COMICS REVIEW: SIMPSONS COMICS #194

Being very much like a dog himself (enjoying long naps and eating whatever is in sight), Homer embarks on a new career as a dog listener. Meanwhile, Lisa uses brain over brawn to overcome her biggest obstacle in life – gym class!

Spoilers Below

 

HOMER SIMPSON: CANINE DECODER

 

Santa’s Little Helper is acting a bit to aggressive around the house lately and as such keeps messing with Homer. Everything from taking the old man’s food to taking over control of the remote!  However, Homer soon finds out that Marge switched out the dog food and hence that why he’s acting strange. While at work, Homer tells Lenny and Carl all about it and Burns overhears it and asks if Homer can help with his dogs too. Wouldn’t you know it, Homer is able to do just that! As such Burns decides to tell everybody at his Kennel Club and voila Homer has a new business!  From McBain, to Krusty to Springfields News eye in the sky, Homer helps all the dogs out that live in Springfield.That said all the dogs in Springfield begin following Homer around and get to know him a bit better when he goes to Moe’s and gets trashed. Not impressed, the dogs decide to team up and rebel against people!

Meanwhile, Lisa is in danger of failing gym class because she’s unable to climb the rope. One day, she decides to take it up with her gym teacher Ms. Pommelhorst but comes to find out she was treated the same way back when she was a little girl and all of the sudden Lisa and Pommelhorst have something in common. Determined not to fail, Lisa decides to take an academic approach to her gym studies and soon she starts knocking them dead. From ring hockey to the rope, nothing seems to bother her and as such even wins an award for all her troubles! Soon, the awards ceremony gets over run by angry dogs with Homer in tow. Lisa and the class all climb up ropes to the top of the school but Homer can not and is trapped by Springfield’s canines. Thankfully, Santa’s Little Helper comes by and wards off the town’s pooches and everything goes back to normal.

Overall, this was one of the most fun stories of the year and it might have something to do with the fact that its the first Homer story in FOREVER not named Homer #1. I also LOVED the McBain kids with the ensuing punchline because with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s memoirs coming out soon and all the shit that went down with his divorce, the timing was almost perfect. That said, its good to see Springfield’s dogs are a good group of guys, and certainly treat their town better than the apes did in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I also really enjoyed Lisa’s plot that although somewhat formulaic, had a unique spin on it with the gym teacher that left me satisfied.

(9.0 out of 10)