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Skeleton Key 40
http://richardsalaskeletonkey.blogspot.com/2013/02/40-ambrose.html
If you are ever lucky enough to have your very own butler, you couldn't hope for a better one than Ambrose. Ambrose is Peculia's butler, although she can't quite remember how that happened. He was just always there, living in his own private quarters in the big, secluded house she inherited when she was just a kid.
Peculia was always a curious child, especially when she was younger, but Ambrose, for the most part, demurely refused to discuss himself. All Peculia knows for certain about Ambrose is that he was loyal member of her family's staff for many years ~ and that they had arranged for him to look after her when they were gone.
When she was a student at Reynardine, she spent most of her time there. But her final year at that school was an unhappy one so she was glad to return to the big old house and live on her own ~ all alone, except for Ambrose.
A good butler is discreet and never intrudes where he isn't needed. But at the same time, he ought to be able to recognize when his mistress could use a helping hand. And in fact, Ambrose seems to have a sixth sense for knowing when his mistress might benefit from his presence.
For example, there was that time Peculia had wandered into a new grocery store called The Three Sisters ~ and before she knew it, she had been taken prisoner by the eponymous proprietors who planned to cut her up and eat her! Things looked pretty grim, because these three evil sisters practiced black magic and could not be killed in any ordinary way. They shared a single enchanted heart which was locked safely away in an iron box in some far off tower - and none of them could die as long as that heart was protected. Now, Peculia is clever and most likely could have extricated herself from the awful situation on her own. But she was glad nevertheless when Ambrose showed up unexpectedly and ~ well, he really is the perfect butler.
http://richardsalaskeletonkey.blogspot.com/2013/02/40-ambrose.html
If you are ever lucky enough to have your very own butler, you couldn't hope for a better one than Ambrose. Ambrose is Peculia's butler, although she can't quite remember how that happened. He was just always there, living in his own private quarters in the big, secluded house she inherited when she was just a kid.
Peculia was always a curious child, especially when she was younger, but Ambrose, for the most part, demurely refused to discuss himself. All Peculia knows for certain about Ambrose is that he was loyal member of her family's staff for many years ~ and that they had arranged for him to look after her when they were gone.
When she was a student at Reynardine, she spent most of her time there. But her final year at that school was an unhappy one so she was glad to return to the big old house and live on her own ~ all alone, except for Ambrose.
A good butler is discreet and never intrudes where he isn't needed. But at the same time, he ought to be able to recognize when his mistress could use a helping hand. And in fact, Ambrose seems to have a sixth sense for knowing when his mistress might benefit from his presence.
For example, there was that time Peculia had wandered into a new grocery store called The Three Sisters ~ and before she knew it, she had been taken prisoner by the eponymous proprietors who planned to cut her up and eat her! Things looked pretty grim, because these three evil sisters practiced black magic and could not be killed in any ordinary way. They shared a single enchanted heart which was locked safely away in an iron box in some far off tower - and none of them could die as long as that heart was protected. Now, Peculia is clever and most likely could have extricated herself from the awful situation on her own. But she was glad nevertheless when Ambrose showed up unexpectedly and ~ well, he really is the perfect butler.
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About Richard Sala
Richard Sala's work has been appearing in a wide variety of newspapers, books and magazines, as well as on toy packaging, greeting cards and on the internet since the 1980s. After debuting with a self-published magazine, 'Night Drive,' Richard Sala gradually became (as he puts it himself) the "king of the bad anthologies".
Once Sala appeared in Raw magazine, he became a regular feature in many different types of magazines, including Buzz, Twist, Escape, Drawn & Quarterly, and Rip Off Comix. He and Charles Burns even found their way into the mainstream by way of MTV's animation showcase 'Liquid Television'. Sala's animated serial, 'Invisible Hands' appeared on MTV, and his work can also be found on the CD-ROMs 'Freak Show' and 'Bad Day on the Midway'.
But Sala liked his horror-noir material best, so he concentrated on doing comics for magazines. His "magnum opus", 'The Chuckling Whatsit', was serialized over seventeen issues of the Fantagraphics 'Zero Zero' magazine. His comic book series 'Evil Eye' ran for 12 issues between 1998 and 2001. He has since released several horror-noir graphic novels, including 'Peculia' (2002), 'Mad Night' (2005), 'The Grave Robber's Daughter' (2006), 'Cat Burglar Black' (2009) and 'The Hidden ' (2011).
Text (c) Lambiek
