"D'oh!"

Thanks to a mandatory evacuation of my hometown (something to do with our being directly in the path of Hurricane Rita), I've been away from my computer since last week. Which is my lame excuse for why I suddenly stopped updating this blog. And since it may be weeks before electicity and water are restored, I still don't know when I'll be returning home, so there's no guarantee when regular updates will resume.

Keep checking back, though! There's still lots of cool stuff to come, both on this blog and the supersimpsons.com website.

So, how was "Milhouse of Sand and Fog"? I hope to have cable again by the time the next "Treehouse of Horror" episode airs on November 6.

By the way, "Hurricane Chow" is what the Kwik-E-Mart was selling when Springfield was threatened by "Hurricane Neddy."

Apparently Simpsons Comics #110 will be out tomorrow. Perhaps I'll be able to find a local comic shop in Texarkana (my current refuge).

Workplace Safety Posters Revisited

Yesterday I posted the first five Simpsons- themed safety awareness posters produced by Victor House Publications (scooping The Simpsons Channel by 24 hours... Woo-hoo!).

A favorite of many Simpsons fans, the eye-safety poster features Lenny (even though we all know it's too late for Lenny, ever since the rubber band incident, and now he's not supposed to get pudding in his eye). The Lenny poster was drawn by Bongo Comics editor and co-founder Bill Morrison, who is already at work on several more designs.

It's comforting to know that job sites across America and Canada will soon be as safe as Homer Simpson and the other employees of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant can make them.

Homer the Hutt

Hey, you know what my Simpsons collection needs? A Homer Simpson frozen in carbonite.

Whoa, check it out: Somebody made a life-size Han Solo frozen in carbonite out of freakin' Legos!

Homer Simpson, SNPP Safety Inspector

Mr. Burns: Hear me out Simpson! I don't want you to come back as a technical supervisor, or supervising technician, or whatever the hell you used to be. I want you to be in charge of safety here at the plant.

Homer: Safety? But sir! If truth be known, I actually caused more accidents around here than any other employee, including a few doozies no one every found out about.

--"Homer's Odyssey"

Homer ("D'OH!"), Marge, Bart, Lisa and "The Simpsons" gang set to help increase workplace safety

ORLANDO, FL, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ - Victor House Publications, a leader in worker safety awareness and training, unveiled a new line of workplace safety products for US and Canadian businesses today featuring Homer Simpson and the rest of Springfield's finest from FOX's hit show THE SIMPSONS in conjunction with the National Safety Council's Orlando Congress. (Read article)

See also: Victor House Publications Safety Awareness and Training Products

Happy Birthday Adam West!

According to The Simpsons 2005 Fun Calendar, Adam West was born on this day in 1928, making him 77 years old. Above: Adam West drives the Batmobile on the icy streets of Springfield in episode 9F07, "Mr. Plow."

"The Girl Who Slept Too Little"

The second episode of the new season airs tonight: GABF16, "The Girl Who Slept Too Little." Here's the synopsis:

The Simpsons protest the construction of a stamp museum next to their home and successfully have it relocated to a cemetery lot, but are dismayed to see the old cemetery moving next door. Lisa soon finds herself suffering fright-induced sleepless nights and runs to her parents' bed. Homer and Marge attempt spending a night in Lisa's room to convince her that it's safe, but are quickly scared away. They turn to a psychiatrist for advice, but Lisa decides to face her fears alone one night in the cemetery, with dramatic results.

Above: Lisa dozes off by the Radioactive Man sign in front of The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop (or maybe we just caught her blinking).

The Batman Family

The couch gag from episodes FABF01, "Today I Am a Clown," and FABF15, "Simple Simpson," which is, of course, the Pieman episode.

The Legion of Springfieldians

Hey kids, remember that great DC Comics tradition, the Legion of Super-Heroes tryouts? Me neither, but Fred Hembeck will be happy to explain it to you. (As always, click on the picture for a larger image).

Simpsons & The Irresistible Force

Simpsons and the Irresistible Force is a funny collection of Star Wars-related clips from episodes of "The Simpsons" and "Futurama." (10 Mb, .wmv file). I'm thinking the Cylon Centurions wouldn't have fared as well against the "Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith" version of R2-D2.

ShadowBart

ShadowHawk, Jim Valentino's Image comic, debuted in the early '90s. ShadowBart was the "super chase card" for the 1994 "Images of ShadowHawk" trading card set. The rest of the set consisted of 100 base cards and 7 holofoil cards; a ShadowBart card was randomly inserted in roughly 1 out of every 432 packs. (Images and info courtesy of The Simpsons Museum).

