"Come here, maiden. Sit on my tail and come away to my little hut."
— The hare
A short comic by Emily Carroll, posted online in 2010. It is a take on the traditional fairy tale of the same name, told in a single page.
A girl goes out to shoo a hare away from eating her cabbages, but he compels her to come away with him instead. Things go downhill from there.
Read it here
. Read the original tale collected by The Brothers Grimm here.
Contains examples of:
- Adaptation Deviation: In the original tale, the second time the hare calls out to the girl to open the door, he says the wedding guests are hungry, and the third time he says they are waiting. The comic switches the order of these two around, so that he says "hungry" right as he bares his teeth and goes on the attack, creating some additional implications.
- Adaptation Distillation:
- In the original, the hare comes to eat the girl's cabbages three days in a row, extending an invitation to her each time she comes to shoo him, and only on the third day does she go with him. In this comic, this takes place in one scene — the hare comes, the girl tries to shoo him, he gives his invitation and repeats himself until she gives in.
- Rather than the hare going away between each time he calls out to the girl to open the door, he remains at the door and repeats himself. He also calls out only three times instead of four.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The hare is blue, highlighting his strangeness.
- Charm Person: The hare seems to have some mind influencing ability. The girl starts out loudly shooing him, but each time he gives his invitation, the panels focusing closer and closer on his face, her voice grows quieter and she loses steam until she gives in.
- Darker and Edgier: The hare is more menacing and monstrous than in the original tale. In the original, he attacks the straw dummy by hitting it on the head. Here, he takes on a more monstrous appearance before tearing apart the dummy with his limbs and teeth. There are also some implications that the girl may have been Invited as Dinner.
- Eyes Always Shut: The hare's eyes are always closed until he reveals his true nature.
- Hair-Raising Hare: The hare is a menacing figure who tries to force the girl into marrying him and eventually becomes violent. And that's not even getting into the implications of his words about the wedding guests being "hungry" coupled with his bared teeth.
- Invited as Dinner: The hare calls out to the girl that the wedding guests are "hungry", baring his teeth on the last word before barging in to attack. Whether she is intended to be the main course at the wedding is ambiguous, but the implications at least are there.
- Red Is Violent: When the hare turns violent, he turns red and the room is cast in red light.
- Rule of Three:
- The hare gives his invitation three times before the girl goes with him.
- Three times, the hare beseeches: "Open the door! Open the door! The wedding guests are [something]!"
- Scary Teeth: The hare reveals some pointy teeth when he goes on the attack.
- Schmuck Bait: The hare's invitation. By all appearances he has in mind a life of domestic slavery and, if those teeth are any indication, possibly worse.
- Sleeping Dummy: The girl escapes with a variation; she builds up the straw and dresses it in her hat and apron so she can leg it.
