'The Simpsons' creator Matt Groening is coming to Australia for the GRAPHIC festival

Matt Groening, the man behind the longest running scripted show in television history, is coming to Sydney. The headline speaker will be sharing stories, from the making of “The Simpsons,” as well as showing home movies and rarely seen animations, including uncensored “Itchy & Scratchy” cartoons.

Matt will present a talk titled "Secrets Of The Simpsons, And A Couple Of Fun Milhouse Facts" at the Sydney Opera House in the first week of November. The cartoonist is making his first trip to Australia for this year’s GRAPHIC Festival.

“The most intense “Simpsons” fanatics I’ve met are from Australia, so I’m coming to Sydney to check out all you lunatics,” Matt said in a statement that accompanied the announcement. “I’m going to share stories of the making of 'The Simpsons' and show embarrassing home movies and rarely-seen animation, including oddball outtakes and uncensored 'Itchy & Scratchy' cartoons.”

Friend and fellow cartoonist Lynda Barry will join Groening for a talk called "Love, Hate & Comics: The Friendship That Would Not Die." Both the talks will be exclusive experiences to GRAPHIC Festival.

Some fans took to Twitter to express their excitement.

GRAPHIC co-curator, Ben Marshall, says that the fest has been chasing Groening to appear for six years, and he rarely makes appearances outside the US, so this is quite a big deal. Also on the lineup for the festival are a series of paid and free shows. Among them are a live scoring of “Star Wars” creator George Lucas’ directorial debut, “THX 1138,” by British electronica group Asian Dub Foundation; a talk with Australian illustrator Michael Leunig; and a film looking back at the work of graphic novelist Alan Moore.

The sixth Graphic Festival is taking place on Nov. 4-5, celebrating storytelling across illustration, comics, animation and music. The tickets go on sale at 9 AM on Friday, Sep. 16.