The Simpsons Complete Guides [Archive]

Ivan

07-11-2006, 05:58 AM

Who else buys these?

I borrowed The Simpsons Beyond Forever from the school library 2 years ago. The first one that I bought was One Step Beyond Forever. I then got The Simpsons Forever in January this year...I thought it was strange how they gave some episodes 2 pages and others just 1 in that book. Just two months ago, I stumbled upon an original 1997 version of the original guide with seasons 1-8 in it (i never thought i'd get it because it was released so long ago). I really loved the first one, but my favourite is the One Step Beyond Forever due to the fact that it looks so neat with it's two page spreads (as well as four pages for the THOH episodes as well as Tales From The Public Domain). For me, it doesn't really matter if they have framegrabs or not, but I know it's a bit of a problem for other people.

What are your opinions?

Adam

07-11-2006, 06:42 AM

collectors from the beginning of the series generally regard the first one the best. the double pages of its successors doesn't necessarily equal more content. one step beyond forever has been largely criticised here for not including enough screengrabs or insignificant ones related to the content of the episode.

i'd say the first one is the best because it covers all the glory years -- all the follow ups have episodes from the disliked seasons and therefore do not hold as much interest.

Ivan

07-11-2006, 06:45 AM

Thats actually a very good case, Adam.

I've started re-reading the first guide, and i have to admit it is a good book. My least favourite is the season 9/10 one, the Simpsons Forever.

Adam

07-11-2006, 06:53 AM

http://www.nohomers.net/showthread.php?t=45819
you can read the thoughts on one step beyond forever there. comments on the book begin after october 1st, its release date

grissom

07-11-2006, 07:34 AM

The first one is obviously the best. I wish they hadn't rushed through the next 2, they're definitely not as good. I've yet to read the latest one.

Ivan

07-11-2006, 07:36 AM

rushed? there was a 3/4 year gap between the 2nd & 3rd ones!

grissom

07-11-2006, 07:40 AM

Yeah, but obviously not as much effort was put into them. Maybe 'rushed' wasn't the right word to use.

Nameless

07-11-2006, 12:48 PM

the series has got worse and worse with each book, i think. beyond forever provided us with fun facts like "You can see Homer sawing into his control panel in The Mansion Family on a computer screen", which was blindingly obvious, and there was a complete lack of framegrabs in One Step. It did seem like they rushed through them to squeeze them out by their release dates.

Simpsons Forever!

07-11-2006, 02:45 PM

Interesting note to add to this thread, seeing as it's relevant:

They're releasing And Beyond! (A Complete Guide to Seasons 9-12) in the UK on 4th December. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0007245068/202-6120037-8572642?v=glance&n=266239
That'll combine Simpsons Forever with Simpsons Beyond Forever, but for some reason leaves One Step Beyond Forever out. I suppose eventually there really will be a Complete Guide when they combine all the Guides into one.

Adamm R)))

07-11-2006, 11:01 PM

^Thanks Simpsons Forever (our guy seems to be providing more information than the crappy book he's named after). Interesting, I probably won't buy it though. And I wonder what the cover art will look like. I don't know if they could make one big book, it'd be pretty thick, I'd probably get it if they did, my books aren't in the best condition
the series has got worse and worse with each book, i think. beyond forever provided us with fun facts like "You can see Homer sawing into his control panel in The Mansion Family on a computer screen", which was blindingly obvious
I think it's just the episodes that got worse, except the second book, which provides too little information for one book. They still made some silly observations, look in the first guide. It's also obvious in Treehouse Of Horror when Marge and Homer are talking about the great feast that their heads appear to be on the platters, which is in The Stuff You May Have Missed.

Ivan

07-11-2006, 11:35 PM

^until you mentioned that i hadnt actually noticed it in the epiosde :-/

Nameless

07-12-2006, 04:36 AM

I don't know if they could make one big book, it'd be pretty thick, I'd probably get it if they did, my books aren't in the best condition.

Maybe they'll just release a boxset of them all and print new limited edition covers to tease collectors if it'd be too thick.

flamingtuna

07-12-2006, 07:46 AM

my favorites beyond forever. all of the content is very entertaining, especially hte quotes and episode summaries.

