The Butcher brings this down to a very human level.

The Butcher brings this down to a very human level. Issue #39 goes back to Alice’s life and the butcher Oscar. His obsession with her exists on Earth, before the confrontation at the looking glass. That matters when looking at the monstrous identity around him. My reading is that the Butcher gives a recognizable shape to something already frightening about the person. A job that belongs to an ordinary neighborhood becomes attached to this much darker story of obsession and violence. The connection to Alice also brings that history back into Calie’s story. Wonderland’s horrors can have roots in an ordinary encounter, and the consequences can reach the next generation. That makes the Butcher a useful contrast with the Hatter: this time the occupation and the person’s obsession are central to the image.