Simpsons Illustrated (or, an Aborted Bongo Comics Look-Back)

I can’t remember when I first saw an episode of The Simpsons. I know for sure I started watching new episodes in season 10, but I can’t recall when I started regularly watching reruns before that. I consider myself within the second generation of Simpsons fans, as I was born right around when the series began, being a literal infant during the heyday of Bart-Mania, then discovering the show and becoming a fan at the tail end of the 1990s. But even though I missed that initial wave of popularity, I was still growing up in a world where The Simpsons‘s presence in every day life was inescapable, with Bart Simpson being as ubiquitous for a 90s kid as Batman or the Ninja Turtles. I also grew up with the show being considered somewhat taboo; it wasn’t out-and-out banned in my house, but I was strongly encouraged by my mother to not watch it at a young age, until she eventually relented when I got older. For whatever reason, this restriction did not extend to non-show-related material, so…