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.
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From Publishers Weekly
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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From School Library Journal
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
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Which Witch?,
This review is from: The Dark Horse Book Of Witchcraft (Hardcover)
What are we to make of this odd little book? The comic stories range from great (Mignola's Hellboy short, "The Troll Witch,") to dull (Allie, Lee, Horton, Stewart and Madsen's "The Flower Girl") to having nothing to do with witches (Ricketts and Phillips's "Golden Calf Blues"). The most artistically exceptional piece is the reprint of a "rare" Clark Ashton Smith short story, "Mother of Toads," which is gross and well illustrated in black-and-white by Gary Gianni. Second best is Mignola's Hellboy story, which is refreshingly free of Hellboy's usual two-fisted antics. Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson produce a good beast fable with "The Unfamiliar," reminiscent of the Howes' Bunnicula books. Most of the other tales are forgettable.
Wedged in the middle of the collection is an interview with Phyllis Curott, Wiccan high priestess. All the other witches in the collection are, without exception, of the fairy tale variety. What kind of "witch" are we reading about? It would be better to keep the two kinds--the fantasy kind and the real thing--separate, as they are essentially unrelated. As for the interview itself, Curott lucidly explains Wicca but misunderstands a few other religions. She says, for example, "The biblical model views God as transcendent, not present in the world" (p. 64), which misrepresents both Christian and Jewish perspectives. She also consistently misuses the word "indigenous" and mentions a few historical details that border on pseudo-history and conspiracy theory. The Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft is entertaining but inconsistent and thematically confused. It has a few laughs, but no thrills.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scary,
This review is from: The Dark Horse Book Of Witchcraft (Hardcover)
The Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft features a leering, hideous old woman on the cover, in some kind of embrace with a goat. This is your first clue that these dark tales feature no young and curvaceous Charmed girls, no Sabrina the Teen-Aged Witch. The witches in this volume are the real thing, the original black magic practicioners who made convenants with the Devil and reveled in evil ways.
I enjoyed all of these original stories very much. They all provided horror chills. All but one are in comic format. The exception is an old tale about a horrible Toad Witch. This is text with a couple of black and white illustrations. An interesting read, but one I hope no one takes seriously, is the editor's interview with a New York lawyer who is also the Wiccan High Priestess. This woman has serious delusions of self-grandeur. A lot of what she says is informative, but she engages in some ignorant Christian and Bible bashing. For a much truer version of Wicca and its origins, read The Forest House or The Mists of Avalon, both by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A must have for horror fans,
By
This review is from: The Dark Horse Book Of Witchcraft (Hardcover)
I've read all 4 of the "Dark Horse Book of ..." books. I actually won all four of them from a Dark Horse Halloween giveaway. (Thanks Dark Horse!) However after reading all four books I can easily say that I would have gladly bought them.I think any fan of horror, Hellboy or Beasts of Burden will enjoy these collections. I really liked that each book had a classic short story in it with great illustrations by Gary Gianni. His style matches the stories perfectly. I even enjoyed the 3 interviews. I don't remember there being a bad story in the bunch. What the books lack in page count they make up for in content and design. Check em out.
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