E-I-E-I-Moe

07-12-2006, 08:54 AM

I think the staff knows about their lack of framegrabs and hopefully they fix that in book 5. I believe we were trashing One Step Beyond Forever saying things like Jesse McCann does a bad job and there's barely any framegrabs, and a guy from Bongo showed up to defend him. So he must've read our posts, but I don't know if they'll actually take notice...

Ivan

07-12-2006, 06:44 PM

Yeah, that was Bill Morrison, who is the main editor for all the Bongo Comics. He said The entire book is made at Bongo and THEN sent to HarperCollins, so don't blame them. Then he said the framegrabs are chosen by Bongo, and is overseen by him, so don't blame Jesse blame Bill or something.

I wouldn't blame ANYBODY really. They actually put so much time and effort into these books, and then everybody goes and flames it, even though it took 2 years to produce. I enjoy the guides, and plus if you've seen the episodes, like I've seen most of season 14, I don't really care if there's grabs or not because I know what happens in the episode basically. And the ones I haven't seen that have some or none -- then it's just a surprise to what it looks like when I watch it!

Sniper Squirrel

07-13-2006, 11:15 AM

I don't know why the other ones are on a 2 season basis, wouldn't it have made more sense to have them for 4 or 5 seasons, I think that's what they should do with the next book and just have it cover the remainder of the series

E-I-E-I-Moe

07-13-2006, 12:06 PM

It's because they can make more money by having the books by every two seasons, therefore having to release more volumes. And now that every episode is a double or four-pager, having a double-page book of seven seasons or so would be pretty thick...kind of.

Jeff

07-14-2006, 03:27 PM

they're all worth the money but without a doubt, the first one was the best. i remember flipping through those colorful (yet informative) pages when i borrowed the guide from my friend who was a casual fan many years back.

Leela!

07-15-2006, 07:46 AM

when do you think the next complete guide will be out? I've collected all of them so far.

Ivan

07-15-2006, 07:56 AM

Probably sometime near the end of next year.

And for those to think the next ones will be Two Steps Beyond Forever, Three Steps Beyond Forever, etc, then you're probably wrong.

In a recent interview at my site (http://thesimpsonssector.tripod.com) Jesse McCann mentioned to me someone at HarperPerennial suggested something like One Giant Step Beyond Forever (or One Great Step Beyond Forever, can't remember), and that they actually really liked it as the title.

Leela!

07-15-2006, 07:58 AM

Thanks for that, I actually like that title as well and I hope they use it.

Adamm R)))

07-15-2006, 09:38 AM

One Giant Step Beyond Forever.
It's odd, I kinda like that title, but I know it's pretty bad. The really dug themselves into a hole with these names. If only the had called it Encyclopedia Simpsonica, like Matt says in the intro to the first book.

TheForbiddenDonut

07-15-2006, 09:59 AM

I like the first book the best, but aside from that I think the latest is the best, because of the overload of concept art, which is one of my favorite parts. Also, the episodes are slightly better than in Beyond Forever.

Simpsons Forever!

07-15-2006, 03:02 PM

One Giant Step Beyond Forever is good, but that doesn't solve the problem of what to call the S17 & S18 Guide, just pushes them even further into a corner. The last one will have a ridiculously long, drawn-out title at this rate. I'd like to see them go for something new, rather than follow the same old line.

Jim Jones

07-15-2006, 04:41 PM

I have Simpsons Forever! and it's okay, but I don't feel like buying all the other ones.

and the 17/18 one could be called One Giant Step Beyond One Giant Step Beyond Forever.

Billy

07-15-2006, 06:30 PM

Until I saw the Complete Guide at WHSmith in 1997, I thought the show ended in 1992, as BBC2 only had the rights to all episodes up to 'A Streetcar Named Marge' at the time. I was really surprised that it continued right up to that year. Got it for Christmas that year and read through every page, most of which were episodes I'd never seen ("Hey, they did an episode where someone shot Mr Burns! Cool, it was Maggie!", thus ruining for myself what could have been an actual mystery).

