All part of my process! My stupid, stupid process.

So, I had to go out to my garage, to sort through some bins of action figures, because I needed to get Hoppy the Marvel Bunny out--for reasons! If that friggin' package ever shows up. "Deliver by 9 o'clock" my entire ass; it looks like midnight about 5:15 nowadays...But, we grabbed a couple other things! Partly because a box had fallen over, but it put some books back in my hands, so worth it. First, from 2003, the Simpsons #88, "License to Kilt" Written by Gail Simone, pencils by John Costanza, inks by Howard Shum.

Like so many good Simpsons episodes, this starts with one thing, that somehow leads to an unexpected second thing: during a tour of Krustylu Studios, Marge gets dragged into competing in Iron Chef--er, Steel Chefs. Patent pending! Marge picks Bart as her assistant, to challenge Steel Chef Cafeteria, aka Lunch-Lady Doris. The theme ingredient...corn dogs. Marge manages to impress the judges; Krusty, Kent Brockman, Professor Frink, and the strangely-familiar "antartic singing sensation," djörk. Hey, wait a minute...

   

While Marge wins, there isn't a cash prize, until Homer demonstrates the set to be unsafe, by touching a waffle iron while standing in a filled sink. "Giggles, the Personal Injury Clown" gets the family an all-expense paid vacation as the settlement; although Marge is at a loss to name someplace they haven't already gone...surely not Scotland? Well, Scotland it is! La-la-la, can't hear you...This opens the door for Groundskeeper Willie, who needs to get home to see his brother Angus compete in the Worlds Groundkeeping Cup. Willie pretends to be a Simpson for the flight; but confides to Bart he'd rather Bart was his brother, since his real brother was...an Olympic athlete, a movie star, and a champion groundskeeper!

The Simpsons arrive in Scotland, setting up probably one of Gail's best bits: a brief visit with Scotland's own Grant Morrison and Mark Millar! It goes about as well, as a meeting between them today would probably go. Still, Willie ends up having to face his brother in the groundskeeping tournament, and to keep things interesting, picks Bart as his helper. (Lisa: "But...I made this costume! And stayed up all night studying!")

Somehow, I don't think Bongo ever got a trade of Simone's stories--I think this was Gail's last on this series, although maybe not her last Simpsons work. I also think I read several of the following issues, maybe waiting for her return; these were probably bought from grocery stores--dear god, that seems like a long time ago! Not quite as far back: DC Direct's Hoppy the Marvel Bunny! I bought him (and Billy Batson, they were smaller figures packed together) January 2010, for a whopping $3.20! Nowadays...well, in-package would run you, but he's rare as hen's teeth. Not quite as rare, but still neat: a Spider-Man and Venom pog slammer!

eBay listings suggest that it's brass, and it's got a pleasing heft to it! I wish I could remember picking it up, but that was probably mid-90's? I don't think I got deep into pogs, but it would've been a shiny-pretty even then. I've added that to the little fistful of not-coins on my work desk, that I use to count like how many things I have to do in a set amount of time. I thought I had another Two-Face coin somewhere though, have to keep an eye out.