COMICS REVIEW: SIMPSONS ‘WINTER WINGDING’ #7

Springfield is ready to celebrate the holiday season, but the weather just isn’t cooperating, and it’s up to Lisa to find out what’s keeping winter away. Then, all the girls at Springfield Elementary try to capture Bart beneath the mistletoe and steal a Christmas kiss. Will they succeed or will Bart remain cootie-free? And when Homer once again ruins Ned Flanders annual holiday party, Ned is pushed past his breaking point. Can Homer make amends or is this the end of their relationship?

Spoilers Below

KISS ME, BART SIMPSON

Bart’s name gets drawn out of a hat, and the first girl at school that kisses him wins tickets to a concert. Thankfully, he makes it all the way home without any cooties, that is until his mom gives him a big ‘ol smooch therby getting Marge the tix, much to the chagrin of her son.

GRAMPA’S CHRISTMAS ORIGINS

‘CHRISTMAS LIGHTS’

Grampa offers up a yarn about how Christmas decorations came to pass. According to him,  aliens used lights around the holidays as a homing beacon as a signal to leave Earth. Ned Flanders took this as sign to put lights on his house.

‘CHRISTMAS EGGNOG’

Grampa claims that eggnog had come from the eggs of a cow-chicken. This gets Homer to start selling said eggs,  and they eventually make their way to the North Pole where Santa gets a hold of it and starts a new business by turning the eggs into ‘Egg nog’ of which is now sold in stores and helps Santa make a shit ton of money.

‘CHRISTMAS TREE’

Turns out, tree lighting came from Barney dropping a torch on some fireworks of which set off and lights up a tree. Nowadays, we use people as trees, right Grampa??

‘TISN’T THE SEASON

It’s Christmas and there’s no snow! No snow means no sledding, no cocoa, no holiday beer, and no birds for Lisa of whom decides to find out what’s up. She eventually questions Frink, and as it turns out he’s been using a new power source to keep the Christmas tree bright, therefore keeping the snow away. Thankfully, once they fix the snag, the snow comes in and covers Springfield, just in time for the holidays!

‘HOLE LOTTA TROUBLE’

Bart, Milhouse, and Martin get stuck in a snow hole dug up by the bullies. Bart’s quick wit finds out that Milhouse’s glasses can use the sun to help melt the snow and therefore dig themselves out to surprise the bullies and beat them at their own game!

ITCHY & SCRATCHY IN CHEST GUTS ROASTING

Itchy gets a new addition to his mantle piece in the form of Scratchy’s head. Ted Nugent would be proud!

GIFT EXCHANGE

Despite Marge’s best wishes, Homer makes a complete ass out of himself at Flanders’ holiday social and gets himself thrown out. Later on, Ned feels so bad that he gets a Christmas present(or quite a few, rather) and wishes his neighbor-ino a Merry Christmas.

What I liked about this issue of Winter Wingding was that a lot of the stories kept reminding me of the winter stories of Calvin & Hobbes. Everything from the sledding down grass in ‘Tisn’t the season to the snowball fights in ‘Hole Lotta’ Trouble’. Grampa’s stories are probably my favorite, however and Futurama writer Eric Rogers does a great job in giving us good variety and the Itchy and Scratchy short was a bit of a nice surprise. ‘Tisn’t the Season’ was maybe the best story of the bunch, and had an even better ending, ‘Git Exchange’ worked out pretty well, too and of particular note was the art style of Mike Kazaleh of which he does a great job of making America’s favorite family a more ‘classic’ look. Good all around issue, and would certainly make a novel Christmas stocking stuffer for any Simpsons fan.

(8.0 out of 10)