Just in time for your Halloween celebrations, Abrams ComicsArts is releasing their brand new The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror omnibus. Wrapping up a three-volume set, the new hardcover collects the award-winning spinoff comics in one place for the first time ever, and FANGORIA is excited to premiere an exclusive excerpt from Fiendish Fables of Devilish Delicacies.
The excerpt is a pastiche on the horror classic The Blob, lovingly called Sideshow Blob. (Got to love a good pun.) Written by Paul Dini with layout and inks by Bill Morrison and pencils by Tim Bavington, it features none other than Sideshow Bob as he agrees to a less-than-OSHA-certified scheme in order to cut his prison sentence in half. The proposal? Take an experimental shot to cure his nasty cold, and voila, he’s free!
Naturally, that doesn’t go to plan, and Bob’s greeted by an incompetent doctor who gets the mixture wrong and turns him into a horrifying snot creature. Hell bent on revenge against both the doctor and his long standing nemesis Bart, Sideshow Bob goes into a rage and escapes the prison, leaving destruction and a long trail of snot in his wake.
The Treehouse of Horror comics began in 1995, five years after the tradition started with The Simpsons’ second season. Twenty-three comics were produced through 2017, written and illustrated by huge entertainment names like Garth Ennis, Gene Colan, Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, and Gene Simmons. Subtitled Fiendish Fables of Devilish Delicacies, volume three is the final collection of the comics, and features over four hundred pages of full-color illustrations, with a deluxe, glow in the dark, die-cut slipcase to store the collectible in, and an introduction from Marge Simpson herself. (Wonder how that’ll work?)
The comics follow the same format as the series’ Halloween specials, parodying classic horror films (and more often, broadly parodying horror movie tropes) to much success. They’ve become as much a yearly tradition as the films, television shows, and comics they parody, earning their place in history for horror fans and casual viewers alike. The latest installment of the specials, part of the show’s thirty-fifth season, is set to premiere on November 3, including a parody of Sony’s popular action-horror superhero franchise Venom.
The deluxe hardcover edition of Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Ominous Omnibus Volume 3 is available now from Abrams, retailing for $44.99 USD. It’s available to purchase here, and you can check out the excerpt below:
