Broom Hilda
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No, you’re not pretty. You’re not
good-natured or well-intentioned or insightful. But man, are you funny.
We admire you for hitting the scene on the cusp of the ’70s–smoking
cigars and hobknobbing with a troll and a buzzard. Your skin is grin, you’ve got
the nastiest wart this side of the funny pages *and* you’re the ex-wife of
Attila the Hun.
Broom Hilda, we don’t really know who creator Russell
Myers intended as his target audience in 1970, when you first hit the scene.
Fellow bumbling sorceresses with gnomes as their sole confidantes? Work-a-day
women who could, somehow, relate wholeheartedly to the casting of spells,
botched bubbling bress and estranged husbands who pilfered and pillaged their
way to notareity? We just can’t call it.
But despite intent, we all grew
to know and love you, Hildy. Even with your failed animated turns in ’71 and
’78, even with your tattered hat and past-date fashion, something about you
seems to resonate within the world of comic strip women.
Today, though
your series doesn’t run everywhere and its storylines are often syndicated, we
could go outside right now and ask anyone to name the first five comic strip
women that come to mind and we’re certain you’d be right there.
Okay,
maybe top ten. But still…