I then got 'Forever' in '99, but by the time 'Beyond Forever' came out I'd already found SNPP.com, and I figured that now I had these detailed episode capsules I didn't need the books anymore. Still got the first two, though.

When the show ends (let's presume Series 20), maybe they'll reprint the whole lot as two books - one for Series 1-10, the other Series 11-20.

Ryan

07-16-2006, 06:53 AM

the first book was by far the best. I loved it, and it's practically fallen to pieces from over-reading.

MikeStar

07-19-2006, 06:34 AM

I like that Garfield sig you have there... Haha!

As for those books, I never really brought them, but now I am, ebay here I come and they are pretty cool. You know it's a big book that's Simpsons, so gives you a good reason to read.

So, if anyone says comics rot your brain tell them to go to hell or say fine I'm reading this then Haha, this won't rot my brain because it has w-r-i-t-i-n-g...

Marge For President

08-17-2006, 03:24 PM

I got the first one in New York around 7 years ago and I was constantly thinking about getting the newer ones but then I realised for their price, they're not really worth it. I do still enjoy the first one, good content and I look at it often enough.

Bartman3010

08-17-2006, 09:10 PM

I've only owned the first and second volumes of the episode guides, but then I stopped after that when...well those episodes werent very good. I really should get another copy of the first book however, as the pages are falling out. I never even read the episode summaries, I just looked at the references, quotes and other things. I can probably say that with the release of the DVDs, my need for these guides arent so neccesary since I dont have to imagine myself watching the episodes anymore =P Including the lyrics for Do the Bartman and Deep Deep Trouble in Simpsons Forever, now that both songs are in the season 2 set, I could just turn those on.

Anyway, they're just releasing two seasons per guide now? I think I'll just wait until a bundle special or something.

Ivan

08-17-2006, 09:59 PM

You're better off just getting them now, because when people say "I won't get them now, they'll probably all come out in a huge box set when they finish the last book", knowing your luck, they won't be, and then you'll be stuck with the first 2 books while everyone else has all 5 (or 6, or 7, etc)...books 3 and 4, although the episodes aren't exactly perfect, the guides come in very handy, and they're actually quite a nice read.

On your comment about how the release of the DVDs means the books become unnecessary -- not true. What about those who have the books from when they came out, but don't want to buy the sets? And, also, quick point, I have always been able to sit and watch an episode, or read about that episode in the guides, but I can never sit down and watch the episode while actually reading that episode's part in the book...i just find it...annoying, especially in the first book where the quotes don't go in the order they appeared in the episode, so you miss parts out, etc.

Otis P Jivefunk

08-18-2006, 11:26 AM

when do you think the next complete guide will be out? I've collected all of them so far.

I'm sure I read on this board when the last books release date was revealed one and a bit years ago that they said the next one (the 5th book) would be out by the end of this year to make up for the three year gap between the last book and the one before that. Obviously this hasn't come to fruition which is a shame. Hopefully now it'll be a two year gap and not a 3 year gap again...

Simpsons Forever!

08-18-2006, 12:07 PM

I wonder how they'll include the Movie in the Complete Guides, or whether they will at all? I reckon it'll have a 4 page spread either at the end of the sixth Guide or beginning of the seventh. In-between Season 18 and 19, anyway.

Imaginationland

09-27-2007, 01:34 PM

I think they are excellent looknig foward to see the next one and how the movie will fit in with it.

Simpson Purist

09-28-2007, 06:08 PM

Here's hoping that the next volume will include more than two seasons. That's my only real nitpick about the follow-up complete guides. I've always enjoyed reading those books as they're basically Cliff Notes versions of SNPP capsules with visuals.

BatofZion

09-28-2007, 08:09 PM

I stopped buying them after I got the second one. Nothing personal to them; I think they're great.

[I guess I was just more focused on getting the actual episodes on DVD]

homer2121

10-22-2007, 09:03 PM

I own all four books. I got "The Simpsons
A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family." back in 97 or 98 and I plan on getting a new copy of it because it's in a bad condition in fact it's missing a lot of the pages from season 1.