November 23rd, 2018
23 Nov 2018 · page 853 of 1306
Have a nice sleep, dude.
Cast: Vincent Knott
Comments (34)
Events
ThoughtBubble
14 Nov 2026 – 15 Nov 2026
Harrogate Convention Centre
Manchester Megacon
31 Jul 2027 – 1 Aug 2027
Manchester Central
He's becoming a Crime Boy
"The secret ingredient is crime"
As long as he doesn't get stuck trying to hang himself, Vincent will probably be fine.
This bobby looks pretty familiar. [https://www.widdershinscomi...](https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/november-4th-2016/ "https://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/november-4th-2016/")
If this is the same bloke, he's been having a rough time on the job lately.
Wow, good memory!
Good catch!
Kate, for heaven's sake. This poor red shirt has now appeared twice in the comic. Doesn't he at least deserve a name?
facepalm
And, that poor Bobby is going to get cored like an apple when he wakes up to his boss' wrath.
Well, maybe Vincent hopes to come back with Sharpe and his essay before Bobby wakes up.
I, for myself, try not to think about Vincent going to be hanged (what will his dad say?) and Elisa coming to his rescue.
And hoping not a soul sees them up and about and no-one asks any questions regarding how a strange hangman just happened to come upon the lost essay and not a single other person comes pass our Bobby-boi's guardpost during the next seven and some hours...
But beyond those, he should safe for failing his duties. Given that he himself won't suffer any issues of conscience from quite likely noticing later on that he had been knocked out... Again. In the line of duty. Which he failed...
...
He'll probably be just fine. :D
I wonder if Vincent would "kind-heartedly put the keys back on his belt" to save him some of the trouble, a-la Bilbo. :)
That's some impressive security, there.
Oh, you silly Knott. I think we all knew it was going to go something like this... but even so: you silly, silly Knott. Only one thing to do... gets popcorn, waits for rollercoaster ride to start
>:=)>
Or, um.. what you said!
So, silly question, who hangs the hangman?
Another hangman? :(((
his own dad, then
It's what he'd have wanted
There’s a Neil Gaimen Sandman story, where the vacancy is filled by the next person on death row, who gets a reprieve and becomes the new hangman. So - that would be Mr Sharpe.
Something like the Lord High Executioner in The Mikado.
Although of course Ko Ko was appointed Lord High Executioner to stop people being beheaded. "Who's next to be decapited. Cannot cut off another's head. Until he's cut his own off.”
And everything is quite correct.
It's a regular occurrence in novels and in real life. Ancient real life, fortunately.
A Bernard Clavel book, 'La Bourrelle' (slang for 'the executionner/bourreau's wife'), is about a woman condemned to death in a Quebecois town, being proposed to marry the newly promoted hangman so that she would escape the noose. The new hangman was a regular inmate, and becoming the town's executioner was the price he had to pay to be allowed to marry the woman. As with many Clavel books, it all ends in sordid tragedy.
In real life, that happened a few times in France, by example with the execution of Chalais, guilty of conspiring against Richelieu and the French king. A death row inmate (a shoemaker) was promoted into executioner.
Another case was Cinq-Mars, a.k.a. Henri Coiffier de Ruzé d'Effiat, marquis de Cinq-Mars. Also guilty of planning to murder Richelieu and also to kidnap/maim/kill Louis XIII, in order to replace him by his younger brother, Gaston. Cinq-Mars friends thought was kidnapping the executioner was a good idea; he was replaced on the spot by some random strongly-build poor sod.
In both cases, the new incubent was wholly inexperienced on how to use a sword or axe to decapitate someone, and the execution became a very gory affair. For Chalais, it took 29 (twenty-nine) sword strokes. It didn't help that the executioner didn't have proper tools - all he had was a ceremonial sword and a cooper axe (a short-handled hatchet).
The recorded stories of these executions, or other like them, must have been that prompted a Dr Guillotin into designing a mechanical device to 'safely' decapitate people.
Drugging guards is okay when you're trying to prove the questionable innocence of a man you just met because you're afraid to tell your father you don't want to be a hangman.
#everythingIneedtoknowinlifeIlearnedfromWiddershins
Dude, this is a TERRIBLE idea
The best part is that he KNOWS it's a terrible idea, and he's going along with it anyways.
Ah, and Kate's sense of pacing wins again. Direct from "huge internal conflict" ==> "decision made."
A really bad decison, mind... but given all of the constraints in his mind blocking all other choices, he was never NOT going to do this. So he's off and away in the roller coaster now, heading for twists and turns and mad hairsbreadth escapes. Me, I'm breaking out the popcorn.
If Mr Knott doesn’t make the grade as an executioner, there’s a vacancy for a warder at the Gibbet Street station.
Kate: Writes a story about a man on death row and the moral indecision of his hangman
Also Kate: Makes every single character the absolute sweetest and completely adorable
Cruel irony: Knotty spends the whole chapter racing from scrape to scrape, untangles the conspiracy, saves Sharpe, confesses to his dad....
And he overdosed the guard, undermining his entire moral standpoint.
He’s probably safe there - Eliza measured this dose specifically to help Vincent sleep, and he’s a smaller man than the guard, so it may not even put the guard out for all that long.
It would be funny if tea doesn't work at all. :) Or the guard falls to sleep for a minute and awakens when they are escaping.
/facedesk
/facedesk
/facedesk