The self-proclaimed “unlucky #13” featured 64 pages of material, four stories and six comedians at the helm.

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Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan lead off the book with a parody of Jaws called Gnaws. The turgid tale read more like a Mad magazine lampoon with the minor characters taking center stage. Chief Wiggum, Captain Horatio McCallister and Professor John Frink provide the punchlines.

Jaws became the first summer blockbuster the year after Peter Benchley’s novel hit bookstores. Director Stephen Spielberg became a household name and John Williams’ score became a seaside anthem.

It would go on to become the number-one box office money maker until Star Wars hit theaters two years later.

Lenny stars in They Draw, an unabashed swipe from wrestling legend Rowdy Roddy Piper’s sci-fi vehicle They Live. Rather than seeing aliens, Homer’s second banana sees beyond the printed page.

Patton Oswalt spawns They Draw.

They Live was based on the short story Eight O’Clock in the Morning by Ray Nelson. John Carpenter’s commentary on society was criticized even though it debuted at number one in North America. It now has a cult following as do so many of his celluloid ventures.

Bart, Homer, Lisa and Milhouse find themselves sucked into some of Hollywood’s biggest movies when they encounter cursed props. Prop, Prop, Whiz, Whiz dusts off some whimsy to enter the silver scream.

Ian Boothby and Pia Guerra pen the tale.

Bart turns the tables on Montgomery Burns in The Pygmy Elixir. Seeking youth, Burns must enlist the aid of Bart. Their trip to the Amazon has mixed results.

The saucy story is courtesy of Thomas Lennon.

Homer taxes God’s patience when tapped to become the world’s savior in Homer’s Ark!

Well, maybe.

The story may have been a dream. Much like the Bible, the end result is based on interpretation. However, the titular character is struck with God’s wrath for a fitting end to the tale.

Blood Curse of the Evil Faries! proves a lackluster story rooted in Homer’s child-like existence and disregard for anyone, but himself. Maggie must save the Simpsons, but leave the audience wanting more.

Groundskeeper Willie embraces a taboo love in Willie: Portrait of a Groundskeeper. With his usual disdain for platitudes beyond his, Homer destroys the partnership of human and bird only to suffer the same consequences when Willie serves up Marge for dinner.

Not as satisfying as years past, but another serviceable installment for the Halloween season.

Issue 11 takes readers back to an era when voters liked Ike, but loved Lucy. When comic books sold in the millions on a monthly basis. To a time when horror bared its fangs under the guidance of man who later would be called Mad.

The Sub-Basement of Dracula reunites the legendary duo of Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan. Both shepherded the Prince of Darkness through his run at Marvel Comics during the 1970s. While not the original author of Tomb of Dracula, Wolfman came on board with issue seven seeing the book through to it’s ending journey with issue 70.

Neither creator spare the jugular as Bart, Homer, Marge, Lisa and, even, Maggie assume the roles of Quincy Harker the Van Helsings and Blade.

Not to be outdone, Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson revisit their muck monster in Squish Thing. This loosely veiled send up of Swamp Thing brings vengeance at the hands of a vegetative Homer who saves his love from Moe.

Swamp Thing first appeared in House of Secrets (1956) 92 as envisioned by Wein and Wrightson. The one-and-done proved successful enough, the two were asked for a continuing series. Wein helmed the book for the first 13 issues while Wrightson left after the first 10.

The title has appeared off and on spin racks ever since, including two movies, an animated feature and two live-action television series.

Two Tickets to Heck; A Quick Way to a Krusty Death!; Bart Simpson Midget Commando; Krash! Shock! Suspense! Simpsons! and Blast From the Future Past! all doff their hats to the original series of EC comics.

Chris Bonham and Steve Ringgenberg pen the shorts with art by James Lloyd, Angelo Torres, John Sevrin, and Mark Shultz.

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Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror (2005) 11

Marge’s night of indiscriminate passion leads to a new evil unleashed on Earth.

Bart Simmons God of Thunder, as told by Gene Simmons, is as full of machismo as the author. The brash and bawdy tale doesn’t spare the Kiss references, either.

The protagonist is as much an antagonist for much of the story. His demon-given birth rite, powered by his pre-pubescent imagination fractures reality. Only when challenged from above does he rise to meet the challenge and save Earth.

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For those not familiar with Simmons, the aging glam rocker co-founded Kiss in the early 1970s. The bass player is an unabashed fan of comic books and monsters. His costume was designed from both.

