BART SIMPSON'S TREEHOUSE OF HORROR #13 REVIEW

[Blake Petit]

Review by: Blake M. Petit Blake@comixtreme.com
Quick Rating: Good

Four haunted tales of Springfield, USA!

Writers: Brian Posehn, Gerry Dugan, Patton Oswalt, Ian Boothby, Pia Guerra, Thomas Lennon
Pencils: Hilary Barta, Jason Ho, Pia Guerra, Tone Rodriguez
Inks: Mike Rote, Terry Austin, Andrew Pepoy
Colors: Nathan Hammill, Kane, Villanueva, Reese, Ungar, Robert Stanley
Letters: Karen Bates
Editor: Terry Delegeane
Publisher: Bongo Comics

Wow – 13 years of the Treehouse of Horror comic book. And even that is about six years behind the TV specials. How long can they keep this up?

This year’s quartet of terror includes a few “celebrity” writers, as has become the norm for this annual. Comedian Brian Posehn reunites with his Last Christmas co-writer Gerry Dugan and artist Hilary Barta for the first story, “Gnaws.” When a monster on the beaches of Springfield begins gobbling up swimmers, everyone in town comes together to try to find a way to capture the gigantic beast. This isn’t a bad little story – what begins as a rather stereotypical Jaws parody takes some bizarre left turns that, in the end, makes it pretty unique.

“They Draw,” by Patton Oswalt and Jason Ho, is really the low point of the issue. Lenny finds a mysterious pair of sunglasses that reveals to him the truth of his existence – not only is he a character in a comic book, but he’s a background character. This is actually a pretty clever idea, but it isn’t really used well. Oswalt takes enormous leaps in the story, jumping from point A to point Q without hitting on any of the stops in-between. It’s one thing to leave some gaps open for the reader to fill in, but it’s another thing entirely when those gaps are so big that the story feels incongruous.

“Prop, Prop, Whiz, Whiz!” is by Ian Boothby and co-written and drawn by Y: The Last Man’s Pia Guerra. The Comic Book Guy scores a major find of movie and TV props on the internet, only to find that anyone who touches them winds up trapped in the movie. Naturally, this is irresistible to some of the patrons of the Android’s Dungeon. This is a cute little story that allows Boothby and Guerra to parody a slew of popular movies in one fell swoop without having it feel cluttered and forced.

Finally, Thomas Lennon and Tone Rodriguez give us “The Pygmy Elixir,” in which Mr. Burns gets word of a magic elixir that can make anyone 20 years old again. And by a wild coincidence, the tribe of pygmies that conjures up the elixir just happens to resemble Springfield’s own Bart Simpson. This is probably the most genuinely creepy story in the issue, but the creators manage to keep the humor present as well.

Three good stories and one dud – but hey, .750 would make a heck of a batting average.

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