Comics Review: Simpsons Comics #234

Bongo Comics checks in with a brand-new issue of The Simpsons. Find out if this month’s issue is worth the buy.

Spoilers Below

“Body Double”

The Simpsons head to the Springfield Science Museum for an exhibit on rocks and minerals that, according to Lisa, “Pre-Teen Geologist Magazine called ‘mind-numbingly thorough.’” Naturally, she is the only one in the family actually excited to be there (though Marge is happy to put the “Family Fun Annual Pass” to use). To combat boredom, Homer has snuck in his radio to keep tabs on the Isotopes baseball game while pretending to listen to the exhibits. Things take a foreboding turn when the announcers’ talk of ballpark food starts making him dangerously hungry.

As Homer struggles to find the vending machines, he wanders into in an exhibit that recreates the interior of the human body, where he conks his head on a giant brain. When he comes to, he thinks he has been shrunken down and entered an actual person. Since this is all happening right as the museum is closing, Marge and the kids must find a way to help him escape without the staff noticing, or else face a lifetime ban.

With a story as short as this one, it can be difficult to get the specifics right. It goes without saying that Lisa finds science fun, but the joy for the reader comes from the details, and “Body Double” is lacking in that regard. But this is primarily a Homer story, and judged by that rubric, it’s fine. There are a few bits of classic Homer logic, such as pounding on the exhibit’s brain, demanding an explanation, and assuming that all living humans have diagrams explaining their body parts when he finds one inside the museum body.

“Water Squish Down”

In this 2-page interlude, Bart and Milhouse are slurping down Squishees outside the Kwik-E-Mart. Young Mr. van Houten is going a little too fast, and the resulting brain freeze is visualized inside his head as the “RMS Milhouse” crashing into a giant, iceberg-esque Slushee. This is vintage Milhouse, especially the detail of him playing every passenger, whether man, woman, or child. It is a flight of fancy I could easy manage fitting right in on a TV episode.

“The Seven Diddly Sins”

Flanders stops by to let us know that in addition to the Seven Deadly Sins of lore, there are also the lesser-known “Seven Diddly Sins.” Considering the adjective he uses, one would think that Ned is going to tell us all seven, but instead we get a suggestion from several Springfield residents. Flanders’ is about borrowing, Bart’s is about homework etiquette, Comic Book Guy’s is about spoilers, Lisa’s is about recycling, Gil did not really put much thought into what his was about, Mr. Burns’ is about pets, and Krusty’s is a perfect reflection of his own personal ethics.

The structure of this story is simple and nothing new, but it is a model that endures for a reason. You are told right away that there are going to be seven parts and that promise is held up. If you don’t like one entry, the next one is not far away. And the best is saved for last, with Krusty’s “lesson” managing to be hilarious on its own while also circling back and commenting on what came before it.