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.

Immigration of the Body Snatchers! is 1997’s main offering in the “third throat-throttling issue.”

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Evan Dorkin spends the bulk of book burying Invasion of the Body Snatchers, plus taking a slew of similar films with it.

Homer plays the unlikely hero in the 1997 parody of the original 1956-black and white, Superscope indie Invasion of the Body Snatchers. That, in turn, was based upon the 1954 book The Body Snatchers.

This is another film made on the cheap – about $350,000 – with huge returns. Initial receipts tallied over $1 million, finally eclipsing $2.5 million in the United States alone.

Invasion was remade in 1978, earning over $25 million.

Warner Brothers returned to the well with another version in 1993, this time under the name Body Snatchers. It was met with mixed reviews and minimal box office returns.

A fourth adaptation was released in 2007 entitled The Invasion. As with the previous incarnation, the film failed to make back costs; having a $65 to $80 million budget and grossing $40.2 million.

Finishing the book is the short, Fatal Reception. Bart and Lisa turn the tables on Homer. The Simpson patriarch has ransomed room and board for half the Halloween candy take. The siblings relent, but also plot revenge.

Paul Dini chose The Blob as the movie to parody in the second installment of Bart’s Tree House of Horror and Sideshow Blob! is the star of the book.

Bob volunteers to play guinea pig for Doctor Nick. The quack with the sheepskin unleashes a gelatinous giant on Springfield. His obsession with killing Bart creates mass destruction as he oozes in pursuit. Bob meets an icy reception and demise at the Kwik-E-Mart.

Originally The Blob was a low-budget, independent film released in 1958. It claims Steve McQueen made his Hollywood debut in the this otherwise second feature to I Married a Monster from Outter Space.

A sequel, Beware! the Blob, was released in 1972 starring Larry Hagman.

Tri-Star pictures remade the movie in 1988, but only saw a return of $8.2 million for its $19 million budget.

Peter Bagge authors The Exosister in the second installment.

Lisa finds herself possessed by the spirit of Madonna. An abbreviated version of The Exorcist follows as the mass media darling of daring is expelled from Lisa’s soul.

Anyone familiar with comic books knows Dini’s name. Bagge’s name is not as synonymous with comic books, but his black humor alternatives, Hate and Neat Stuff, were another cornerstone of the grunge experience of the 1990s.

The Exorcist was a more popular media darling. Released in 1973, the film grossed $1.9 million in its opening weekend. It went on to make $441 million worldwide.

The film was nominated for a Best Picture by the Academy. Patton took Oscar home that year. In retrospect, the film has been honored by being chosen by the National Film Registry for preservation.

Hard to believe, but Halloween season is upon us. Welcome to October with the first of a series of haunted treats.

Opening the book is a story of Lisa’s science experiment that runs amok in Little Shop of Homers.

What appears to be a cash cow becomes a deadly liability. Until Homer comes to the rescue – of donuts.

Of course, this is a lampoon of The Little Shop of Horrors, Roger Corman’s 1960 horror/comedy based on the 1932 John Colliier short story Green Thoughts.

It was repurposed as a “horror comedy rock musical” with music by Alan Menken in 1982. It began as an off-Broadway production, but moved into the limelight.

The play was then adapted to film in 1986 by Frank Oz.

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Next is the Bart Simpson, master of disguise, presents the “quick ‘n’ easy, low budget do-it-yourself guide to cool costumes” offering some less than desirable choices for trick or treat in a one-page special.

Call Me Homer is a different take on the Moby Dick legend. Wishing to seem important, Grandpa tells a tale of an ancestor who was a whaling man. His lust for blubber brought Herman Melville’s story to a different conclusion, and started the myth of the Bermuda Triangle.

Bart People is a parody of the 1942 RKO Pictures classic Cat People.

Lisa is away for a week. When she returns, she notices some differences, but not enough to condone Bart’s revelation they are cat people.

Music soothes the savage beast and Bart is given a new home in the Springfield Zoo. Watch the final panels for the foreshadowing.

The original Cat People was redone in 1982 with David Bowie providing the title track to the film.

Treehouse of Horrors first aired Oct. 25, 1990, and became an annual tradition. Each consist of three-separate segments. Themes are either horror, sci-fi or supernatural.

This year we’re doing something a little different. We’ll be focusing on the Tree House of Horror series by featuring all 23 issues during October. Please join us as we celebrate the haunting season with a skewed vision of the season.

It’s time to get scared.

Not just classic Universal Horror-comfort scare or the horror porn from the turn of the millennium, but under-the-blanket, five-year-old scared. The kind of scared that’s almost as good as sex when you get that release.

Upturned Stone (1993)

That’s what Upturned Stone is about. The kind of monsters who are real. The ones not afraid to hurt their victims. For real.

It’s a return to the Ben Cooper Halloweens when orange Jack o’ Lantern heads served as candy repositories. The kinda candy that didn’t need to be checked before eaten.

Scott Hampton pulls the film off a happier era to show shadows were haunted even then. All in a story told in four parts by four reluctant participants who grow up before their time.

An unlikely vessel unleashes a series of incomplete nightmares. Incomplete until told together, through the eyes of the boy buried long ago in a mystery never solved.

Revenge is exacted for the innocent victim against a predator not fearing retribution.

