X-mas comics 01

I was a big fan of the Simpsons TV show for many years,but during the past decade or so I just quit watching it. I felt that the quality of the writing had fallen. Now I have know about the Simpsons monthly comic for many years now but had never bothered to pick it up. But thanks again to cheap random lots of comics on Ebay,this issue came into my possession. The main story is "Worst Christmas Ever!" which is written by Paul Dini,of the DC animated TV shows fan,and has art by Phil Ortiz. The story is a parody of how every few Christmases or so some toy will become mega hot,and all the various parents go wild trying to get one for their children. In this story the "Hot" toy is interactive Itchy and Scratchy toys. It is Christmas eve morning and the only store in Springfield is The Android's Dungeon. And of course Comic Book Guy has a nice selection of all the interactive figures,but they are all also marked up way over retail value. So instead of being the 19 or so bucks they should cost ,they are all now $80 or more. We see Marge,Milhouse's Mom,and Ned Flanders all in the store trying to talk CBG into dropping the prices at least a small amount. He of course refuses and all the parents besides Marge end up buying the toys. Marge goes home upset cause these toys are the only things Bart and Lisa have asked for this holiday season.When Bart finds out he might not get one,cause of the high price,he goes down to the store and tries to trade and barter some of his various toys. But of course he is denied.Homer is pissed and vows to drive around to all the other stores that sell toys so he can get some for his kids.After going to 3 various comic book/collectible stores and finding out that they do have the toys but at a even higher mark up. Homer gives up. On the way home sees a 18 wheeler and it's trailer overturned in the middle of the road. And when he stops to look inside the trailer Bart and him find a huge stash of all the Itchy and scratchy toys.Homer gets the "brilliant" idea to take these toys and go to outside the Android's Dungeon and sell them. Thanks to Ralph Wiggums mishearing Bart,everyone ends up thinking Homer is giving away the toys. And Homer and Bart get mobbed and give away all the toys. This causes CBG to get majorly pissed off. When the last of the toys has been given away,Homer and family head home to enjoy a little holiday cheer. But there is a sudden knock at the door,and it is Fat Tony. It seems his gang has gotten into the collectible toys aftermarket game,and They were in the middle of high jacking the truck when Homer and Bart turned up. Of course Fat Tony wants the money he would have made off selling his ill gotten goods. But since Homer gave the toys away for free he doesn't have it. Then to every one's surprise a fat man in a red suit shows up in the Simpson house.It is Comic Book Guy who gives Fat Tony a "Mega Rare Odds Maker Pete Rose Baseball Card,the Crown Jewel of the Cooperstown Hall of Shame series". And this card is worth as much or more than the toys were.Fat Tony happily accepts the card and leaves. When asked by Marge why he would do such a selfless thing CBG replies with "The Toy give-away this afternoon turned you Simpsons,However briefly into Local Heroes. If it came out that i had aided the gangsters, I would have been further Vilified by the Community and my store Shunned like a Trek Fan at a B5 Convention." Then he starts to leave and mentions that his filking group is going out to sing various Christmas Carols but with parts changed by substituting clever Sci-fi in jokes. The second story has Bart,Lisa,and Grandpa being summoned to the studio that does the Itchy and Scratchy cartoon. It seems the studio head is tired of them showing the same X-mas cartoon for going on 35 years. And since back some time earlier when Itchy and Scratchy had hit a low turn,it was turned around by Grandpa Simpsons,they now want him to write a new Christmas Holiday special cartoon. And so we get "A Springfield Christmas Carol" which is a variant of the Charles Dickens classic with various people from the town of Springfield. The first story is a great tale about all the goings on in the aftermarket toy market. Having been a collector of action figures for almost 25 years now,I can see many things in this story that have happened in real life. Plus I find that Comic Book Guy is one of my favorite secondary character in the shows history. The second story while not bad,isn't as good as the first one. I find it kinda sad that this issue of Simpsons Comics is better than any episode of the show I have seen in the last decade. Simpsons Comics 52 gets a very merry A+.