While American studios have reportedly abandoned their plans for a live-action remake of Akira, that hasn’t prevented others from putting their own stamp on the beloved Japanese property. Recently there was this fan-created trailer—though that was missing a certain amount of pop cultural cachet and jaundiced skin. But that void has now been filled with the release of Bartkira, a 96-page comic book that’s the result of 19 artists collaborating on combining The Simpsons with Akira.
In a testament to the enduring nature of the creations of Matt Groening and Katsuhiro Otomo, as well as the ever-deepening well of nerdery on the Internet, the comic began as an online project by artist James Harvey, who proposed to recreate every page of Akira using characters from The Simpsons. Many joined in on the experiment, and the fruits of their collective labor can be found on the Bartkira Tumblr page. And for those really invested in the idea, the first print volume of the project is now available for purchase from Floating World comics. No word on when the project might venture into pog form.