1985-86 (collected 1987) / Ebook / 128 pages / USA
***
I don't feel I missed out too much, but swap a childhood Garfield annual or two and it could have been a favourite, while still requiring translations from my mum.
1986-89 (collected 2017) / Ebook / 112 pages / Italy
***
Daumal meets Seuss in cubist colonial horror and introspective wank.
Fave: Fires
Worstie: Murmur
Viz, Viz: The Spunky Parts – Yet Another Compilation Annual of Issues 32 to 37
****
The romantic photo stories are getting better and the increasingly over-the-top violence and gore would have been hilarious when I was 12. Most of the old timers are boring by now, and the relentless royal features completely tedious, but The Fat Slags inject some fresh, high-cholesterol blood and the Billy the Fish saga becomes almost unironically gripping.
Faves: Billy the Fish, The Fat Slags
1991 (collected 1999) / Ebook / pages / UK
***
Appropriately insular indulgence about cartoonists by cartoonists for cartoonists. If it feels lacking as a graphic novel, that's because it belongs with the souvenir programmes.
Steve Vance, Cindy Vance and Bill Morrison, Simpsons Comics Extravaganza
1991-94 (collected 1994) / Ebook / 128 pages / USA
****
I had one of these issues back in the day (with several years' transatlantic delay, which was the style at the time) and was impressed by its authenticity, especially compared to what I was used to from cash-in tie-ins. It's not particularly funny, but if, like me, you starve yourself of Simpsons for a decade at a time so you can look forward to enjoying the classics all over again, it makes a nice midway treat.
