Oh wow, it goes darker and darker.

(On the other hand, the husband was trying to eat them.)

I must say... I really love and admire how some strips sort of... 'create their own enjoyment zone,' different from many of their contemporary newspaper comics, which in many ways was a feeding-frenzy of aping ideas, techniques, and even substantial characters from earlier strips.

Tove Jansson to me is one of those unique creators (or geniuses, really) who found a way to tell stories with non-traditional humor and creativity, which also caught on with the readers. So much so that it found an International Audience, another amazing hurdle.

This little arc is just so fascinating to me-- the predator chasing the prey, the classic comics pratfall, and then the unexpected sympathy between the wives, who again were nominally still predator-prey. But Jansson as always switches up beats and categories depending on the mood and character of the story arc.

It doesn't always make perfect sense of course, but it's just... fascinating, to me.