Simpsons Comics Colossal Compendium: Volume Two
This is more like it. I was a little underwhelmed by the Simpsons Comics Colossal Compendium Volume One, though this was mainly because I judge the writing in these Simpsons comics to a high standard. I know the Simpsons universe well, at least from its earlier years, and I’ve been impressed at how the stories in the comics are still so fresh and funny decades into the franchise now.
There are some good storylines here, including a number of superhero spin-offs. There’s a Bartman story where he meets a supposed Bartman of the future (one guess as to who that is!), another where all three of the Simpsons kids are superheroes (Stretch Dude, Clobber Girl, and Bouncing Battle Baby), a blast from the past courtesy of Comic Book Guy and issue #100 of Radioactive Man, and an adventure where Homer becomes a sort of accidental costumed crimefighter as a way of losing weight.
The best story though is “No Cause for Alarm,” a comic written and illustrated by the legendary Sergio Aragonés. This follows a series of mishaps that arise when Homer gets lazy with the alarm at the nuclear power station. It’s the kind of gag humour Aragonés does well, and the story has a lot of the chaotic crowd scenes he’s famous for, made all the better for the fact that Springfield is so full of easily identifiable characters you can enjoy these pages for a while as you try to locate where your favourite citizens are hiding.
If there’s any negative comment I’d make it’s the inclusion of a couple of short Itchy & Scratchy vignettes. I’ve never understood why they kept with these. Basically they’re an ultraviolent version of Tom & Jerry, with the cat (Scratchy) always being dismembered or destroyed by the sadistic mouse Itchy. I don’t find these comics offensive or shocking, but I don’t think they’re funny either. And they always play out the same, with no twists or surprise endings (unlike Mad’s Spy vs. Spy, for example), so they’re not very interesting in that respect either. But since these only amount to a few pages of filler it’s not a big deal.
Finally, the papercraft Springfield landmark is of Moe’s Tavern.
Alex Good 
Used to watch these avidly back in the day, then Southpark took over!
LikeLike
Yeah I watched the first ten seasons or so pretty regularly then I just stopped. But South Park didn’t take over. I think I’ve only seen a few episodes of it. I just stopped watching TV completely.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aragones for the win!
I never watched any of the tv show, so I don’t have that attachment that a lot of people do to the franchise. I don’t even know where the show is currently showing so it’s not like I can go and check it out either.
LikeLike
TV is dead. It’s all just YouTube and the platforms now. I figure they’re probably on one of the platforms and I think they’re still going, but I haven’t watched them in years. In the early days though they were really good and these comics aren’t bad. If you don’t know the show though I wouldn’t bother.
Not that I think you’d bother anyway. Too much Warhammer to get through!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, warhammer is pumping out books faster than it is possible to read them. They’ve really moved fully into the “collectible” territory 🙂
LikeLike
Warhammer is a subculture I know next to nothing about. I’ve seen people playing the game, and I’ve read the reviews at your site. But I can’t tell the difference between it and World of Warcraft or the Battletech stuff.
LikeLiked by 1 person
All the same underlying idea. Except Warhammer is the grimmest. There are no good guys and nobody ever really wins.
LikeLike
I wonder which a person could through faster, the Wheel of Time series or the entire run of The Simpsons?
LikeLike
Haven’t dipped a toe in WoT yet. I thought they were going to make it into a cable series but didn’t get very far.
LikeLike
The books are too huge a time commitment for me.
I don’t know why they don’t do them, though, as an animated series. Shows like The Simpsons show they can go on forever and people will still watch. Or does that only work for comedies?
They could make it the first animated AI series! Hey, have you seen the AI “actress,” Tilly Norwood. Lot of agencies say they won’t sign her, but I’ve seen at least one expressing interest. (Musk predicts the first AI movie next year and the first good one in 2027.)
LikeLike
I saw Tilly and wasn’t too impressed. Though I acknowledge the technology is going to get better. It will work for some things, like AI writing, which can already do genre fiction well enough. For a certain kind of movie I think this approach will work. They’ll get into trouble if the avatars are based too closely on existing people though. I kind of think people will still want to watch “real” actors though for most things, and I also suspect AI filmmaking will turn out to be a lot more expensive than people think. Also, like CGI, it will be judged to a higher and higher standard.
LikeLike
Yeah, I don’t know about people’s preferences. There’ll be a split for sure. I saw a Bugs Bunny cartoon yesterday that someone else posted that I hadn’t seen since I was a kid, called “Hair-Raising Hare.” It’s got Peter Lorre as a mad scientist who wants to feed Bugs to his pet monster. To lure Bugs into his castle he sends out a wind-up female bunny. Very sexy. Bugs falls for it, of course, but when it later explodes into pieces he’s pretty dismissive — “Mechanical,” he says. The cartoon ends with the reconstructed robot appearing once more, but Bugs’ attitude has changed: “Well? So it’s mechanical!” I think there’s a lot of truth in that. And that was in 1946.
And as for the expense, you’re probably right. But all it takes is one Blair Witch — right idea, right time, and all it costs is pretty much the price of the software and a little time — and viola! Instant millionaire. Then will come the franchises and oh boy.
LikeLike
I remember that Bugs Bunny cartoon!
I think the cost issue *may* be more problematic. Leaving aside the mind-boggling cost of AI itself, where they’re now building data centers that take as much power and fresh potable water as entire (low-population) states, or even large American cities, there’s the problem you get when you have good AI vs. not-as-good.
I’ve criticized the crap CGI in a lot of today’s movies, and I’m far from alone. The response from people who work in the industry is that people don’t realize just how much work (and expense) is involved in CGI. So we get a lot of crap CGI that just ruins a movie. I can see something like that happening with AI. Audiences will have expectations raised by the most expensive, highest quality AI productions and want it all to look that good. But it can’t. There will be discount AI operations.
Meanwhile, I hope there will still be good little movies with smart scripts (that don’t cost anything) and no-name casts that will come in at a tiny fraction of the cost and still find an audience.
LikeLiked by 1 person