Comics Review: The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror #19

If you don’t think it’s too early for Halloween, this post is for you! Check out everything after the jump!Is it me? Or did Halloween catch the same thing Christmas did, and we start with the festivities 2 months early? I ask this, because Treehouse of Horrors was supposed to come out a week or two ago.  Bongo is beginning to be as erratic as Kaboom with their releases. Oh, speaking of which, don’t expect Regular Show #4 until December sometime. Well, enough griping about erratic release dates, let’s get to the comics!

 

So Many Spoilers!

Treehouse of Horror #19

“Monster Mash”

This story is kinda cool. It goes through all of the stereotypical Halloween things,  like witches, monsters, and the like. Marge’s sisters were witches, Apu was the Wolfman, Krusty was a mashup of a Mummy and  Pinhead, and his bar buddies were all zombies. Come to find out that this was a simulator for Kang and Kodos to test the human code, which failed. So, they flew off.

“Alienated”

Bart uncovers that Doris is using school supplies as a replacement for actual ingredients. Doris gets fired, and immediately, the food is better. Lisa gets suspicious, and takes a sample of the food to Prof. Frink. After some testing, Frink concludes that the food is from another planet, and the side effect is whoever eats it gets smarter by 1 IQ point per minute. Lisa is charged with getting the news out, but decides to hold off for a few. The next day, Marge starts piecing things together, like Lisa and Bart are drooling more, and quick to anger. Bart modifies the family car to do twice the speed of light, and starts going under some changes to his looks. Bart drops Homer off at work, but he went so fast counterclockwise, Homer became younger. Later, Bart and Lisa are going under more transformations, this time with tentacles and fangs. Homer is now older, because Bart took the long way around. A few days later, Bart and Lisa are shown as aliens like Kang and Kodos. And Flanders is leading the charge. Grandpa comes to their defense, saying that their body are just going through changes.

Unfortunately, the kids force everyone to assemble at the town square. Kang and Kodos reveal to be behind the food. However, they seem to forget what the plan is. They start eating a Krustyburger, and they end up becoming more human. They get arrested, and forced to work at Krustyburger. Krusty then radios to his homeworld, Krustoon, so his army can invade.

“Cthulu? Gesundheit!”

So, Skinner finds the perfect punishment for Bart and Milhouse for torching the cafeteria with flaming tater-tots. It sure isn’t expulsion, but to catalog an old and dirty library. As they’re cleaning, Bart comes across the Necronomicon. They escape the library, and head home. Bart starts to read the book, and tries to summon Cthulu. Nothing happens immediately, leaving Bart upset. As they leave, the book closes itself. A little bit later, Homer is cleaning the cream from a Boston Cream Pie off, and the water comes to a drip, then just stops. He walks away, and a Cthulu tentacle is coming through the pipe. Jimbo and the other bullies come at Bart, trying to get some money. Bart threatens them, oblivious to Cthulu in the sewers.

He realizes what is going on, and watches with a bit of glee. After Jimbo gets sucked through the sewer grate, Bart runs to Skinner. He threatens Skinner to not be his lackey anymore. Skinner refuses, and gets eaten. Cthulu is out of control, at this point. As he is eating everything in sight, they end up at the Flanders’s house. Cthulu goes to eat him, and spits him right out. They make it to Bart’s room, and Santa’s Little Helper has the book in his mouth. The longer he has it in his mouth, he turns more into a demon dog. Cthulu knocks him senseless, and he wakes up. Turns out, this was a dream in Cthulu Bart’s head, and they sit down for a dinner a la Milhouse.

Where Bart Simpson stumbled, Treehouse 19 hits it out of the park. All 3 stories were awesome and funny. I loved the ode to traditional Halloween in the first story, where does all of the tradition right. I loved the surprise twist of Krusty being an alien in the second story, and how the kids were turning into the same as Kang and Kodos. However, the gem of this comic, both in writing, and in the art direction, is Cthulu? Gesundheit! The design of this story is such a departure from every single story I have read thus far from any of the Simpsons comics. Everything is ultra detailed, and looks like a bunch of oil paintings. If you only read one Treehouse of Horror book, this has to be it.