October 13th, 2023
13 Oct 2023 · page 1186 of 1306
A mildly cursed version of Mal for spooky season
Cast: Blake Thackerey, Bryony Thackerey, Jack O'Malley, Nyree
Comments (18)
Events
ThoughtBubble
14 Nov 2026 – 15 Nov 2026
Harrogate Convention Centre
Manchester Megacon
31 Jul 2027 – 1 Aug 2027
Manchester Central
Not a surprise that Mal's bosses are stuffed shirts who want him to be formal, and Nyree is completely unimpressed by the formality.
It's kind of... fair, though? Nyree is powerful, and thus would be dangerous to offend; wars have started over an inadvertent snubbing*. It's a miracle that Mal talked them out of making him offer some sort of hideously tacky geegaw.
*In a similar situation, I would insist that Mal do pretty much this greeting ritual, even after he told me for the fifth time that Nyree wouldn't care. You treat witches with respect, because you never know when one is having a bad day. Better to be too polite, than too rude.
Panel 5: * snf * “Something is rotten in the state… er… city of Widdershins.”
Mal in physical pain at having to be fancy for 5 minutes
Interesting to see the colour of the necktie with this outfit. This outfit really reminds me of the one he wears to Voss's party at the end of Book 5 (I think the only time we see him wear this sort of necktie/cravat) but the cravat in that is properly red.
Blue for Mal is obviously associated with his witch powers pretty clearly at this point (his magic flames are blue, his door is blue) but I also have a theory that red in Mal's costume represents his old way of life/rejection of his role as Witch. I think I’ve posted about it a bit on tumblr before maybe but I don’t remember. He’s wearing red in Books 2 & 5 (suspenders, necktie, waistcoat) when he’s rejecting his ability but at the end of Book 5 when he agrees to try and use his power to bind Wrath, the red necktie is ripped open and he takes it off. This could represent how he’s no longer rejecting his power so much.
In Curtain Call, he is still wearing a red necktie but no longer a red waistcoat. The red necktie is hidden when he puts on the blue scarf from Arpana (showing acceptance of being the witch) and I don’t think we see him wearing red again since then. In Witch Hunt he wears greys (maybe showing an in-between state of identity while he’s at a crossroads) but when we see him again at the end of the book he’s got the blue scarf back on. The conversation with Arpana also makes clear the connection between him wearing the scarf and acceptance of being the Witch.
So it’s interesting to me that he has this kind of peachy coloured cravat in this scene, because it’s like a desaturated red and I believe the closest to red we’ve seen him in since Curtain Call now. To me I feel like this could represent his old resentment/frustration at his powers (because he is being forced to do this pompous event) but he has to repress it and play along with what the twins want.
Maybe I’m reading too much into costume choices, but considering how tied together the colour palettes of each book are and all of the other colour coding going on in the comic, I don’t feel like it’s a wild stretch.
(Unrelated to any of that, I think the only times we see Mal wearing green are the start of Green Eyed Monster when he meets Wolfe, and during the flashback in Curtain Call to him as a child meeting Enid—the two most important meetings of his life. Although Mal doesn’t wear green otherwise, Wolfe often does and later on Ben does in some outfits too.)
check vol 7 again, you'll see that exact kerchief on someone else!
GAHHHHH i thought it looked like it but I didn't consider them actually sharing clothes this is so cuteeee
I thought the way it was wrapped looked familiar! Love it.
Poor old Mal. Ten minutes without a roll-up. No wonder he's so stressed.
I see a couple of blondies that really need a yeeting.
I can't help but wonder what the twins smell like to Witch smelling. By the expression on her face, not great.
Citric acid and boot polish
I hope this will be an opportunity for Captain Barber and Nyree to renew their acquaintance.
heheheeh light treason. light it up
"One order of light treason, hold the sauce!"
But the sauce is the best part! 'Round these parts, "light on the treason, heavy on the sauce" is our favorite order!
apologies y'all, no update this week! been running myself kinda ragged with the cons coming up in the next weeks, so i'm pushing back this page to next week. thanks for udnerstanding!
Understandable! Take it easy Kate, and have fun at the cons!