2011-01-24
Explanation
This comic offers an alternative version of the story of Don Quixote, the famous literary character created by Miguel de Cervantes. In the original novel, Don Quixote is a delusional man who reads too many chivalric romances and sets out as a knight-errant, famously "tilting at windmills" -- attacking windmills because he believes them to be giants. His squire Sancho Panza tags along and chronicles his misadventures.
In this comic's version, the twist is that Don Quixote was not delusional at all. He charges at a windmill just as in the original story, but then the comic reveals that the windmill was actually concealing a dragon. Don Quixote fights and slays the dragon in a dramatic action sequence, then declares "Dragons have been eliminated from Spain." When Sancho tries to enthusiastically document the event, Don Quixote gruffly tells him to shut up and just write down what happened. The final panel shows the resulting book, "Don Quixote," implying that Sancho's earnest but confused retelling is what gave rise to the version of the story we know today -- one where it sounds like Don Quixote was just a madman attacking windmills, because Sancho failed to capture the truth of the dragon-slaying. It is a fun "what if the crazy person was actually right" inversion of the classic tale.