Swan Eaters by Georgia Dunn for June 05, 2020

The bleeding has to stop. The smell alone is blood curdling.

Too obvious, but “I AM YOUR FATHER, OFFAL” (which I guess Darth Vader didn’t say, precisely.)

Rah! Rah! Rasputin!

But ya know, his “healings” were mostly snake oil

Well rejection by heaven seems obvious, but rejection by hell must mean the devil has a modicum of good taste…..hmmmm, wonder if that means some of the monsters currently being inflicted upon this long suffering world will suffer the same ultimate fate?

I was laughing my (ahem) rear off until it suddenly turned tender. Well played, Georgia.

Anyone else hear Rasputin in a cheesy quasi-Russian accent?

Historical footnote. The crown prince of Russia had hemophilia and doctors were pretty helpless because apparently the bleeding is internal even more than where you see it. The czar and czarina were frantic. Rasputin came and stopped the bleeding. He did it over and over. It’s felt that he had a very magnetic personality (all snake oil salesmen do!) and therefore if he told the child that the bleeding would stop, it would. The medical secret here is that if the patient can just relax, the body will heal itself but the internal bleeding is very painful, like having a big bruise inside, so a child would be screaming and making it worse until Rasputin basically hypnotised him, telling him all would be well and it was and then Rasputin had power over the czar and czarina. And that was the last straw for the Russian people.

PPO: The low point of Swan Eaters. I am not impressed.

Even after death Rasputin can’t forget Olwen.

Rasputin became the “power behind the throne” of the last Russian Emperor with a combination of charisma, hypnotism and terror.

Glad to know that Offal has latent occult powers.

Boney M tells their version of the tale. But the real history lesson here may be about 1979… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16y1AkoZkmQ (lyrics start @ about 0:50)

Also, I love how unpolished this strip is, the really close framing of faces, and the bold text! Very cool G. Dunn!!

He is in so much trouble now. But it’s begining to make a lot of sense, Rasputin’s ghost has been possessing him all his adult life. Exorcise Rasputin’s ghost and there’s a 0.02% chance there’s a descent personality in Offal.

Even the worst of us will have the chance to come through for our loved ones…will we take it?