Elsa Grimston is the daughter of Henry, an occult practitioner, and an unnamed woman who was procured by a trio of women symbolizing the triple goddesses. The arrangement came about because Henry had failed to find a woman willing to be impregnated during a magical ceremony to draw down a lunar spirit into the newly fertilized embryo. Henry raised her alone in a two story home in Alta Dena, California. The neighborhood may have been unassuming, but rumors circulated that Henry dabbled in magic. One Halloween Elsa’s sole friend is mortally hurt by some bullies who mistake her for Elsa. Elsa enlists her father to help the girl, but Henry’s spell goes terribly awry, and the unconscious girl is transformed into a doll sized version of her cartoon cat costume. Of course, the girl’s disappearance leads police to the Grimston home, and the father persuades Elsa that the human/cat doll/friend now has to be teleported somewhere far away, making for a very lonely childhood. The elder Grimston died six years later in some magical rite gone horribly wrong. Before dying, Henry bestowed on Elsa the ability to appear a youthful 25.
Elsa followed in her father’s magical footsteps, having more success thanks to her magical creation. Having cultivated a sect of gullible Peruvian country folk for two years culminates in ample power (through fervent belief) to enact her plan to go to the moon and live away from humanity. Best laid plans and all that as Lucifer Morningstar awaits her arrival, eliciting a very angry reaction from Elsa. Lucifer still carries a grudge against her father for some consequence arising from incompetence and now tasks Elsa with ending Henry’s cult or she’ll be stripped of her powers and die on the moon. Elsa reluctantly agrees and is returned to earth where she begins the process of finding the maiden and mother aspects to her crone. In order to locate suitable candidates, she enlists former lovers: girlfriend Leannen, a Goth who works in a comic book store, and Marcus, a writer hoping for success. Both Leannen and Marcus detest each other, but Elsa persuades them to take part in an outdoor sex magic ritual in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Barely completed, a police patrol glimpses something suspicious and arrest the ex-lovers while Elsa makes a magical getaway and sets off in search of a powerful witch divined in the ritual. With Sook, the second witch secured, Elsa is surprised when the final part of the triune finds her though this is likely because the series is cancelled quite quickly with #10.
Elsa Grimston created by Jonathan Vankin and Leigh Gallagher. Art by Gallagher and Brian Miller from Witching #2.
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