3: Revenge from Beyond the Stake
The alleged witch is burned to ashes. We don’t know if she is someone who is misunderstood and persecuted, has genuine powers, or really is the Devil’s handmaiden. But she strikes back with a curse, which, centuries later, strikes at the protagonist. What can the consequences be?
Night of the Dead
Misty: #94
Artist: Blas Gallego
Jilly goes to stay with her gran in the village of Barford. She finds out that every five years the village has to sacrifice one of their children “for the dead” in order to ward off a witch’s curse, which was laid in revenge for her burning. Jilly is the latest to be sacrificed. Jilly tries to run but the dead rise as zombies – including the witch herself. The zombies have Jilly surrounded. Gran rescues her and takes her to the spot where the witch was burned. The zombies can’t touch her there. Deprived of their sacrifice, they retaliate by destroying the village. This ends the curse, but also the village – and gran.
Thoughts
Now those are really cool zombies!
The Curse of Gantreth House
Misty: #25
Artist: John Armstrong
Sara is a maid in 1913 in Gantreth House. She shelters a raven out of kindness. Mrs Pitt the housekeeper says this has set an ancient curse, laid in retaliation for a witch burning, in motion. Soon after, the components of the curse are progressively fulfilled, and the Gantreth family and their home end up totally destroyed. Mrs Pritt, who was extremely superstitious about the curse, tells everyone that Sara has the evil eye and they all shun her.
Thoughts
A heartbreaking story of how a girl ends up shunned, and branded for all intentions and purposes a witch through no fault of her own, all because of that superstitious old bag. This may also be the case with the witch who laid the curse because the Gantreths burned her. Of course Sara has no evil eye, she’s just an ordinary girl who got caught up in a series of unfortunate events. All she did was perform a little act of kindness, which should have been rewarded in some way instead of bringing down a curse.
Nice list. For the bullying theme, there was also the story, where a girl invites class mates to her birthday, then all that bully her disappear as she blows out each candle. One candle is left and she gives that to the girl who was nice to her. Can’t remember is witch term was used, but clearly she had some powers!
I omitted that story, “Happy Birthday, Spooky Sue!”, from the discussion. I’ve added a note explaining why.
Oh my goodness, I remember buying a few issues of Misty back in the 1970’s / 80’s and was amazed by how different it was compared to other Girls Comics of the same Period. I recall a Character and I think her name was Salah The Fire Girl, or something similar to this and her eyes shone like Glowing Coals of Fire! She could have been Born of Fire or something but it’s now so long ago that I can’t remember!
There was also this other Story which was about the Sand taking on the shape of a Human Girl so that it could visit our World but later turned back into Sand once more! Although I have forgotten the name of the Story I’ve always remembered the Story itself. Many years later this was to inspire the setting for one of my Poems which was originally named WILLOW SPIRIT OF THE DUNES, however I was to later change it to SHE OF THE WHISPERING DUNES, Composed February, 6-7th 2016.
The sand girl story was “Looking for Something Special”. It was in Misty 073 (30 June 1979), if you fancied reading it again.
Thank you so much! Is this Story available to read here? If anyone is interested in my Poem which was inspired by “Looking For Something Special” my Poems may be seen on Quora.Comm which includes my Poem SHE OF THE WHISPERING DUNES. Within this website I have my own Personal Space:
LUCIE’S POEMS AND WRITINGS. Most of my work is centred around Witches, Dragons, Faerie and Fire!
Hopefully, you can access the story from the website that Mistyfan has linked below, but if not, I’m happy to try and do a scan of the story for you.
Thank you! I shall certainly bear that in mind should I become stuck or in need of some further help.
§ WitchyWomanWriter §
Salah is from the Misty serial “The Salamander Girl”.
Thanks so much! I’m truly amazed that I actually remembered her name correctly; it was after all a very long time ago and so much Water has passed under the Bridge. I was thinking about things during the early hours and one of those thoughts was “Why didn’t I keep my Misty Comics and the few Annuals which I was in possession of?” It wasn’t as if they were causing any form of clutter! I guess we often have regrets about some decisions we’ve made in our Lives. By the way, how can I get to read about “The Salamander Girl?” I would really love to read what I missed!
§ WitchyWomanWriter §
You can download copies of Misty at this link https://britishcomics.wordpress.com
Salamander Girl is issues 5-9.
Thanks so much for the info and I look forward to following this up in due course! It’s been quite a few years since but I’m certain I shall enjoy reading them again.
§ WitchyWomanWriter §