The Simpsons has been on the air for over thirty years, making it one of the longest-running series in the history of television. It has left an indelible mark on three generations growing up with it, all the while reflecting and critiquing different aspects of contemporary society. One constant in the series from early on was the show's appreciation of comic book culture, with the character Comic Book Guy making his debut in the second season.

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Since then, The Simpsons has discussed everything from Comic-Con to literary graphic novels to the popularity of comic book movies.

10 Stan Lee

Writer and editor Stan Lee is the face of Marvel Comics, having created most of the iconic superheroes for which the Marvel Universe is known. He has had two appearances on The Simpsons (as well as some uncredited appearances as a background character).

His first appearance was in the episode "I Am Furious Yellow." When Bart shows off a comic strip he made to Comic Book Guy, Stan Lee appears in the shop to both critique and encourage Bart's artistic endeavors. There are some great references to Doctor Doom and Mjolnir, as well as Stan striking a heroic pose in the doorway, only to proclaim a moment later that his "Spidey sense is tingling." In a hilarious bit of metafiction, he later appears in the episode "Married to the Blob," stealing comics from the rack, only to have a second version of him appear as a dream-like hallucination with similarities to Uatu the Watcher--a role many fans believed he also had in the MCU.

9 Women of Comics

In the episode "Springfield Splendor," Lisa begins art therapy to help with her depression, having her mother Marge help her illustrate a graphic novel about her real-life experiences. The comic is found by Comic Book Guy's wife Kumiko who prints it without permission.

The comic proves so successful that Marge and Lisa are invited onto a panel of successful women in the comics industry, part of the Bimonthly Sci-Fi Convention. As part of the cringily named Chix with Pix panel, they sit at a table with Alison Bechdel (creator of the Bechdel Test and the autobiographical comic Fun Home) and Marjane Satrapi (whose two-volume graphic memoir Persepolis tells the story of her growing up in Iran). The panel's moderator is Roz Chast, a cartoonist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker.

8 Mr. Burns's Bat-Grapple

The Simpsons began to improve in quality around the fourth season, which coincidentally was when the series began to include a number of references to Batman comics. Most of these references are small one-off gags, but they never get old.

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The best example of such a gag is when Mr. Burns tries to escape an uncomfortable situation at a town meeting by having Smithers rescue him with a gadget suspiciously similar to Batman's grapple gun.

7 Alan Moore and the League of Extraordinary Freelancers

When a second comic shop is opened in Springfield, the shop's owner, Milo, invites some very special guests: Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman, and Daniel Clowes. When Lisa praises Clowes for his work on the indie graphic novel Ghost World, he asks if she knows anyone who can help him write Batman.

Meanwhile, Bart praises Alan Moore for his work on Radioactive Man (the Simpsons comic character parodying Superman). "You like that I made your favorite superhero a heroin-addicted jazz critic who's not radioactive?" Moore asks Bart, describing a dark deconstruction of superheroes akin to Moore's work on Miracleman. When Milhouse asks Moore to sign the DVD "Watchmen Babies: V For Vacation," the artist responds with a rant about how corporations destroy artists' vision until he is calmed by Maus-creator Art Spiegelman.

6 Neil Gaiman's The Sandman

Neil Gaiman appears in the episode "The Book Job," where he helps Bart, Homer, and a group of other characters try to make a hit children's fantasy series.

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When Gaiman appears, Moe holds a knife to the author's throat, at which point Patty tells Moe not to kill him as "that's Neil Gaiman!" Moe responds, "I don't care if he's the guy who wrote Sandman Volume 1: Preludes and Nocturnes." A moment later, Gaiman gestures to a display of some of his most famous books, including a volume of The Sandman.

5 "Married to the Blob"

The episode "Married to the Blob" may be the single greatest tribute to comics in the whole series. After its amazing opening sequence (more on that later), the story focuses on the local comic shop having a midnight release for the new Radioactive Man #1. A scene filled with cosplaying shoppers (and writer Harlan Ellison) leads to Comic Book Guy singing a musical solo as the art emulates comic pages.

A woman enters the shop and shows Comic Book Guy her autobiographical memoir (inspired by Scott Pilgrim). The episode also features a comic convention, a fetus cosplaying as Catwoman, Stan Lee, and a drunken hallucination inspired by the works of Hayao Miyazaki.

4 The Death of Radioactive Man

The opening scene of "Married to the Blob" is so good that it deserves its own section. Set within a Radioactive Man comic, it opens with him responding to a Sky Tweet (inspired by the Bat Signal) written by Jim Gordon stand-in Commissioner Sweeney.

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The hero fights a series of villains, including Petroleus Rex (an homage to the Spider-Man enemy the Lizard, complete with a matching backstory). When the story ends with the hero's death, the scene changes to Bart closing a comic whose  art invokes The Death of Superman.

3 Everyman

Comic Book Guy created an ongoing series about an original superhero, Every Man, who can absorb the powers of characters in other comics. This involves him gaining the ability to stretch from Plastic Man, turning his body into an Iron Man mech suit, and gaining Captain America's patriotism.

Homer Simpson stars as Every Man in a movie adaptation, where he fights the Lizard (apparently a favorite villain among the Simpsons staff).

2 Little Lulu

This is an older comic and a somewhat obscure reference, but Little Lulu used to be incredibly popular. Alan Moore is apparently a fan of the comic, as he literally sings about his love for the character in the episode "Husbands and Knives."

After this, her comics repeatedly appear in the background of Comic Book Guy's shop throughout the series, suggesting that Alan Moore's love of the character created a demand for it in Springfield's comic community.

1 "Dark Knight Court"

When Mr. Burns decides to become a superhero, he uses his wealth to dress up as "Fruit Batman." Smithers pays characters to dress up as costumed villains so that Burns can fight Catwoman, the Joker, and other classic rogues.

When Burns is finally given an opportunity to do real good, he balks at the idea of actually helping real people in need. The episode ends with Nick Fury assembling an Avengers-type squad of elderly vigilantes. Needless to say, the world would be a more interesting place if more octogenarians dressed up to fight crime.

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