Comics Review: Simpsons Illustrated #25

It’s time for another comic book Springfield anthology, as Simpsons Illustrated #25 keeps up the Halloween vibe of last week’s Treehouse of Horror.

Spoilers Abound!

“Power Plants vs. Zombies”

Homer’s laziness on the job is the gift that keeps on giving when crafting a Springfield-set disaster tale. To stave off boredom on Take Your Kid to Work Day, he takes Bart to a restricted area to show off a radioactive space rock. Exposure to the rock turns everyone else at the plant into zombies, and an ill-advised toss out the window infects the whole town. Father and son determine that mutated salad ingredients are an effective line of defense, which work until the vegetarian zombies show up. Ultimately, they stave off death by re-directing the zombies to Springfield College’s graduation for more desirable brains.

“Cthulhu? Gesundheit!”

The Simpsons goes Lovecraftian when Bart and Milhouse discover the Necronomicon during detention in an old, cobweb-ridden secret library. Bart of course proceeds to read a spell from the book and summon Cthulhu. At first he uses the monster for revenge against Skinner and protection against the bullies, but then it gets out of control and consumes the whole town. They attempt to reverse the spell and send Cthulhu away, but Santa’s Little Helper, having tread where dogs do not belong, stands in their way.

“Murder He Wrote”

In a black-and-white tale with Dragon Ball Z-style renderings, Bart comes into ownership of a notebook with the power to kill anyone whose name is written in its pages. Goaded on by the ghost of Krusty, Bart takes aim at some of his enemies, but he may not be able to get away with it, as an anonymous informant named “L” appears to be spilling his story to the police. Things really get out of hand when Homer and Marge also start using the book (unwittingly), but there may be an antidote in the form of another book that can bring the dead back to life.

Our Take:

Simpsons comics – or indeed, the comics version of any TV show – often come across as fanfiction (albeit officially sanctioned fanfiction). I bring this up because it is so difficult to fully capture the voices of the characters in printed form. Without the work of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, and Yeardley Smith, much of the dialogue of Simpsons Illustrated #25 had me going, “That’s close, but it doesn’t sound exactly like the Simpsons.”

Despite that inherent shortcoming, there is still room for the plots and illustrations to impress. “Power Plants vs. Zombies” is nothing special in those regards, but it goes down easy and has a few chuckle-worthy gags. Dan Brereton’s artwork in “Cthulhu? Gesundheit” is wonderfully thorough, with a dash of disturbing. As for “Murder He Wrote,” it is not clear why it is Dragon Ball Z-style (although I am not too familiar with DB-Z, so maybe it actually fits perfectly), but the expressiveness it allows for syncs well with the story’s bizarre deaths.