Signed book: Akbar & Jeff's Guide to Life. Later printing. NY: Pantheon Books, 1989. Softcover, 9 x 9, 48 pages. Signed on the inside front cover in black ballpoint, "Your pals, Akbar & Jeff & Matt Groening, 6-23-1993," who adds a rare full-length sketch of Akbar and Jeff standing outdoors on a sunny day, with Groening adding a speech bubble inscription above, “Yo, Michael!!" In fine condition. Accompanied by a letter of transmittal from Jeannine Crowell of Matt Groening Productions, dated September 29, 1993, typed on The Simpsons letterhead.
Akbar and Jeff were initially described in various strips and interviews as 'either brothers or lovers — or both,' with Groening later affirming that the fez-wearing characters from the Life In Hell comic strip—created from failed attempts to draw Charlie Brown from Peanuts—are in fact gay in an article printed in the February 1991 edition of the LGBT newsmagazine The Advocate. While Akbar and Jeff were perhaps Groening’s first homosexual characters, they were not his last: Waylon Smithers, the chief servant of Mr. Burns, and Patty Bouvier, the sister of Marge Simpson, are popular gay side characters on The Simpsons. A decidedly uncommon Groening sketch of characters that helped further the presence of the LGBT culture in comics, cartoons, and animation.
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