Comics Review: Simpsons Comics #240

Wow, a physical release of a Simpsons comic who knew?

Spoilers Below

“Outside the Lines”

The Simpsons make their annual trip to the bookstore, and as is so often the case, Homer is the least enthused. But also as is so often the case, he comes out of the experience with the biggest obsession. Adult coloring books are a major genre nowadays, and there are few more susceptible to flashy trends than Homer. Thus, he is soon spending every waking hour coloring and struggling to stay inside the lines of a fantasy realm. In an extended hallucinatory sequence, he finds himself inside the coloring book, caught in a power struggle between a fox and a weasel. The horror of horrors: saving the day may depend on Homer’s coloring skills.

This story starts off strongly, as Simpsons shopping prologues are uniformly great. There is an excellent line that sells adult coloring books as “mindless monotony” replacing a different form of mindless monotony. The bulk of the rest of “Outside the Lines” is interesting on an illustrative level, with minimally colored sections bumping up against black and white portions just waiting to be colored. But I am not especially interested in the talking animal power dynamics, and there are not enough opportunities for Homer to supply his trademark Homeric wit.

“Just an Ordinary Day”

As the title says, it’s an ordinary day. Marge gets up, makes breakfast, gets Homer out of bed, takes Maggie to the park, gets Bart out of trouble at school, lets Lisa stop by the library, makes dinner, gets everyone in bed, and by the time Homer gets back from Moe’s, it’s about time to do it all over again. “Just an Ordinary Day” is rather small-scale, but this type of story has its charms. I kind of wish it had been more experimental, though, perhaps by being dialogue-free.

“Mob Rule”

This issue ends with a quick hit in which a classic Springfield mob has formed, but nobody knows why. “Mob Rule” earns praise for being self-aware and deconstructive and for having Moe pull off his signature move of sneaking in from the side with a joke that brings the laughs and the pity.