Bartman: The Best of the Best

The Simpsons comics are like the TV show in that they keep things remarkably fresh despite the uniform nature of the product. This mini-anthology collects three Bartman stories. I can’t vouch for their being the best of the best, but all three are pretty good, with some funny jokes in the familiar Simpsons manner, a few smiles, and decent storylines. In the first, Bartman discovers that the delinquent crew (Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearny) have a summer-work scam of selling deliberately misprinted comic books. In the second, our hero takes on a vigilante rule-enforcer calling himself the Penalizer (one guess who that is). And in the best, longest, and last story the aliens Kodos and Kang release Itchy and Scratchy from televised reality and into the real world, which has various knock-on effects, including a nuclear explosion that turns the citizens of Springfield into superheroes/villains (Homer becomes the Indigestible Bulk, Krusty the Jokester, Moe = Barfly, and Groundskeeper Willie turns into the Plaid Piper). Bartman has to then release Radioactive Man himself to get everyone back in the box.

But while the writing is solid in the whimsical Simpsons house style, I thought the art (which is also very much in the house style of the show) the weakest of any of the Simpsons comics I’ve read. There were some really lazy panels, like one in particular of Mr. Burns jumping into the arms of Smithers, and Springfield occasionally looks as barren as Tintin-land without the ligne claire. You can almost see that as being an in-joke, as Bartman is a character that sends up comic culture and its industrial, franchise nature even more than usual for a Simpsons title. Almost, but not quite. I think they were probably just in a rush.

Graphicalex