by Randy Lander

TREEHOUSE OF HORROR #7 Mildly Recommended (5/10) Bongo Comics "In Springfield No-One Can Hear You Scream" Writer: Garth Ennis Artist: John McCrea Colors: Dave Stewart Letters: Karen Bates "I'm Not In Springfield Anymore!" Writer/Artist: Stan Sakai Colors: Nathan Kane "Homererectus" Writer/Artist: Troy Nixey Colors: Dave Stewart Letters: Karen Bates "Catastrophe in Substitute Springfields!" Writer: Mark Hamill Artists: Bill Morrison, Jason Ho & Mike Rote Colors: Art Villainueva Letters: Karen Bates Editor: Bill Morrison Price: $4.50 US/$6.75 CAN It has long been true that the best Simpsons episodes are the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes, and the same is true of the Simpsons comics. However, this year's offering is a little disappointing, pinned solely on the hope that readers find it amusing to watch the Simpsons go through almost note-for-note parodies of horror movies, without much in the way of jibes at the conventions of horror. It all feels a bit toothless, if beautifully crafted by the artists. Mark Hamill's "Berserko" story is probably the most fun, but even that territory has been well-covered in the Radioactive Man comics that Bongo has published. The artwork is beautiful, and the ideas behind the stories not bad, but I was left feeling let down by the failure of this book to make me laugh out loud even once. The story by Ennis and McCrea is notable largely for McCrea's art. He combines the old look of the cartoons (almost from their "Tracey Ullman" days) with darker shading for a true horror tone, and Dave Stewart's muted colors serve that look perfectly. There's a fair bit of grossout humor in this one, such as Itchy's acid-popping zit trick and the chest-bursting aliens, and McCrea does a nice job of making the Aliens look like their 20th Century Fox counterparts and the Simpsons at the same time. Ennis also serves up a time-honored tradition, the "bad dream" sequence complete with shocker ending. Not terribly original, perhaps, but good fun. Stan Sakai also turns to an old chestnut, the Wizard of Oz, for his story, and it's not as entertaining as his Japanese-themed story from a previous issue. This one also feels a bit like running through familiar territory, although Sakai gets some mileage by subtly altering the Oz archetypes to fit the Simpsons family and with the always popular use of Burns as a bad guy. His work, colored by Nathan Kane, also has the look of animation cells, and it's quite pretty to look at. By far the most attractive story in the book, though, in terms of artwork, is Troy Nixey's. He puts in a fairly straightforward version of Lovecraftian horror and puts Homer Simpson into the mix. The period plays into his strengths, and the artwork is just absolutely gorgeous. The story, which starts out in a Lovecraft-style vein and quickly turns into a version of the Frankenstein's Monster story, is one of the more original in the book, and though he plays it a little too straight for my taste, the finale is a lot of fun that plays into a running theme of the Simpsons Halloween shows. Story-wise, the strongest offering is from Mark Hamill and a variety of Bongo "Bullpen" artists. Bizarro (from Superman) is one of those concepts that is always and probably will always be funny, and seeing the reverse of the Simpsons was good for quite a few laughs, particularly as the artwork on each "Berserko" duplicate used something of a different style. Berserko Homer appeared as someone out of a 50s romance comic, Berserko Marge would have been quite at home in Andy Capp, Berserko Bart is an homage to Charlie Brown, etc. Though still a bit familiar to anyone who has read a few Bizarro stories, this story seems the strongest of the bunch. Overall, I found this year's Halloween special to be quite beautiful, but fairly bland. That's not what I expect from the Simpsons or Bongo on a regular basis, and certainly not what I expect from the annual "pull out all the stops" of the Treehouse of Horror. Email Randy Lander comments about this review.