Mapping Springfield

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Springfield
Even for someone like myself who hasn’t seen a new episode of The Simpsons in years, it’s hard not to be impressed by the obsessive fanboyishness of Dan Cameron Jerry Lerma and Terry Hogan who mapped the entire fictional city of the Simpsons’ Springfield. Here’s a link to the full-sized map.

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  • http://dailygrail.com/blog/8389 red pill junkie

    A big toast of Duff for you Dan’o :0)

  • http://themovierats.com Ian V.

    Oh, cool =D I had found this a while ago (last year, I think), but still: Awesooome! They did a great job with this.

  • http://checkeredgeekcartoons.blogspot.com Zach

    That map looks loosely based on Portland, OR, where Matt Groening grew up. Much of Springfield is based on Portland and its surrounding towns. My step sister’s gym teacher at Lincoln high school was actually the guy Mr. Burns was based on. Rusty Nails, a local clown, served as the inspiration for Krusty. You can’t watch the Simpsons in Portland without seeing trivia before commercial breaks about which streets in Portland the characters were named after and whatnot (Flanders, Lovejoy, etc). Anyway, just thought I’d point that out.

  • Dustin

    *scoffs* That’s completely inaccurate.

  • The Animator

    The Simpsons have never been my cup of tea but kudos on the map, it looks well thought out.

  • Andrew

    Proof that Springfield is NOT shaped like a circle.

  • Chuck R.

    Zach, help me out. Is Mo’s on there?

  • EHH

    … and yet they still have town meetings. I love the Simpsons.

  • jim

    wow… gotta love some crazy fanboys. i think the simpsons is due for a second renaissance. a few new episodes have some golden days simpson magic and the new itchy and scratchy segments have some great cartoony animation ch ch check it out!

  • Jon Reeves

    Moe’s is on the corner of Second and Walnut.

    Not sure why Dan Cameron is getting the credit, though, when this is clearly marked copyright Jerry Lerma and Terry Hogan; alas, their web site is gone — the CSU Pomona link on the map redirects to mapofspringfield.com which is now just a squatter site.

    There’s an interactive version, with popup images, at http://adn.blam.be/springfield/

  • http://www.kweb.be/ ADN

    I have to add some words about this map.

    This incredible work has been made years ago by Jerry Lerma and Terry Hogan (you can even download the PDF-file on mapofspringfield.com) with the informations they had at that time, 19 seasons and a movie later, it’s clear that now, it’s inaccurate.

    Some time ago now, I made a Flash based version to add some screencaps on it, you can see it here: http://adn.blam.be/springfield/
    Don’t hesitate to give some feedback. I’m stil adding some caps from time to time. ;-)

  • Mackan

    Saw this a while back, two years ago I think. Pretty fun to look on, must’ve been hard to puzzle together.

    @ADN:

    Of course it’s inaccurate, buildings move around all the time in Springfield. In one episode the Nuke Plant parking lot was right next to the Simpsons residence. In another episode the Kwick-E-Mart was right behind the Simpsons house and in yet another ep there was a big nice building (sort of like Mr Burns’ house) right in front of the Simpsons house. I’m sure I could find a lot more examples but haven’t watched Simpsons in a long time now. I mean they can’t even stick to one layout in the Simpsons house, the walls and rooms move around very often. The surroundings in The Simpsons can be bent in whichever way they need to be in order to fit to a good joke.

    Pretty nice flash map you’ve made there. I’d love to see that as a stand-alone .swf file so it can spread and still exist on the Internet when your website goes down. So when you’re done (haven’t updated it in like 6 months) please make a standalone .swf version of that map, because I’m sure you don’t want all your work wasted the day you die or when your site goes down or whatever may happen.

  • Jon Reeves

    Also, there’s a 2002 interview with Lerma at http://www.simpsonsfolder.com/scrapbook/articles/roadtojerry.html which is somewhat illuminating (particularly on the artistic liberties he took over the inconsistencies Mackan notes). I found it last night when hunting for a replacement to the dead site. Alas, archive.org is blocked by robots.txt (perhaps the one installed by the squatter).

  • Susana

    wow that is awesome and impressive!! go jerry and terry!

  • http://www.mrgreen.be/ ADN

    @Mackan:
    Thanks for your comment.
    I’ll update the map soon with screencaps but for now I’m still redevelopping some stuffs in the Flash (really oooooold-school Flash dev, and I have to change things now, else, it’s too heavy to update).
    Once everything’s done, I’ll do a standalone version.

  • http://www.how-to-draw-funny-cartoons.com Imaginatoon

    Nice work!

    I’m not sure if it’s 100% accurate but it’s fun to see it all at once!