24 Hour Comics Reviewing Day, Hour Fourteen: Simpsons Comics #122

SIMPSONS COMICS #122: This comic is sorta fun. This Archie parody has its moments but doesn't approach the level of the best of this series. Simpsons Comics occupies an unusual level in my appreciation month after month: they're almost always consistently fun and well-done, but the best of them do exactly what the TV series does: they make me laugh out loud at least once or twice in a story. Without voices and timing that's a harder task to pull off in a comic than on the screen, but it can be done. It just isn't done in this issue, which is a fairly standard parody of Archie planted onto a tale of high school-era Homer and Marge. There's some good but mild gags involving sign-toting hitchhikers, a cameo by Mister Weatherbee and Barney in the role (and hat) of Jughead, but when the only honestly laugh-out-loud moment is on the cover then that's a fairly standard Simpsons comic. Don't get me wrong: I'm not one of those who feel The Simpsons has gone downhill or ceased being funny after season (fill in your own grump fanboy blank); week after week it remains the consistently funniest and most inventive show on TV. The same can be said of the comic: I'm seldom disappointed in any issue and I firmly believe that Simpsons Comics are one of the most faithful and consistent adaptations of a TV show to comic book ever. It's just that sometimes the comic hits highs worthy of the TV show and sometime it just doesn't, and this is one of the times it doesn't.

Urp. I think I better lay off the candy beans for a while.