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.

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.

February is almost over, but winter drags on. This second helping of winter whimsy features one Christmas story with the remainder of the book focusing on seasonal activities and other notable days.

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Not a Groundhog Day clone, The Christmas That Lasted Forever, is a nightmare lived over and live.

Chuck Dixon hired out his talent for the opening salvo in the second winter special.

Bart makes a simple wish that every day would be Christmas. Rather than relive the day over and over, every following day is Christmas.      Industry halts and life entropies.

Otto’s Gnarly Snowbaorder’s Glossary for When You Need to Comp a Boarder’s Lingo is a two page, well, what the title says.

Brave Bart does not mean a smart Bart. His courage outweighed his cranium as he takes on the neighborhood bullies in a snowball fight.

Bart stumbles into a sledding contest that leaves he and Ralph struggling for survival in Junior Camper Snow Sled Jamboree.

That’s so glavin! is a New Year’s resolution turned bad. Fortunately, Lisa is able to save the day.

The middle Simpson child is the focus of the last story as well as Lisa attempts to find her secret admirer in VSI (Valentine Scene Investigators).

This is the story we’re looking at as we lead into the second month and second holiday of the year with Valentine’s Day. This is a head’s up to give you time to find that perfect gift for that perfect person.

Aunt Slappy mangles Clement C. Moore’s classic trying to put Skippy to sleep on Christmas Eve in Twas the Day Before Christmas.

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All the Warner Bros. gang are on hand for cameos as Yakko, Wakko and Dot wait on their holiday bounty. The question being, who would be stupid enough to deliver?

Ralph the guard.

If ignorance is bliss, Santa Ralph is the happiest man alive. The presents arrive and all are pleased. Another Christmas Eve completed, the calendar page discarded leaving all fulfilled.

Next up is a one-page Good Idea/Bad Idea.

The Taming of the Screwy is a backstory on the Warner Bros. and Dot, who must be reined in for a dinner party. The impossible cannot be done and the trio of terrors do their worst to their guest’s delight.

The Animaniacs began at Fox before moving to The WB in 1995. The series would continue until 1998 airing 99 episodes.