The Read Menace!

Act I
The characters from books have taken over New New York and the Planet Express crew and the Simpsons attempt to escape in the Planet Express ship but are attacked by spaceships. To go faster they paint flames onto the ship and Bender throws a beer towards Homer but it misses and blows up the ships. They are then abducted by the Nimbus which is has been taken over by Smithers who is living his dream of being a space pirate. Leela asks for help to save earth but Smithers disagrees until he is told Mr. Burns is dating Mom. Smithers presses the wrong button and everyone falls out of the Nimbus into a crowd of fictional characters. The Simpsons are attacked by characters from their favorite books until Bart tells them that they are also fictional allowing the Simpsons to escape.

Act II
They escape to the Planet Express building and look through the Professor’s inventions for ways to stop the fictional characters. Lisa uses the What-If machine to ask what if they knew how to stop the fictional characters. They go to Fry’s apartment and take a page out of the first Simpsons Comic and put in the vortex where the fictional characters came out. This causes the giant Homer from the comic to come out. They offer him a beer if he stops the fictional characters which works but then they have the giant Homer to deal with. They hire vortex movers who are able to send giant Homer and the rest of Springfield into the vortex. Mom then creates a clone of Mr. Burns.

Trivia

 * The What-If machine only allows three questions a year.
 * This is the first time the Space Pope has spoken.

Quotes
Smithers: Did I give you permission to stop go-go dancing?
 * Zapp: Leela what a sexy surprise.
 * Bart: Why are you all standing in shadow? Spider Man: Copyright protection!
 * Lisa: This must be so odd for Dad. I can't even imagine what he's thinking. Homer: [thinking] Hmmm...so that's what the inside of my nose looks like.
 * Lisa: That's a great picture! So realistic! Fry: Yeah, so much so that Leela crashes into it almost every week.
 * Leela: It's working! Now he's hugging the TV. Now he's kissing the TV. Bender: Now he's...ew! Well, that's one building I'm never going into again!

Continuity

 * Bart finds a yoghurt filled cap in Fry's drawer, it is unclear if this is the same cap, or yoghurt, from "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back" but if so it has moved from Planet Express to Bender and Fry's Apartment

Outside References

 * Also appearing on the cover of this issue is the main character from Bongo's ''.
 * After becoming a space pirate, Smithers dresses up like the anime character Captain Harlock.

Goofs

 * Hattie's clothes are the wrong colour.
 * When Bender falls apart, his eyes are balls instead of long bulbs
 * Morbo and Linda appear to have once more been placed in New New York rather than Los Angeles.
 * Leela requests twelve parachutes but only eleven are used as Marge is carrying Maggie.

Characters
(In alphabetical order)
 * Agnew
 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Cubert
 * Dwight Conrad
 * Fry
 * Hattie
 * Hermes
 * Igner
 * Kif
 * Larry
 * Leela
 * Mayor Poopenmeyer
 * Mom
 * Morbo
 * Nibbler
 * Nixon
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Sal
 * Smitty
 * Space Pope
 * URL
 * Walt
 * Zapp Brannigan
 * Zoidberg

The Simpsons Characters
(In alphabetical order)
 * Bart Simpson
 * Hans Moleman
 * Homer Simpson (issue #87 and issue #1 variants)
 * Lisa Simpson
 * Maggie Simpson
 * Marge Simpson
 * Mr. Burns
 * Smithers

Other Fictional Characters

 * Mayor
 * Mayor
 * Mayor
 * Mayor
 * Mayor

Comic Credits

 * Story
 * Ian Boothby
 * Colors
 * Rick Reese
 * Pencils
 * James Lloyd
 * Letters
 * Karen Bates
 * Inks
 * Steve Steere, Jr.
 * Editor
 * Bill Morrison