Hopefully there weren’t too many spoilers in the description. This is a title you need to seek out and read for yourself. It’s just that good.

It’s a book I passed on initially. My pull box was a full one in the early 1990s. My wallet was not.

There were too many good things happening below the surface of the comic book landscape. Sandman was still on the stands. I was playing catch up with Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis tag teamed on Justice League. Aliens v Predator and their solo titles kept us hoping they would one day unite on the big screen.

To quote Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

Business was good and experimentation was allowed. Well, product was needed. The boom before the bust.

If you dug past the dreck, there was a lot of good books on the periphery of the main stream. Upturned Stone was one of the gems and will echo in your soul for a long time.

Mr. Hampton is a journeyman comic book artist and creator. His works include Batman, Black Widow, Sandman and Hellraiser. Upturned Stone was optioned in 2005 by David Foster Productions for release on the silver screen. This never materialized, but the story has been optioned again recently. Time will tell.

Again, happy Halloween. Be safe and check under the bed.

Pismo Beach remains as elusive as ever in Hare-A 51.

Bugs and Daffy go astray as they attempt another vacation. Elmer is the foil as the pair spoof the X-Files, cross dress and, finally, enlist the aid of an alien to get them to their destination.

The Shiny is, as you may have guessed, a send up of Stephen King’s The Shining.

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Porky Pig and Sylvester the Cat rehash their roles from the 1948 Merrie Melodies Scaredy Cat animated short; right down to the mouse who incited incidents.

Scribe Craig Boldman even shows the short-lived, self-described “New Magazine of Weird Humor!” Plop! – 1973 to 1976 – some love.

Tazzy-Doo, Where Are You? is a straight up, send up of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?

Conundrum Co., made up of Fredhorn, Daphnie-Bunny, Veltunia, Daffy and Tazzy-Doo, are monster hunting in a mask factory Halloween night. Jesse Leon McCann leaves no Hanna-Barbera trope untouched as the writer weaves an abstract adventure.

Who’s the villain? Who is unmasked? Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Gossamer, something unexplainable and, finally, the real culprit. I won’t spoil the fun so go find this issue yourself.

Happy Halloween.

Happy Halloween.

Or, it should be. Frank Strom offers a candid view of Christmas commercialism and how the holiday is affecting other red-numbered calendar days.

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Only two days to Halloween and Witch Hazel doesn’t have any candy. Simple enough solution. Hop on her broom and head to the local mega-mart.

But, it’s not that easy.

On Oct. 29, instead of Jack o’ Lanterns she finds Christmas trees, tinsel and other Tanenbaum trimmings. Halloween has been usurped.

After a warehouse interval, Hazel heads north – far north – to speak to the man in red himself. When she finally is granted an audience, Hazel has words with Santa. Those words lead to a truth the big man never considered.

Host Felix Faust follows with a one-page Super Friends Super Stumper.

Hazel returns for a romp through the fairy tales in Spell It Out and Bugs helps Porky Pig find a loophole to save his soul from Daffy “Devil” Duck.

Not a bad cover-to-cover read near the spookiest night of the year.

Masquerade of Madness is a true Halloween story.

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Published Oct. 25, 1979, E. Nelson Bridwell and Ramona Fradon craft some late Bronze Age cheesiness. Basically, werewolf Jimmy Olsen, Jayna and Zan end Felix Faust’s plans to defeat the Super Friends once and for all.

The Super Friends began as Saturday morning fodder for sugar-addled brains starved for a more kinetic version of their comic books. The original series premiered in 1973 after the Dynamic Duo tested on Scooby-Doo and Wonder Woman on the animated Brady Kids.

It was rechristened as The All-New Super Friends Hour from 1977-78. Further name changes included Challenge of the Super Friends from ’78 to ’79, The World’s Greatest Super Friends ’79 to ’80 with a return to simply Super Friends from 1980 to 1983.

Hanna-Barbera finished out its run with Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show from 1984 to 1985 and, finally, The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, 1985-86.

While loosely based on the Justice League of America comic book, Super Friends did not translate into a comic book itself until 1975. Even that relied heavily on the JLA. Super Friends began as part of the Limited Collector’s Edition (C-41) series, reprinting JLA issues 36 and 61 with Bridwell penning a bridging tale to bind the stories together. Alex Toth provided pencils.

DC finally greenlit a Super Friends comic book series in 1976. The title ran till 1981. The comic complimented the cartoon rather than rely on JLA continuity.

Not sure if this is a trick or treat, but if you happen across it in a back-issue bin, enjoy some past history.

DC rolled out the red carpet for Halloween 1979.

Featured in the house advertisement are Secrets of Haunted House 20, House of Mystery 276, Weird War Tales 83 and Ghosts 84. Showcased was Super Friends 28 touted as a “Hair Raising Chiller!”

According to the hype, “The Super Friends Battle 5-Fearsome Foes…and their Mysterious Master!”

To learn more about the issue, tune in tomorrow for the full synopsis.

In the meantime, continue to dig out DC’s anthology House books and Marvel’s serialized monster soaps with Universally-recognized names. Let them take you back to the days of Ben Cooper costumes, plastic Jack o’ Lantern candy buckets and gobs of sugary candies.

You Can’t Beat This Halloween Treat!