Simpsons Comics #112

Coming in November:

Some years ago, the producers of The Simpsons toyed with the idea of spinning off some minor characters into their own television series - each of which failed. But that didn’t stop the studio marketing and licensing teams from creating comic book tie-ins for the exciting and quickly cancelled shows. Perhaps those books are best left on scrap heap of comic history, or maybe, just maybe, the time has come to present The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase Quickly Cancelled Comic Cavalcade. Featuring the return of "Chief Wiggum P.I.," "The Love-matic Grampa," and "The Simpsons Family Smile-Time Variety Hour."

The Final Fate of Radioactive Man?

Another article at The Pulse explains the tragic story behind the genesis of Bongo's new Simpsons Super Spectacular series:

Bongo's Creative Director Bill Morrison said he thinks the Radioactive Man series didn't succeed because his appearances on the TV show were too infrequent. "I think the mainstream Simpsons fans just didn't pick up his book like they do the other Simpsons Comics," Morrison said. "Batton Lash has been doing such a terrific job with Radioactive Man and I was reluctant to see him get cancelled. So, I figured out a way to keep him in print by pairing him with the super-incarnations of more recognizable Simpsons characters. Radioactive Man and Bartman will be the mainstays, but look for appearances by Pie Man, Duff Man, Bumblebee Man and even Señior Ding Dong!"

Of course, I don't think the Eisner Award-winning Radioactive Man comic was ever really aimed at the mainstream Simpsons fans. With its perfect satire of the entire history and spectrum of the superhero genre, it deserved a much larger following among comic geeks. Those with a sense of humor, at least.

At the moment, the Super Spectacular is scheduled to be released twice a year. Coming up in issue 2:

Ian Boothby is writing a story for the second issue called "The League of Extraordinary Barts," where various Barts from different dimensions come together to battle an evil Bart who uses Professor Frink's devices in a plot to take over the world. "It's just a good, smack-em-in-the-mouth, silly super-hero story," Boothby said. "It's a lot of fun."

Treehouse of Horror #10

Coming up in this year's Halloween issue from Bongo: Homer stars in "Squish Thing" (left) by Swamp Thing creators Len Wein & Bernie Wrightson, and Mr. Burns returns as Dracula in "The Sub-Basement of Dracula" by Tomb of Dracula's Gene Colan and Marv Wolfman. The flipside will be "Two Tickets to HECK," a parody of the classic EC Comics horror tales.

For more pictures and info, check out the article at The Pulse.

The Simpsons vs. The Fantastic Four

Left: Fantastic Four #1 (Marvel, 1964). Right: Simpsons Comics #1 (Bongo, 1993). "The Amazing Colossal Homer" won the 1994 Eisner Award for "Best Short Story."

Top: Treehouse of Horror XIV, "Stop the World, I Want to Goof Off"-- Lisa presses the button on Bart's magic stopwatch and transforms the rest of the family into the Fantastic Four.
Bottom: "I Am Furious (Yellow)" -- Stan Lee hangs out in The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop and proves to a young customer that the Thing action figure will fit into his toy Batmobile.

Simpsons Super Spectacular #1

Simpsons Super Spectacular #1 hit comic shops this week (Woo-hoo!). It's got a flip cover... Side "A" (with Radioactive Man, Bartman, and Pieman on the cover) has 2 stories: "Holy Cow! Has Pieman Turned Evil?" by Ty Templeton, and "The Crimespree on Springfield 2" by Chuck Dixon and Ty Templeton. Side "B" (with the Radioactive Man comic on the cover) has 3 RM stories by Batton Lash: "Let's See It Again! The Origin of Radioactive Man", "The Little Boy With the Big Dream" and "Radioactive Man and Roargo."

It's no coincidence that I'm kicking off this blog with the info above. Last summer I started working on a website about superheroes in the Simpsons universe, before getting sidetracked for about a year. When I saw the Super Spectacular listed in Diamond Previews, it was the motivation I needed to get back to work on it.

I finally uploaded version 1.0 tonight. As a lifelong comics geek and a fan of "The Simpsons" since the Tracey Ullman Show days, I suppose it's the website I was destined to create. It took longer than I thought, and there are sections that will have to be added in future updates, but considering I managed to launch it in between the release of the Super Spectacular and tonight's season premiere ("Bonfire of the Manatees"), I consider that mission accomplished.

So if you're a fan of Radioactive Man & Fallout Boy, Bartman, Stretch Dude & Clobber Girl, or the Ingestible Bulk, check it out... they're all there, and then some. And check back here for updates and more superheroic Simpsons pictures to come.