A few Simpsons episodes consist of flashback tales in which Homer and Marge tell the kids how they first met or how Lisa got her saxophone. Tom Peyer opens up this issue of Bart Simpson Comics with such a theme.
Peyer recreates the voices of the cast through his word choice and the timing in the dialogue. As a result Homer's tale does sound like an authentic television series recollection.
While there are a few sight gags that amuse, the focus of the flashback isn't that funny. The central point of the story, the idea that the multiplex has somehow made a single screen or two screen theater as alien a concept as a rotary phone, is a little difficult to swallow.
Carlos Valenti, Dan Davis and Nathan Hamill improve the story by rejuvenating the older cast to fit the period of the memory. The antics of all these spry and youthful characters, contrasting their cynical, often slothful adult futures, entertain immensely.
James Bates follows Peyer with an ingenious example of Bart's acumen for exploitation. The short starts out with a simple game of "Truth or Dare". It evolves into Bart seeing potential in what most would consider a kind act and leads to an unexpected resolution involving some surprise guest stars.
John Costanza's and Phyllis Novin's depiction of the self-wedgie is more than enough to impress, but they also mine gold with Hamill in the whole cloth character construction toward the end of the tale.
Mary Trainor in "Ponce Upon A Time" makes use of the old homily "like father, like son." A rummage through the photo album sends Bart on a quest for the Fountain of Youth.
The story is deceptively simple, yet in order for the story to be believable, Trainor must make Bart's search plausible. She lays the foundation in Bart's desperation. She builds on it with Bart's trust in Lisa. Bart takes Lisa at her word. He has no reason to doubt her, and she draws upon an underlying naiveté. Bart and Milhouse aren't being stupid in the story. They're acting like kids.
Nina Matsumoto and Mike DeCarlo remodel familiar faces in the story, and they also bring in newer characters that motivate Bart's and Milhouse's final decisions. The motivation arises in conveying what a couple of kids might find cool.
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