Shock rocker Alice Cooper is less predator than prey in The Legend of Batterface.

Cooper mixes a little Friday the Thirteenth with Carrie as Homer becomes a perennial killer. His modus operandi are donuts. A carefully culled phrase from his youth brings out a murderous rage as Homer exacts revenge for a long ago wrong.

Vincent Damon Furnier adopted the stage moniker Alice Cooper after shedding his initial band of the same name. The Detroit-based musician used an amalgam of musical noirs for the sound they unleashed in the early 1970s.

House of a 1000 Corpses is deconstructed for House of a Thousand Donuts when the Simpsons take a vacation.

Rob Zombie liberally steals from his first movie. Homer, Marge and the kids are subjected to a night of terror when the patriarch visits Dr. Satan’s Hall of Donuts. Krusty’s twist ending is no surprise to any who have seen the source material.

Zombie is best known as a musician. Before embarking on a solo career, the singer fronted White Zombie. He would go solo in 1998. In 2003, he turned his attention to cinema and wrote, directed and co-scored House of a 1000 Corpses. Since then, Zombie has written and directed The Devil’s Rejects, Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2008), Werewolf Women of the SS, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, The Lords of Salem, 31 and 3 From Hell.

The trifecta of hard rock authors is complimented by Top 40 favorite Pat Boone.

His Scareway to Heaven features Ned Flanders and a Bible camp massacre.

Boone has sold more than 45-million records, had 38 top 40 hits and appeared in more than 12 Hollywood films. His wholesome persona made him the darling of the 1950s song scene, second only to Elvis Presley.

You can almost hear Vincent Price’s voice echoing a sentiment from Thriller as the book closes.

The Simpsons find themselves transported to Middle Earth to quest with Bilbo and gang in Ring Around the Simpsons.

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This Lord of the Rings lampoon is well worth the $4.99 admission. Ian Boothby, Shuster, Harvey and Eisner laureate; pens the epic with Dan Brereton’s artistry. In this version, everyone tests their mettle against the will of the ring.

Paul Dini takes on Edgar Allen Poe in The Cask of Amontilla-D’oh.

Moe just wants Homer to pay his bar tab. And, take an insult back. The lengths to which the bar keep will go is evidenced in this story.

Homer finds romance, if not the killer, in From Hell And back (Or: The Truer Story of Jack the Ripper).

Gary Spencer Millidge’s and Nathan Kane tackle Saucy Jack, but Inspector Homer is the one tripped up. The Illuminati, Masons or whatever secret sect remain safe for continued operation in the shadows.

From Hell is Alan Moore’s discourse on the Whitechapel murders. It was originally published as a serial from 1989 to 1998. The treatise earned Eisner recognition for Best Serialized Story in 1993; Best Writer in 1995, 1996, 1997, and Best Graphic Album – Reprint in 2000.

Johnny Depp starred in a film adaptation in 2001.

Another send up of Famous Monsters of Filmland welcomes the reader for the 2002 Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horrors.

Grandpa Simpson accidently kills his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren in Night of Nineteen Screams! The story meanders through a few jokes before the elder Simpson realizes he has the wrong glasses.

Gail Simone and Jill Thompson tag team on Tales from the Kwik-E-Mart.

Apu dons the moldy cloak and trusted tome to tell a tale of terror. Bart unwittingly unleashes familiar mascots from the breakfast table. Homer has the stomach for the trouble as the family faces down the threat.

Krustine is a mash up of the Twilight Zone and Christine meet Rat Fink. Not the best of the book, but a fun read anyway.

Powerplant of Pain features The Lexicon of Lurid Limericks murders to murder the alphabet. From A to Z, the horrors are recounted with a noir flavor.

Garth Ennis takes the wheel for the opening of 2001’s terror tales with In Springfield No One Can Hear Your Scream.

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His Itchy and Scratchy short, Facehuggin’ Frolics, is more appropriate than most. Known for his penchant for violence and offal in abundance, Ennis takes the Simpsons into the deepest reaches Bart’s nightmares.

The send up of Aliens reaches conclusion with more questions than answers.

Aliens was the second installment of the Alien franchise. James Cameron directed the sci-fi thriller, long before Titanic. The film earned $180 million worldwide as well as seven Academy Award nominations including Best Actress for Sigourney Weaver. It won for Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects.

