Bongo Comics - Bart Simpson's: Treehouse of Horrors #7 (2001)
The Catastrophe in Substitute Springfields
by Mark "Great Caesar's Ghost" Hamill
Caution: some necessary spoilers included
The Comic Book Guy has a date with "Destiny." He and his skinny, twerpy,
genius partner, are ready to test "The Redundo Ray". (Think redundant. . . .)
Their hope is to take the "impossible-to-find" comic book and duplicate it,
exactly. "Twerpy" wants to do the unselfish thing and duplicate shelters
and foodstuffs for the needy: he saw this copying of the low distribution
"Radio Man #13" only as a test. Comic Book Guy plans on duplicating certain
books in order to manipulate the market.
Nothing is as it seems, because in strides C. Montgomery Burns; you know, the right place at the right time?? His cohorts dismantle The Redundo Ray as
he begins to explain his own plans for the invention.
Well, nothing is as it seems, (yes, I know I'm being redundant) and this perfect duplication of Radio Man #13 has now morphed into a worthless copy of
Happy Little Elves #436. Not to worry, the human experiment will now be worked on someone with the exact opposite characteristics of what C.M. desires for
his "perfect employee." And who should we find as the host subject? None
other than the "lazy, dim-witted and slovenly" Homer J. Simpson!! (D'oh!)
As the story unfolds, the creature has his own issues to deal with. These, I won't spoil for you, but I have a whole new appreciation for the "other -
worldliness" of the mind process of comic book writers.
When I ordered this issue, I was curious to see if this would turn out to be a father/son : writer/illustrator project; it wasn't. (hmm, now there's a good idea for a future project!) Also, as I am not a connoisseur of comics, some of the identities are lost on me, but the story line does not lose its meaning completely. Any "Simpson's - aholic" will be in Homer-heaven.
There are three other complete stories within the issue as well. The first, by Garth Ennis has Bart watching scary TV and then affecting his dreams that night. The second, written by Stan Sakai, is Lisa's own version of the Oz story. The third, as Mark's is last, is penned by Troy Nixey; Homer is found by archeologists and thought to be primitive man.(They have NO idea!)