‘Elmtown-The Wife’s First Knockdown’. Here is a passage from the story that deals directly with this illustration. ‘Her face distorted in anguish, Mrs. Doyle fell, clutching her injured breast. This was the wife’s first knockdown onto the floor. Now the older woman was proudly thumping her large breasts, oblivious of hurting her own already battered charms; thereby instinctively proclaiming their superiority over those of her younger rival. The women in the room were rooting for the wife, yet it was deeply satisfying to see her hurt. For once the champion was having to fight hard for possession of her envied prize. This time her body would have to suffer pain to earn its pleasure.‘
The ‘Elmtown Chronicles’ is a case whereby the sum is greater than its parts. Taken as a whole, (pictures, writing, theme) it's a masterwork. The illustrations are pure ink lined with no half-tone shadowing. And yet the power of the brutal action is depicted in the purity of the black ink upon white paper. This is a fight to the finish, no decision here, only one remains standing. No gray area here, an ending as clear and final as black contrasts with white. As are the pictures. Now, as concerns the writing. True, the writing is not sophisticated, and yet when I published the work I made sure I didn’t alter any of the original writer’s text, except to correct some obvious errors. And adding a bit of commentary, making sure the reader could see it as an interjection by me. The power of the writing is it is straight forward, always moving, and packs a wallop of a punch in describing the physical and emotional Agon both women went through during their match. Good word, ‘Agon’, however, the author wasn’t writing Greek tragedy, whereby the Gods had already chosen sides; and by their power dictated the winner and loser. This was Shakespearian in its basic theme. Of course the writing is not of the quality of the Bard’s prose, but what Shakespeare brought to the fore in Western literature was that ordinary people can, and do, make extraordinary decisions; and in the doing obtain glory, or in contrast suffer horrific consequences for their actions. And this author understood this Shakespearian truth, in that he jumped 400 years and did something so American. He pitted two ordinary American women against each in a brutal boxing match, this in order for their collective desire that one sexually destroy the other, and in the doing win the possession of a man they both love. The consequence of loss is the humiliation that the loser give up everything and leave town. Harking back to the old west – ‘Get out of Dodge City’. And what drove these two females to choose Agon – The love of a man. Quite a drive that. Greater than lust. Powerful drives are at work here, powerful enough to stake everything held dear on a painful outcome. ‘Nuff said. Drew”