Comic Review: Simpsons Comics #242

Victims of the night.

Overview:

Mayor Quimby is planning on tearing down one of Springfield’s last bookstores, Mystery’s Enigma, and of course, Lisa has something to say about it.  She makes a deal with the mayor that if she can convince him that mystery books are valuable than he won’t tear down the bookstore.  Quimby agrees but, it must be in “Springfield tradition” with three short stories.  Lisa continues to tell tales inspired by Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, Sherlock Holmes, and Scooby Doo.

Our Take:

For having such a long run, I am surprised at how well this series is at staying fresh while staying true to the show.  Anything Simpsons that gets turned into three short stories, Treehouse of Horror style, is going to be good.

The first story, ‘Murder on the Monorail Express’ was by far the most enjoyable.  Bringing the iconic monorail back from the dead is exactly what this series is good for making references to the show we love.  Somehow the story managed to be both true to Simpsons humour, and a great homage to Christie’s classic mystery novel.  And, they still managed to add a surprising twist in the end.

The other short stories were not as strong.  Although, the Scooby Doo references were entertaining, and the half-Scooby, half-Simpsons art was done tactfully and well.  Nelson and Ralph as Shaggy and Scooby was a good play as well.  Mocking that Ralph is in a phase of dressing as a character dog that he invented was probably my only laugh out loud moment of the book.

In the end, I enjoyed the mixed bag humour. Focusing on the mystery genre and using such thought out references won me over.  The twists were an excellent little addition, and it all wrapped up into what would be a solid Simpsons episode.