The Dark Horse Book Of Witchcraft [Hardcover]

This neat little collection is an interesting and sometimes stimulating hodgepodge that features stunning art by some top comics artists. Reflecting the shifting opinion of witches in both folklore and real life, the volume includes the idea of witches as agents of evil, trying to seduce ordinary people away from righteousness, and an interview with a Wiccan priestess. "Mother of Toads," a 1937 short story by Clark Ashton Smith, describes a young man's sexual initiation by a witch who wreaks vengeance when he insults her later. It emphasizes the loathsomeness of the sex act, especially with a fat old toad-woman; however, the young man certainly has sex on his mind and doesn't try too hard to resist. Mike Mignola's demonic psychic investigator Hellboy makes an appearance in the moody and atmospheric piece "The Troll Witch." Tony Millionaire's eccentric line art makes the familiar chant of the witches from Macbeth newly eerie. Other superior pieces by Scott Morse and by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson further stretch our understanding of who witches are and how they should be combated. This is an anthology in which the parts actually support each other, so that even weaker items look good in context and may even cause a few chills.
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Grade 10 Up–This anthology, featuring such top artists as Tony Millionaire, Mike Mignola, and Jill Thompson, has predictable appeal. However, the images chosen for the cover and the book design, which evoke the Dark Ages, belie the range, depth, complexity, originality, and ambition of this remarkably modern compendium. The eight substantial horror tales include cartoon witches from Macbeth, a "Hellboy" story, and one set in Salem. Illustrated mostly in color and in widely different styles, each one draws readers into another perspective on witchcraft and the place it holds in the Western cultural imagination. A "rare, unexpurgated" version of Clark Ashton Smith's "Mother of Toads" is a disturbingly clear and explicit expression of the imagined and real misogyny that underlies many stories on the subject. At the other end of the psychological scale, in "The Truth about Witchcraft," High Priestess Phyllis Curott speaks personably as a scholar and insider, providing a reality check that amplifies the dark fantasy of folklore and lends the collection another dimension and still greater depth. That–and the concluding animal fable, "The Unfamiliar," a heartbreaking morality tale–will challenge some readers with much more than they bargained for.–Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

In this sibling to The Dark Horse Book of Hauntings [BKL F 1 03], the same mixture of comics stories, illustrated prose story, and interview (this time with a Wiccan priestess) makes up the contents, and much of it is by Hauntings contributors. Mike Mignola offers another Hellboy adventure, the Norse-folktale-like "The Troll-Witch." Like "This Small Favor" in Hauntings, "The Flower Girl," by editor Allie, artists Paul Lee and Brian Horton, and colorist Dave Stewart, relates a dark good deed and its consequences. Gary Gianni again illustrates the prose selection (Clark Ashton Smith's rather paltry "Mother of Toads") impressively; and Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson's "The Unfamiliar" stars the canine ghost busters of "Stray" in Hauntings, except now they're witch busters, and Dorkin abandons bichromaticism for more inclusive color schemes. Some newcomers impress, too. Tony Millionaire, of maakies fame, adapts the second witches' scene in Macbeth (he should redo the Classics Illustrated Macbeth), while Scott Morse (The Barefoot Serpent [BKL F 1 03]) realizes a Salem-witch-trials story in his distinctive UPI-cartoonish, translucent style. Ray Olson
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The Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft conjures up weird tales of horror and magic the likes of which one seldom sees in graphic novels. Mignola returns with another Hellboy story; Thompson (Scary Godmother) and Dorkin (Dork, Hectic Planet) return to their characters in the stunning "Stray" story, the surprise hit of the first volume in this series. Morse (Ancient Joe, Soulwind) presents an evocative and carefully researched tale of old Salem, digging into the madness of the accusations leveled there, which ended more than thirty lives in a few short months.