6: Road Kill
Who Killed Teacher?
Misty: #70
Artist: Jose Ariza
Reprints: Best of Misty #7, Bite Me #1
Underachiever Mandy resents her teacher Miss Prendergast keeping her behind in school so much. In revenge, she starts scaring “the crabby old witch” with terrifying noises. But the prank goes too far when it drives Miss Prendergast into the road and she gets run over. Mandy confides in her friend Grace. Grace informs Mandy that Miss Prendergast was a real witch who had been teaching her magic, which she now uses to punish Mandy. She switches Mandy and Miss Prendergast at the point of death, which restores Miss Prendergast and kills Mandy in the road accident.
Elmo’s Revenge
Misty: #32
Artist: Ramon Escalano
Paula steals a book from neighbour Old Wanda who is said to be witch, to sell to her Uncle. But the theft goes wrong when Paula knocks over a vase, causing Wanda to fall to her death. Wanda’s cat Elmo begins to follow Paula about everywhere. This has Paula run into the road where she gets hit by Dad’s car. Then Dad is astonished to see Wanda’s body in the road instead of Paula’s. Wanda had switched bodies with Paula, so Paula died in her body while Wanda takes over Paula’s body.
Thoughts
Here we have two curious stories of two witch women who used a switching spell of one form or other to cheat the death the antagonist unwittingly caused them, and have the antagonist die in their stead. And both stories use a road accident as the vehicle of death. Could it be the same writer?
Closing Thoughts
Misty largely avoided portraying the witch as an evil villain. And except for “The Tale of Little Wytching”, which was not discussed here, did she use the stereotype of the witch as the cackling crone with the pointed hat and broomstick. Rather, Misty often countered the stereotype by portraying witches as they really were: wise women. By and large Misty used her witch-themed short stories as a statement against the persecution of witches or using the word “witch” to bully old ladies and schoolgirls, and also to punish unsavoury girls. Even the witches who are portrayed as more on the evil side are used as vehicles to administer comeuppances than commit acts of evil. When witchcraft is used as an instrument of evil and destruction in the short stories it comes as the form of a long-awaited curse. But in many cases it is hard to tell if the witch herself was in fact evil or set the curse in revenge for her persecution.
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 §