The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Ominous Omnibus, Vol. 3: Fiendish Fables of Devilish Delicacies

The third and final Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Omnibus is here! Well, actually it debuted in August and I kept waiting on it to show up at my favorite comic book shop. But for one reason or another, the book never came. Once my guys determined that the distributors weren't going to fill the order request, I went to Amazon and ordered it myself. I hate not being able to support a local small business like that...

'Fiendish Fables of Devilish Delicacies' might be the best of the bunch. It features a bunch of celebrity writers taking horrifying shots at America's Favorite Family. Comedian Thomas Lennon and Rocker Rob Zombie are among those who contribute. But it was the re-pairing of 2 iconic teams from the pages of comic history that were my favorite out of all 3 volumes.

Swamp Thing co-creators, Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, join forces once again to pose a tale that suggests what might have happened if Homer was killed and put into a vat of Apu's Squishee mix to become the Squish Thing! Then Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan reunite to propose what would happen if Homer lead a team of vampire hunters against the dreaded Count Dracula. I must admit it took me a couple of pages to realize that this was a parody of Marvel's The Tomb of Dracula horror comic from the 70s and not a send-up of Universal's Dracula. However, once I did, I was enthralled because I cut my horror comic lovin' teeth on that series! Colan's artwork was so stunning. It looked 3-D. Artists today can barely make classic comic characters look 2-D. When you read that story, you are in the presence of genius. 2 geniuses! 

Speaking of bad art, there was one story called 'Boo-tleg' in which the Kwik-E-Mart is selling poisoned Halloween candy to the citizens of Springfield. To hide his crimes, Apu keeps making clones of the townsfolk. But the results are less than ideal. I get the premise of the story and I liked the satire of the effect cloning could have on society. Yet, the artwork looked like really poor computer animation. Like so bad, it makes the Dire Straits music video, 'Money For Nothing' look modern!

One thing I had been missing were the covers. This book includes that much desired cover gallery. I still never got the Treehouse of Horror Halloween annuals printed in order; but at least I now have all of the material that would be included, if I owned the entire set. But there are lots of extras that only appeared in the trade collections. So that makes this a super-omnibus. Even with the near $150 I paid for all 3 volumes, I came out on top. Prices for some of those annuals are with price tags of $30-$50 each. No way in heck am I going shell out that type of money for a Simpsons floppy; no matter how much I love Halloween books!

Now if only Harry N. Abrams would collect the Simpsons Winter Wingdings and other seasonal Holiday material in an omnibus or two...

They saved the best material for last!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Simpsons Treehouse Of Horror Ominous Omnibus, Vol. 2: Deadtime Stories For Boos & Ghouls HC

The second of 3 omnibuses that will collect all of the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Halloween annuals. 

Unfortunately, the editors didn't follow my request to have the stories reprinted in order. (Like Harry N. Abrams Books was going to scrap their format to put the stories in chronological order of printing.) 

Along with material from the 23 annuals, there's material from previous collections and other issues that are Halloween themed or at least spooky in nature. 

Gotta say that I wasn't such a fan of this one. I know with a massive volume, clocking in at around 400 pages of material, it's kinda hard to rate based on material; especially since everything has been cut and pasted into themed chapters. One chapter was about surviving the end of the world. It had a story in which it appears that Flanders doesn't get taken in the Rapture. But it turns out that in reality, Flanders' left-handedness is what keeps him from being abducted by aliens. 

I did like the Old Sea Captain's high seas tales of terror that are anything but. Though I have read them before, I thought both of them were oddball classics. Plus Lisa, Bart, Homer and Grandpa play a round of Mad Libs to varying degrees of success. Another all-time great that I've read before but got a kick out of reading again.

There's one more volume to go and yes, I am going to buy it. 3 volumes at $40 each is still cheaper than trying to get all 23 annuals. Plus once I get volume 3, I'll be able to free up a little bit of shelf space. 

I got to read Simpsons Halloween comics leading up to Halloween. In my opinion, a Simpsons comic book is like a Queen song. Even the worst of either is better than none at all.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars. 

The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Omnious Omnibus, Vol.1: Scary Tales & Scarier Tentacles

The premise behind the Ominous Omnibuses is to collect all 23 volumes of Treehouse of Horror annuals that were issued from the now defunct Bongo Comics. This is to occur with the publication of 3 slipcased hardcover editions. Though whether this will happen in just a few months or annually until 2024, I just don't know. 

Along with the material found in the Halloween annuals, these collections are supposed to house horror themed material from other Simpsons related holiday titles and some never before published material. But right now from a collector's standpoint, all I've got is a massive headache.

Let's do a little comic book math. There's 23 total ToH books in existence and I don't own any of them. These comics aren't very easy to find and when I do stumble across them, they're selling for an average of $15 per book. So $15x23=$345. If all 3 omnibuses retail for the $40 MSRP of this issue, I should only have to pay $120 plus tax. Overall, going this route seems the most economical, even if I have to wait a couple more years. Yet, because of how this book was edited, I can't mark anything off of my wish list yet.

Instead of collecting the comics whole, publisher Harry N. Abrams decided to cut all the books into pieces and catalogue the stories based on genre type! There are stories about aliens Kang and Kodos, frights about alternate realities and legends of things that go bump in the dark. Plus, there's a whole lot of shorts, parody ads and vignettes about life in Springfield that I've read in many a Simpsons regular series comic book.

While I am unhappy with how these stories have been collected, I have been thrilled with many of the surprises in this book. There's Simpsons yarns written by Star Wars' Mark Hamill, The Goldberg's Patton Oswalt and Doug TenNapel (Cardboard). I had thought that celebs didn't appear in Simpsons comics, but we get visits by Alice Cooper, Lemmy Kilmister and the living embodiment of Ned Flanders, Pat Boone! in a trio of stories written by the stars themselves.

My favorite story in this collection was an EC Comics tribute that featured inks by Al Willamson (Weird Science, Weird Fantasy) and pencils by John Severin (Two-Fisted Tales)! I never thought I'd ever see the Simpsons rendered by a pair of EC legends! But I did and it was fantastic. The story might have been a bit disjointed. But it was a visual dream come true!

Over 400 pages of Simpsons frights. A great way to start off my Halloween 2022 reads. I just wish this book could have been in order like an actual omnibus and not a mix-matched catalogue of titles organized by genre. I really wanted to get a few volumes off my wish list and right now, I now have 2 future editions of omnibuses added to it.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.