An Outbreak of Witchcraft: A Graphic Novel of the Salem Witch Trials
The story of what took place in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1690s gets the graphic novel treatment in this visually arresting retelling. When Betty Parris and Abigail Williams begin experiencing fits in Betty’s father’s parsonage, witch fever is the result. The story unfolds at a good pace, detailing arrests, accusations, confessions, and trials. Noyes breaks the book into four parts, prefacing each with an anchoring introduction several pages long. In these she offers commentary on what occurred, sets events in the context of 17th-century life, and puts forward some interesting explanations as to why this travesty of justice was able to take place.
There are points in the main graphic sections of the book where it’s hard to keep track of who is who, notwithstanding a helpful gallery of more than 40 character portraits included before Part One begins. Tituba and her husband John Indian, both enslaved by the Reverend Samuel Parris, Salem’s minister, stand out from the crowd, however, as does Rebecca Nurse, a seventy-one-year-old grandmother of previously good-standing within the community. And while some of the individual details may get lost in picture format, these expressive drawings convey an excellent sense of the building drama, hysteria, and even violence, most notably in the case of Goodman Corey. Overall, an effective look at an astonishing episode in which more than twenty innocent people lost their lives.
