When it comes to The Simpsons, there are funny characters, funnier characters, and the funniest characters. Comic Book Guy, voiced by Hank Azaria, falls under the 'funniest characters.' Why does he fall under the category? Comic Book Guy may appear like an overgrown man-child to the outsider, but he's just misunderstood and a reflection of all of us in the fandom community.
Comic Book Guy, whose real name is Jeff Albertson, owns The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop, one of Springfield's few comic book stores. As such, he has taken on a passionate and sarcastic demeanor, often seeing himself as an equal to Springfield's younger crowd. It's pretty hilarious when a grown man approaching 40 would have anything in common with a 10-year-old, in the example of Bart Simpson. Other than comics and pop culture trivia, there's not much else, but the interactions make the duo more relatable than we initially believed.
One of Comic Book Guy's identifiable arcs is his numerous one-liners. He has used them consistently throughout the show over the 36 seasons, always delivering a reaction. We heard him say, "No groaning in my store" to the "worst ever," and my favorite, "There's no emoticon to express how I feel!" Seriously, this is one prediction that came true, as we frequent device users are drowned in a sea of emojis as we tried with precarious effort to shell out the right one.
So Comic Book Guy is really us in animated form and we had no clue up until now.
According to Matt Groening, Comic Book Guy is based off all the comic book store owners across America, as they seem to know everything about entertainment, hold a high IQ, and tend to discourse with other fans about comics.
Under the cropped blue t-shirt, red shorts, goatee, ponytail, and his love of collecting pop cult memorabilia, Comic Book Guy has needs that generate his realism and vulnerability. So, he gets married to someone who shares his interests, discovering a world that isn't dominant to comic books and POP! Figures, and he likes it.
Well anyway, no matter the scenario Comic Book Guy is in, he gets a laugh out of me every time.
Hank Azaria slips into Comic Book Guy at NYCC 2024's The Simpsons panel
Comic Book's Guy's voice actor, Hank Azaria, was joined by The Simpsons' creator, Matt Groening, co-executive producers Caroline Omine and Tim Long, and showrunner Matt Selman for the first-ever The Simpsons panel at New York Comic Con 2024. Azaria's ability to slip into character at any time is just like breathing in oxygen; it's natural. And hilarious.
While I wasn't at the panel in person, I did watch it live on YouTube. I love The Simpsons as a show, the magic behind its creation, and how it became such an icon. That, to me (and maybe other The Simpsons fans), is fascinating, as there's so much commitment that folds into a twenty-two-minute episode, let alone in a full season.
During the panel, Azaria slipped into Comic Book Guy, reading a letter written by one of the writers when he had COVID-19. In the letter, Azaria thanks the fans for coming out and how NYCC was his first Comic Con in history.