When your well goes dry and the cows stop giving milk and your wife seems to be not herself you obviously have a problem with witches. But what to do about these malevolent mistresses of Satan? Fifteenth-century Inquisitor and witch expert Heinrich Kramer wrote the definitive book on the subject, the Malleus Maleficarum, and now cartoonist Mike Rosen has adapted that treatise into a new, easy-to-consume graphic novel format, which SLG Publishing will release this August. The 136-page, black-and-white graphic novel will list at $10.95.
SLG’s Dan Vado tells us “Rosen, who spent several years of his childhood seeing artifacts of the age of Inquisition in Germany, has culled the Malleus of its ponderous verbiage and created a comic that preserves its best parts.”
Rosen continues “The Malleus itself is really a wonderfully insane book, chock full of bizarre anecdotes and wacky imagery that should make for a great read. Unfortunately, the original authors didn’t believe in the economy of words. I knew there was a lot of potential to turn this into something fun that you can enjoy even if you don’t have a medieval studies PhD or the patience of a saint, since I think most of us enjoy reading about witchcraft and devils. And it seemed like a graphic novel was the best way to bring all these little beasties to life!”
“I don’t think anyone can complain if they get a chance to draw a witch using haunted eggs to turn sailors into donkeys or a possessed cow wearing underwear on its head,” he continues. “This is a dark chapter in history when you think about it, but I wanted to highlight the strangeness and absurdity of it all. I really hoped to make this thick treatise into something entertaining that might inspire people to learn a little more about this insane bit of our past.”
For more on the book, including an online preview, see this page.