Stan Saki takes readers down the yellow brick road in I’m Not in Springfield Anymore. The Wizard of Oz spoof substitutes the citizens of Springfield for the normal cast as Lisa looks for the Wizard.

While not a traditional horror film, The Wizard of Oz is not without its scares. L. Frank Baum’s creation was first translated to the silver screen in 1939. Due to it’s annual airing on television, generations have grown up with the classic.

Kodos and Kang have a little fun with the Simpsons patriarch in Homerectus.

The aliens first appeared in the televised Treehouse of Horror in 1990, voiced by Harry Shearer and Dan Castellaneta.

Fanboy extraordinaire, Mark “Luke Skywalker” Hamill takes a turn with the final tale, Catastrophe in Substitute Springfields!

The nebbish farm boy from Tatooine calls on his love of Silver Age Superman stories. What could pass for an Eisenhower-era Bizarro tale done four decades after the fact, Montgomery Burns plays the villain. Using his commissioned “redundo ray” to develop a mindless workforce, the experiment goes away, as they always do, and the creation becomes the creator.

James Mahfood takes Hell-O-Ween into his own hands as he scripts, letters and draws the first story of 2000 in the first Treehouse of Horrors of the new millennium.

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Bart’s “switcharoo” of mailboxes leads to Ned Flanders becoming the undisputed ruler of Hell. Mahfood pulls from every corner of nerdom for the tale.

Metamorphsimpsons is the comic book version of Ian McEwan’s The Cockroach. The protagonist dreams himself transformed into a giant bug. That’s where the similarities end as Homer finds himself loathed by family and friends.

Upon waking, Homer learns his dream is a nightmare.

Mary Shelly’s vision is sullied in Young Frinkenstein. Truer to the original than Mel Brook’s interpretation, the story strays toward the end with greed overcoming good.

From Duffs Till Dawn, as told by Groundskeeper Willie, is a story of a Chupacabra loose in Moe’s. It finally chooses the wrong victim in Barney.

Something new for millennium was Martin’s Folktales from Around the World. The cautionary Japanese story warns of avarice.

Maybe the most distinct aspect of the issue is the cover, a homage to Famous Monsters of Filmland. The horror ‘zine was the brainchild of Publisher James Warren and Editor Forrest J. Ackerman. The publication was on newsstands from 1958 to 1983.

The magazine was known for its campy, but loving articles of the horror industry. Covers featured the talent of Basil Gogos whose illustrations graced the covers of Famous Monsters through much of the 1960s and 1970s.

Jill Thompson puts down her pencils to pen the opening story in the fifth installment of Treehouse of Horror.

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In Dark Lisa, Thompson plunders her comic book heritage as well as Stephen King’s first book. The amalgam of horror and heroes births an original tale to hail and haunt.

Carrie, King’s first book, was released in 1974 with a follow up movie in 1976 starring Sissy Spacek and John Travolta. Both book and movie were commercial and critical successes. The book has never been out of publication. The original hardcover sold 13,000 copies, but the paperback over one million in its first year.

King received $2,500 for rights to the book. Carrie, the film, earned $7 million in rentals domestically and $22 million worldwide.

Xt’Tapalatakettle’s Day is a sequel to Blood Feud, the final episode of the second season of the Simpsons that introduces the Olmec head of the title’s name. Sergio Aragonies takes a spin with the Simpsons showing greed and gluttony are sins.

Apu on Rigel 7 stars the Kwik-E-Mart proprietor in the final story of the book and millennium.

Monty Burn’s co-stars in a dual role as Apu aids in a coup d’etat to bring democracy back to the stars. Homer plays carpet bagger during the fight for freedom.

Chuck Dixon unleashes Tahn-Enn-Bahm The Christmas Tree from Another World.

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Just three days before Christmas Lisa convinces Homer and family to use a live tree. Camouflaged by the other firs, Than-Enn-Bahm is able to fool the family and escape to their living room.

Lisa discovers the deception, but is saved by Homer’s clumsiness and the combination of water and electricity. The Earth is saved…or is it?

The Illustrative Man, by Batton Lash, offers vignettes of ink that come to life.

Based on The Illustrated Man, a 1951 book authored by Ray Bradbury, the second feature of 1998 ties up the book for another year.

The Illustrated Man was later translated to film starring Rod Steiger. While the source material featured 18-short stories, the movie only featured three, The Veldt, The Long Rain and The Last Night of the World.

A remake was rumored in 2007, but has yet to be green lit.