
S

Shiv47

Member
This just seems...dumb. It's like a Saturday Night Live skit stretched out to movie length.

Nofunallowed.jpg
 
V

VGChampion

Member
I want to like this but I just don't know if I'll be able to enjoy it as much as I should. It annoys be when different artists come in in entirely different issues if it's the same arc.
 
B

bbyybb

CGI bullshit is the death knell of cinema
Pretty cool project. I haven't watched Akira in years, time for a re-watch.

Never got around to reading the Manga, is it worth a read?
 
S

speedpop

Has problems recognising girls
bbyybb said:
Pretty cool project. I haven't watched Akira in years, time for a re-watch.

Never got around to reading the Manga, is it worth a read?
Click to expand...

Definitely. The Akira manga is a dear favourite. It might make your head spin more than the film ever did, but the expansion of themes, story, and characterizations are more than enough to merit it. Go forth, stallion!
 
E

EVIL

Member
I have joined this project a couple of days ago, my 5 pages will be featured in volume 6
(pages 251 - 255)
Will post stuff when I can

So fucking exited to see this project come together! 460 + artist! amazing stuff!

BenjaminBirdie said:
DANG. Too late.
Click to expand...
have you emailed them? they might need some backup crew in case some drop out. they also need cover artists and some other random stuff.
 
R

Ran rp

Member
EVIL said:
I have joined this project a couple of days ago, my 5 pages will be featured in volume 6
(pages 251 - 255)
Will post stuff when I can

So fucking exited to see this project come together! 460 + artist! amazing stuff!


have you emailed them? they might need some backup crew in case some drop out. they also need cover artists and some other random stuff.
Click to expand...

Awesome! Can't wait to see your pages.
 
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