Looking at the Max Ernst Une Sumaine de Bonte, Truthfully, I was
confused by each picture. If Shaun Tan's The Arrival is the easy wordless
comic, Max Ernst is the more challenging piece. If I had to tell my own version
of this story it would be like this.
Panel 1:
A woman, a witch perhaps, does a ritual
that change the appearance of the rooster to terrorize the cty or village.
Panel 2:
The rooster transformed into a giant
rooster with a very large wings and a small head, which is kind of weird. So
The rooster flew to terrorize the village and their first victim is none other
than the witch (talk about the plot twist in the beginning of the story)
Panel 3:
So the witch died in such a cruel way and
not long after, there was a ceremony to give a respect for this woman in the
church, When the rooster monster came back to terrorize the ceremony. The
rooster forced one of the lady, perhaps the witch’s siblings, to take off her
clothes and do something nasty…kill her off course… that’s quite a nasty
sight..
Panel 4:
After they kill the witch’s siblings, soon
after, they checked the woman’s clothes and then they tore off forcefully the
witch’s clothes. It seems like they are looking for something that belongs to
the witch, Perhaps the amulet, to strengthen their power.
Panel 5:
So they went to the witch’s house which is surprisingly an upper
class’s house. They looked everywhere but they couldn’t find it. One of the
rooster went to one of the bedroom and finds someone was sleeping, perhaps
another witch’s siblings. So the rooster went into the bedroom and forcefully
asked the woman about the whereabouts of the amulet. However, she didn’t know
where it is and the rooster decided to kill her just like any other antagonist’s
character, kill her after she serve the purpose. However, something unexpected
happen, the rooster scream and it turned back into the original shape. The other
rooster, who sees this tragedy, screams loudly as if its friend had died.
Panel 6:
The remaining rooster decided to try another method. So they
decided to take the witch’s body and use it as a puppet to ask other people
that might know her to find the amulet. They ask other people using the witch
as the people but there is no result until they stumble one woman who mentions
that the twin sister might have the amulet.
Panel 7:
So the rooster went to the twin sister who happened to be in the
orchestra ball. The rooster went to one
of the window seat to talk with the twin. At first the twin was scared but they
did not want to tell the whereabouts of the amulet. So the rooster decided to
blackmail them that if they didn’t tell where the amulet it, their parents
would die. At first they didn’t believe it but after the rooster give some explanation
about the parent, what they looked like and where they live, the twin cried and
they had no other choice but to tell the truth
Panel 9:
The rooster found the amulet but the amulet and he turned into an
even scarier monster, a rooster with a body of a bear. So, after it got the
amulet, it decided to terrorize the village again, it began with killing the
twin who tell the secret. The twin was in panic when they heard the sound of
the rooster breaking into the house.
Panel 10:
So the rooster, who fails finding the twin, decided to torture the
parents by skinning them alive and took only the skeleton. The twin who were
hiding , were unaware of that and by the time they realized it, the rooster
were done with the skinning process and about to take the skeleton, the twin
were devastated that they beg the rooster to give their parents back, but they
failed and the rooster left them devastated, unable to do anything.
Panel 11:
The rooster began spreading its influence by getting more roosters
transformed and they began their destruction, kidnapping people from many
places, like trains, or boat.
Panel 12
After kidnapping people all over places, they began experimenting
on them. They build a lot of torture device to torture all the human kind, mostly
a device that would behead them. The kidnapped human, who are in line were
terrified looking at what would be of them in the next hour.
Panel 13:
The rooster monster began to experimenting on the power of the
amulet by turning the human into some sort of hybrid, a body of humans with a
head of a rooster. The man who got experimented on was terrified when he found
out that his head has become a rooster’s head. He ran odd while the rooster
began on experimenting on other female sacrifice.
Panel 14
The destruction that were caused by a rooster monster, cause some
faction to arise to counterattack all the rooster faction’s damage. One woman
emerged as the leader of the woman faction to fight back the rooster faction. She
began their attack by shooting some of the rooster in the forest, where they
operated.
Panel 15:
The rooster faction couldn’t stand on what this woman faction had
brought to them. They decided to fight back. So one of the rooster disguised as
the normal man, blending into the society, it found the leader of the woman
faction. So it decided to get close to her and once the time was right, it
quickly hung her and it made it as if she was committing suicide.
Panel 16:
Not believing that the woman faction’s leader is committing
suicide, their fellow comrade decided to make a payback. So they hired a very well-known
assassin, a ninja to assassinate the leader of the rooster. So while the leader
of the rooster tasted the victory feat that he has done, without it realize,
the rope had already coiled around his neck and suddenly it got pulled up and
the assassin suddenly appeared to snap its neck
Panel 17:
The rest of the rooster was enraged by the sudden death of their
beloved leader that they decided to threw all-out war against the rest of the
human and after a harsh battle they emerged victorious and they raised their
flag
Looking back at the last image it resembles the France revolution
drawing which makes me wonder the relation of this story to the real story
behind the France revolution.