During The Simpsons panel at the virtual Comic-Con@Home this weekend, executive producer and series writer Al Jean revealed that Tales from the Crypt publisher EC Comics served as the inspiration behind The Simpsons' annual Halloween special, Treehouse of Horrors. As part of the celebration of The Simpsons 32nd season premiere this fall, the creative team previewed excerpts from Treehouse of Horrors XXXI and provided a Q&A session for fans tuning into the live-streamed Comic-Con@Home event. Alongside revelations of series creator Matt Groening’s eerie fascination with Golden Age horror comics, came news of the upcoming season’s celebrity guest stars, including Sir Michael Palin of Monty Python fame.
In the 1940s and 50s, Entertaining Comics, commonly referred to as EC Comics and originally known as Educational Comics, broke out of publishing academia and biblical illustrated-features for schools and churches and into the horror scene with titles such as Tales from the Crypt, The Haunt of Fear, and The Vault of Horror. During the Golden Age of Comics, EC printed noir-themed crime fiction, heroic and tragic war stories, and weird science fiction, as well as their hallmark horror titles featuring creepy hosts like the Cryptkeeper. Tales from the Crypt and EC’s related titles featured gory depictions of terror and the supernatural with stark consequences for victims of the ghouls and nightmares that haunted its pages. Indeed, the titles became so notorious that amid censorship battles in the 1950s with the Comics Code Authority and heated Congressional hearings prompted by Dr. Fredic Wertham’s anti-comic book crusade and his infamous publication, Seduction of the Innocent, EC folded its comic lines and focused on a new project, a humor magazine titled simply, Mad.
October 1990 marked the second season of the unexpected and remarkably well-received The Simpsons and the debut of an extremely-unorthodox Halloween special, Treehouse of Horror. The episode cast three brief tales of the macabre in the trademark Simpsons-style - humorous vignettes with brutal cartoon violence and Halloween mayhem, as well as a cautionary disclaimer from voice of sanity, Marge Simpson warning younger viewers of the terrifying episode about to unfold. Parodying Poltergeist in “Bad Dream House,” Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone in “Hungry are the Damned” with fan-favorite aliens, Kang and Kodos, and presenting gothic poet Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” in its entirety, The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horrors became a smash-hit with Simpsons fan. Its wit, frightful-yet-prankish, bloodletting, and wink-wink-nudge-nudge cultural references drew viewers like moths to a Jack-O-Lantern flame. And, after 32 successful seasons, The Simpsons returns this fall with Treehouse of Horror XXXI.
Appearing at the 2020 Comic-Con virtual convention, writers, producers, and actors brought The Simpsons home to quarantined viewers. Previewing two sneak peeks of Treehouse of Horror XXXI and answering questions from an eager Simpsons fandom, moderator Yeardley Smith (Lisa Simpson) was joined by Al Jean (executive producer and writer), Matt Selman (executive producer and writer), David Silverman (producer and animation director), Carolyn Omine (writer), and Mike B. Anderson (supervising animation director) for a hilarious and enlightening online panel.
In discussing the outrageous Halloween special, Al Jean explained that "In the '50s, there were these comics called EC Comics that I remember. As a kid, you couldn't buy them because they were so scary and creepy. They would have these three scary little comic episodes, and [creator Matt Groening] had the idea to turn that into an animated tradition with The Simpsons. We were so worried the first few times we aired, that Marge has a disclaimer warning people it's too scary …Now we kill like 20 people a minute, but we were really worried we were gonna terrify every kid in America.”
In spite of the shocking premise of Treehouse of Horror, or perhaps as a result of its success, The Simpsons has endured to become an animation phenomenon, cranking out sharp cultural criticism, slap-stick humor, and the remorseless antics of The Itchy and Scratchy Show for over three decades. And the specter of EC Comics still holds sway over The Simpsons each October, as trick-or-treaters trade their Wacky Taffy for television terrors and the seasonal massacre that is The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror.
Watch the entire Simpsons online panel at Comic-Con@Home - including celebrity guest reveals like Sir Michael Palin - and catch The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XXXI this fall on FOX.
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