I'm sure I'm not the only 1970s TESC grad to be asked this question over and over: "Did you know Matt Groaning?" No. But I knew a great guy named Matt Groening (rhymes with "raining"). Here is my collage of Matt memories ...

--He was one of the very first people I met at TESC after I enrolled. We were neighbors in A Dorm. Before I met him, I noticed the stairway walls were covered with variations on the "happy face" icon (e.g. Thalidomide Happy Face) and I soon discovered the author of this grafitti was Matt. Right away we established that we were both life-long cartoonists with many of the same influences. However, he had one up on me. He was the son of a cartoonist, named Homer Groening.

More on the flip...

--Matt loved Frank Zappa, had a thing about the name "Joe Bemis," and the DC Comics character "Bizarro Perry White."

--He was ambitious without being pushy. I think Matt wanted to be a writer more than anything. He could frequently be found devouring periodicals in the Library.

--As editor of the CPJ, Matt asked his writers to go easy on using swear words because he didn't want to upset the sensibilities of Billie, the nice middle-aged matron who was the typesetter.

--I worked on the CPJ staff as a production manager and cartoon contributor during Matt's tenure. I remember the custodians talking about catching Matt asleep on the office couch when they opened up in the morning. He had been working on the paper all night.

--Matt wanted to establish a regular comix page for the paper, and when he asked me to join up he said he wanted to rattle the faculty and the administration. But what happened was this-- his humor was so sophisticated, the very people he was trying to bug loved his work. But the students became irate! "I didn't mean for it to turn out like this!" Matt lamented with his head in his hands. It was my first real lesson in the intolerance of political correctness.

--There was a cartoonist at the CPJ named Charles Burns. I don't know if his middle name is Montgomery.

--Matt graduated a couple years ahead of me but stayed in touch for awhile by sending copies of this great little photocopied book called Life In Hell from his new home in Los Angeles.

--Even though I was an aimless backwoods kid among a group of directed urban sophisticates, Matt never made me feel like I didn't belong. Cartoonists, as a rule, are very self-absorbed, but Matt is a rare exception. In terms of helping his staff grow, Matt was a really great editor.

--One of my favorite memories of Matt was spending time just sitting and experimenting together with the subtle nuances of drawing eyebrows on cartoon characters to get certain effects. There were not many people at TESC I could talk with about that kind of thing.

--Matt was CPJ editor during an exciting time, when Dan Evans was selected as Charles McCann's replacement. The CPJ offices was the place to be when it came to sorting the gossip from the news. Or combining them. I think we all expected Matt to become a great journalist.

--Matt, if you're out there you can call me too.