Broom Shtick

Illustration from The Witch’s Broom, by Chris Van Allsburg.
 

Vampires werewolves, witches, and the like are understood to play by certain rules. Sometimes, though, storytellers find it worthwhile to tweak the rules—or to invent new ones. The movie The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) pokes fun at undead tropes by introducing the problem of how you subdue a Jewish vampire. (Hint: a crucifix won’t cut it.) Kind of silly, but—well, good question. It’s hard not to laugh.

Laugh—out loud—is exactly what I did the first time I read Chris Van Allsburg’s The Widow’s Broom (Houghton Mifflin, 1992). I had picked it up in the bookstore purely to admire the artwork, little suspecting the sly story I was about to be told.

Like the cross gag in Vampire Killers, Allsburg’s tale is predicated on an entirely reasonable question: Do witches’ brooms wear out? The author informs us that they do and then shows what can happen when spent brooms come into the hands of ordinary folk.

The Widow’s Broom is a virtuoso performance. The smoothness with which it moves from spooky to hilarious is masterful, each drawing so polished, so charming to look at on its own that you never see the pie coming.

The Chris Van Allsburg page at Harper Collins

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