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By Various (Titan Books)
ISBN: 1-85286-955-0
This Simpsons collection reprints issues #24 – 27 of the monthly comic aimed at younger fans of the hit TV series. Nonetheless there is very little evidence of toning down or simplification in these edgy, barbed spoofs and gag strips, produced by a talented if not well-known crew of jobbing professionals.
Concocting the madness and mayhem herein contained are Peter Alexander, Jamie Angell, Tim Bavington, Jackie Behan, Jeanine Crowell Black, Shaun Cashman, Terry Delegeane, Jeff Filgo, Scott M. Gimple, Stephanie Gladden, Todd J. Greenwald, Rob Hammersley, Carl Harmon, Tim Harkins, Nathan Kane, Tim Maile, Bill Morrison, Phil Ortiz, Chris Simmons, Mary Trainor, Doug Tuber and Chris Ungar wrangled by the ubiquitous Matt Groening.
The US Presidential Race and Media manipulation get a banana-fingered mauling in ‘Send in the Clowns’ and the regular spoof comic book section features a selection from the truly imaginary ‘Li’l Homey’, as the young Homer pastiches Home Alone. ‘Marge Attacks’ sees the long-suffering matriarch become a TV personality when she tries to stamp out obnoxious TV chat shows. Itchy and Scratchy make baseball a bloodsport in the wordless short feature ‘Game Called Because Of Pain’, a strip from their own (non-existent) comic. The volume is also peppered with short one or two page gag strips featuring the show’s truly disturbing cast of regulars.
Side Show Bob stars in ‘Get off the Bus’, as his attempt to do a good deed goes calamitously awry, and Captain McCallister (the weird bearded fisherman-guy) tells a salty – and definitely fishy – Tale of the Briny Deep. But the undisputed star of this book is the wonderful ‘They Fixed Homer’s Brain!’, an hysterical and touching pastiche of Daniel Keyes Flowers for Algernon, wherein Homer volunteers for a radical experiment to increase his intelligence – for a cash reward naturally – only to find a brief and tragic new rapport with Lisa (the Smart One). All the best comedy is touched by sadness and this is a lovely little example of that maxim. It’s also the funniest strip in the entire book with both wit and gross-out gags that could make a statue smirk.
Like the show, this strip just keeps getting better and more daring. In the 1950s and 1960s we used the Carl Barks Duck strips as a benchmark for all-ages comic entertainment. The Simpsons has the potential to become the modern equivalent.
© 1996, 1998 Bongo Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved.