Ren & Stimpy's "Hokey Halloween Horror!" issue is responsible for my nom de alias, as it were; but is there any fun to be had with a much later Halloween issue? From 1996 (!)
the Ren & Stimpy Show #40, featuring "Breakfast of Idiots" Written by Terry Collins, pencils by Darren Auck, inks by Gary Fields; and "The Legend of Sleazy Hollow" Plot by Scott Benson, script by John Lewie, pencils by Jeff Jarka, inks by Don Hudson.
In the opening story, some shifty thugs leave a barrel of toxic waste at the Hoek homestead, which Stimpy mistakes for the barrel of maple syrup he ordered. Honest mistake, right? This being a comic, the toxic waste gives them both beefcake strength, including for lucky Ren "
shoulders!" Unfortunately, the effect doesn't last long enough for Ren to get a proper reign of terror going...or does he?
The second story is of course a riff on the Headless Horseman, interspersed with Ren and Stimpy trying to teach a classroom full of bratty English clods. Children are the future my ass...when their only question is, how long will it be before you get killed like the last 17 teachers, Ren hatches a plot to show them up, which naturally leads to riding Stimpy though the forest at night. (It was the horse's day off, in that one-horse town!) Neither story is as good as issue #8, but okay.
Ren seems to allude to the book's cancellation on the last page, but it would run to later in the year with issue
#44. A much longer run than I expected! For comparison, Marvel's
Beavis & Butthead lasted 28, I can't offhand think of any other licensed humor titles from around then with a better run. Not saying there isn't though, so shout out if I blanked on one.
I could be wrong (and possibly, probably am?) but to me at least the comic adaptations of both franchises you just mentioned nowhere NEAR holed up as well as the their animated source. I mean sure, it's probably required that you read them with their signature voices if you want to get the most out of them. Still that seems like an awful lot of work when you can just watch them instead of reading about them. Right?
ReplyDeleteI will say though, Ren was dead on though in how Columbus "discovered" America.
Yeah, the adaptations generally weren't as great at Marvel in that period. The Spider-Man/Powdered Toast Man team-up issue was pretty good (still have that one) and the Captain Planet maxi-series was mostly good. The last good TV/film adaptation from Marvel that had a decent run before that was Alf. It actually lasted a while- 50 issues and a bunch of annuals and specials.
ReplyDeleteAlf! A good call, that had a much longer run than you would expect. Marvel used to do that, though, have an adaptation or licensed book that ran far longer than the source material would warrant. We all love Rom and Micronauts, but yeah. More recently, those Gunslinger books and that Maximum Ride thing got so many issues...
ReplyDeleteThe Youngest and I do a fair amount of Ren & Stimpy around the house, particularly when making sandwiches, or seeing a grave: "Lot of guys named Rip buried here..." "Shut up."