Ryan B does World For A Witch

 

 

 

Hiya, kids, welcome to Comic Book Crud!

 I’m your (sort of) host, Ryan B.

 

For those of you who are new to this blog, let me tell you a little bit about what we do here. You see, from up in my mama’s dark and dusty attic, me and my buddy, Tom…

 

Look through my dead uncle’s old comic book trunk and pick out the best, the worst, and the somewhat in between stories that his moldy horror comics have to offer. I then present them to YOU accompanied by my own commentary and opinions, because… it’s my blog. But I don’t have all the fun. If a particular story we’ve picked has been adapted to another medium like television, or film, then Tom will do his own little write up of that version in a segment we call, Adaptation Analysis. Pretty cool, right?

So now that you cats are down with the format, let’s keep this blog rolling…

So far, we’ve already paid a visit to DC’s The House of Mystery. Cain the able caretaker treated us to a piece of wormwood called Roots of Evil and it pretty much stunk up the place. Something about a killer tree and a goon with thick glasses and a C.H.U.D face. Anyway, it wasn’t great, so now let’s try Cain’s brother, Abel’s place across the street.

Direct from The House of Secrets, this enchanting bit of Dickensian doom is called…

World For A Witch

The story starts outside the Westwood Orphanage as some of the little ragamuffins who live there peek through a downstairs window at an old lady doing something suspicious with candles and a skull. Abel informs us that it’s been half a century since old Mrs. Winter disappeared.

This old bat must be Mrs. Winter

 

He also says that the kids she tormented are the only ones who know where she vanished too, but they aren’t talking. No one would believe them anyway.

As the kids continue to watch, Mrs. Winter proves she is indeed a witch, when she mumbles some satanic incantations, focuses her black mind (Abel’s words, not mine), and steps into a large, scenic painting of a garden.

One of the little girls, Sally, gets scared and wants to go to bed, but a boy named Tom-

 

Wants to stay and watch.

Abel says that Emma Winter might have been a witch, or she might not have been (I think she is), but either way, she did do what she did that night: she freakin’ walked into a painting!

And once inside she couldn’t be happier.

 

She quickly leaves, though, just to prove that she can, I guess, and as soon as she steps back into the real world she catches a glimpse of the orphans looking through the window. Faster than you’d think an old lady like that could move, she’s outside chasing them, although, since they live there, I’m not exactly sure where the orphans think they’re gonna go, but anyway, she soon catches one. It’s Tom.

 

She asks him what he was doing there and what he saw. He won’t say. She asks him who the others were that were with him. He won’t say.

Snitches get stitches at Westwood apparently.

Tom calls out to a Mr. Favor for help and presently an old ginger man with a kickin’ mustache comes out and asks what’s going on. Mrs. Winter tells Mr. Favor that the children have been sneaking and are not to be trusted. She drags Tom inside and says that they’re going to get the truth from him.

I’ll let Abel tell you a little bit about Mr. Favor.

 

Mrs. Winter has heard enough. She says she’ll take Tom and get the truth from him her own way. Mr. Favor says okay, but to be careful because he’s only a child.

We all know how good witches are with children, right?

She takes Tom down into the cellar where she whips out her cat-o-nine tails. Tom tells her that he can’t tell her the names of the others who were with him, and they didn’t see anything anyway. She doesn’t believe him and promptly beats his ass.

 

 Assuming that her secret is indeed safe, Mrs. Winter and the rest of Westwood Orphanage go back to normal. Sometime later the food bill comes and she’s outraged by how much they’re spending to feed the kids. She decides to cut the food bill in half and pocket what’s left over. In fact, she already has quite a small fortune in cash hidden away from Mr. Favor in a small, metal lockbox. Presumably she’s been saving up to buy a new Nimbus 2000 or something.

 

Meanwhile, the old crone just goes inside her pastoral painting to while away the hours in the warm sunshine, rolling around in the grassy fields. After one such trip, she steps out of the painting to find little Sally sneaking some coal from her own personal cache.

When she sees Mrs. Winter, Sally tries to explain that the younger kids are freezing, but surprisingly, Mrs. Winter doesn’t care so much. Sally asks not to be punished, but Mrs. Winter says she’s not going to punish her; she’s going to make an example of her. She drags Sally down into the cellar and makes the other kids come too to watch.

 

Three days later and Sally is still down in the cellar, so the other kids decide to take action. They go to Mr. Favor and tell him everything. He agrees to check out the situation and together, he and the children go down in the cellar where they find Sally dead on the coal heap. Mr. Favor finally realizes what a putz he’s been and confronts Mrs. Winter.

 

He picks up the phone to call the police, but Mrs. Winter ain’t having that, so…

 

Winter then runs from the room, past the kids waiting in the hall, and into her own office. Fortunately, one of the kids was prepared for this outcome and knew what to do. He watches through the window as Mrs. Winter concentrates and works her mojo, then she steps into the large painting.

And that’s it.

She escapes.

I’m kidding; this is a horror comic after all. Karmas coming.

The kids call the police, but when they arrive, they’re baffled. There’s no sign of Mrs. Winter anywhere in her office. The windows have bars and there’s only one door. One cop speculates that there may be a trap door, but the janitor (where’d he come from?) assures them that there are no trap doors or anything in that office and the office looks exactly how it did last time he was in there.

With one exception.

The big, scenic painting of the grassy, sunny fields is no longer there. In its place is now the one that hung in Mr. Favor’s office. With one minor change.

 

The kids who knew what was up weren’t gonna talk of course, so the mystery of what happened to old Emma Winter would forever remain just that, a mystery… or perhaps a… secret?

Either way, bitch had it coming.

Well, I have to say, I’m a little surprised. The House of Secrets has a reputation for not being as good as The House of Mystery, but so far I’d say the score is:

Abel: 1

Cain: 0

Of course, I don’t want to take sides. That’s one sibling rivalry you don’t want to get involved in. But everyone has an off day. Cain will have plenty of opportunity to redeem himself here on Comic Book Crud, because believe me, there’s a buuunch of horror comics here in my old uncle’s trunk and me and Tom don’t have anything better to do.

We’re delinquents, you know?

I give this one 8 out of 10 Werthams.

P.S. Didn’t she look at the painting before stepping into it? Oh well.