Friday, August 7, 2020
The Drowning Witch
Another isolated comic panel cropped out of context and doomed to travel around tumblr endlessly without explaination is the screaming woman holding up a baby with a goat's head. I've had a few people write to me asking about it, so here it is complete, a wonderfully odd 4 pager illustrated by rockin' Reed Crandall and from the September 1953 issue of Men's Adventures #23.
I'd love to see the original art for this -- what a gorgeous job from Crandall. The printing isn't helping, though, and it's muddy in a couple places which isn't ideal but every panel is just awesome. On the first page Crandall goes all out, the goat baby, the extra fingers, the mob scene, all of it great.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to not pick the goat-baby for the best panel (what happened to it, BTW, was it just hanging out with the rest of them in the galley?) -- but there's other great panels. The witch overboard page 2, panel 4, and the captain on page 3, panel 3.
I'm sure most people guessed the ending pretty early but it's still a great 4 page comic, just the right length for the story.
As a guitarist, 8 fingers might not be a bad curse at all!
The ending feels like something out of an episode of classic Twilight Zone--never mind the logic behind it all as to whether they were actually trapped inside a bottle the entire time before or after the witch uttered her curse,it's still a pretty fun ending with the cat simply being a cat knocking things off the mantle as the terrifying "Beast with Taloned Claws."
ReplyDeleteThat goat headed baby panel is awesome! I also love the random curse of the one guy gaining three extra fingers. Wonder if the curses were ever removed though. The baby only shows up in that one shot-a one scene wonder.
I also love how the witch basically tries to prove her innocence but then realizing that she's going to be tossed overboard anyway, throws in a curse just for the heck of it! Yep, definitely a witch. A witch with random curses!
The moment I saw the wholesome-looking attractive woman in the first panel, I expected her to be the actual witch. Which isn't the wort cliche in the world, but I'm glad it went in another direction.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways the captain is complicated. In one panel he's set on a fair trial, then in almost the next one, it's "She's condemned out of her own mouth!" Then of course it takes him no time to be almost sure he's made a big mistake (usually these characters take a lot longer to get scared).
Should have just pickled her in a barrel of rum and stowed her as a provision. That woulda solved the problem nicely, I think. Well, unless she wasn't actually a witch, but some theoretical physicist hip to the nature of their placement on the mantelpiece. Then I guess they were doomed from the very moment some weirdo decided to man their model frigate with a witch and goat-headed boy.
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