By various (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78329-449-7
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Fun festive Frolics in the old school style… 9/10
The comic has been with us a long time now and debate still continues about where, when and exactly what constitutes the first of these artefacts to truly earn the title. There’s a lot less debate about the children’s annual, a particularly British institution and one that continues – albeit in a severely limited manner – to this day.
It’s a rare Brit who never received a colourful card-covered compendium on Christmas morning, full of stories and comic-strips and usually featuring the seasonal antics of their favourite characters, whether from comics such as Beano, Dandy, Lion, Eagle and their ilk, pop stars, television, film or radio franchises and personalities such as TV21, Radio Fun, Arthur Askey, Dr Who, Star Wars or even peculiar and ephemeral somethings trending at a given moment.
There were also sports books and beautifully illustrated commemorative editions of the fact and general knowledge comics such as Look and Learn and special generational unmissables such as Giles, The Broons, Oor Wullie or the always glorious Rupert Annuals.
The Simpsons first aired as a series in December 1989 after debuting as a segment on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. It is currently the longest running sitcom, longest-running animated program and longest-running scripted primetime television series in American entertainment history. Once the show became a runaway hit, Bongo Comics was formed in 1993 by Steve and Cindy Vance, Bill Morrison and inspirational creator Matt Groening as an adjunct to the TV show, to provide extra Springfield madness for the masses.
British Comics have always fed heavily on other media and as television grew during the 1960s – especially the area of children’s shows and cartoons – those programmes increasingly became the staple source for the Seasonal Annual market, replacing radio and movie personalities as fodder for fun and imagination. As the years passed, there would be a profusion of stories and strips targeting not readers but young viewers and more and more often the stars would be , not British.
Perhaps the nation’s most impressive and long-lived modern purveyor of the once ubiquitous gifting standby is the mini-franchise of monthly comics and books starring the aforementioned cartoon phenomenon and this year’s Cool Yule offerings boast a family fun-fest featuring all of the Springfield Irregulars but also a canny collection of capers starring the poster child for children who belong on wanted posters…
This collection of strip shenanigans – all culled from the pages of the mighty Bongo Comics – opens with ‘Elementary School Dropout’ (by Earl Kress, Joey Nilges & Andrew Pepoy) which details how, after a particularly unsavoury expression of recreational nudity, young Bart finally succeeds in being expelled from school.
After failing to get the anarchic little nonconformist into any other educational establishment in the country Marge and Homer are depressed, defeated and resigned to having the smug horror at home for good, but eventually boredom and ostracism compel Bart to get himself back into school… with the connivance of a most unexpected ally…
The madness expands to include professional Scotisher Groundskeeper Willie who takes centre stage to reminisce aboot his pop-star days as a drummer in ‘Willie and the Weasels’ (Mary Trainor, James Lloyd & Pepoy): a shocking expose of the cruel and callous treatment sensitive musicians endured in the swingin’ sixties…
Then ‘Mrs. Bart Krabappel!’ (Tom Peyer, Nilges & Pepoy) outrageously details how Bart’s appetite for chaos causes his long-suffering teacher to be arrested. In an example of pure ingenuity the Judge sentences her to live with the Simpsons, where a strange relationship gradually develops…
Bart and best bud Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten subsequently test the boundaries of science, nature and imagination in ‘With Great Power…’ (Max Davison, Nina Matsumoto & Pepoy), engineering “accidents†and even nuclear calamities in a wild quest to develop superpowers before the discovery of a strange book creates the perfect conditions for a children’s cult in ‘One for All and Alpha One’ (by Trainor, Lloyd & Pepoy)…
The world turns upside down when School Superintendent Chalmers fires Mr. Skinner and makes Bart ‘Principal Simpson’ (Peyer, Mike DeCarlo & Ken Wheaton) for a day. Oddly, the exercise seems to the liberation of both and leads to a strange rapprochement after which ‘Treehouse of Chimps’ (John Zakour, John Delaney & Pepoy) concludes the seasonal celebration in fine style as three of Professor Frink‘s lab monkeys – hopped up on Primate Intelligence Enhancer – set up their own science experiment to observe the wild, undomesticated inhabitants of Springfield in their (un)natural environments…
Wry, hilarious, surreal and satirical, abounding in slapstick and poor taste gags, these dynamic tales of the world’s foremost mischief test-pilot shine in this sterling oversized (297 x 222mm) full colour hardback collection of edgy, barbed spoofs: another timeless piece of comic ordinance that we should use to get kids into comics. And of course, once we have them, we need even more stuff of this quality around to keep them here….
The Simpsons ™, created by Matt Groening, is the copyrighted and trademarked property of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Bart Simpson 2015 Annual © 2014 Bongo Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved.