Hans Christian Andersen
The Little Match-Seller
Adapted to comic by
Sam García
Edited, designed and lettered by Sam García Special thanks to Raquel Martín, Sophie Ansel and Roger Rebull. All ilustrations copyright © Sam García 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this book (except H. C. Andersen’s original tale and bibliographical notes) may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author. Except small portions for review purposes. ISBN 978-1-4461-8613-8 To contact the author: Sam García samgarciabd@gmail.com First published: September 2010
Have a sweet and Merry New Year’s Eve! Ho! Ho! Ho!
Dear Sir! Do you want some free candy for your handsome child?
Get out! You little
dirty brat!!
A shooting star!... Mamma told me that this means somebody has died...
Grand...
Grandma!?
GRANDMAA!
Please, take me with you...
Grandma, I don’t want to be here anymore. I want to go with you! Please!
Come.
Oh my god! Poor child! That last night freezing cold took her!
She was so desperate! She tried to warm herself with these matches...
But... Look! Have you seen her face!? She is... She is smiling!
END / Sam García / June 2010
Dedicated to my Grandma Sam, 2010
The Little Match-Seller by Hans Christian Andersen (1846) Translated to english by H. P. Paull (1872)
I
t was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of the old year, and the snow was falling fast. In the cold and the darkness, a poor little girl, with bare head and naked feet, roamed through the streets. It is true she had on a pair of slippers when she left home, but they were not of much use. They were very large, so large, indeed, that they had belonged to her mother, and the poor little creature had lost them in running across the street to avoid two carriages that were rolling along at a terrible rate. One of the slippers she could not find, and a boy seized upon the other and ran away with it, saying that he could use it as a cradle, when he had children of his own. So the little girl went on with her little naked feet, which were quite red and blue with the cold. In an old apron she carried a number of matches, and had a bundle of them in her hands. No one had bought anything of her the whole day, nor had anyone given her even a penny. Shivering with cold and hunger, she crept along; poor little child, she looked the picture of misery. The snowflakes fell on her long, fair hair, which hung in curls on her shoulders, but she regarded them not.
Lights were shining from every window, and there was a savory smell of roast goose, for it was New-year’s eve—yes, she remembered that. In a corner, between two houses, one of which projected beyond the other, she sank down and huddled herself together. She had drawn her little feet under her, but she could not keep off the cold; and she dared not go home, for she had sold no matches, and could not take home even a penny of money. Her father would certainly beat her; besides, it was almost as cold at home as here, for they had only the roof to cover them, through which the wind howled, although the largest holes had been stopped up with straw and rags. Her little hands were almost frozen with the cold. Ah! perhaps a burning match might be some good, if she could draw it from the bundle and strike it against the wall, just to warm her fingers. She drew one out—“scratch!” how it sputtered as it burnt! It gave a warm, bright light, like a little candle, as she held her hand over it. It was really a wonderful light. It seemed to the little girl that she was sitting by a large iron stove, with polished brass feet and a brass ornament. How the fire burned! and seemed so
beautifully warm that the child stretched out her feet as if to warm them, when, lo! the flame of the match went out, the stove vanished, and she had only the remains of the half-burnt match in her hand. She rubbed another match on the wall. It burst into a flame, and where its light fell upon the wall it became as transparent as a veil, and she could see into the room. The table was covered with a snowy white table-cloth, on which stood a splendid dinner service, and a steaming roast goose, stuffed with apples and dried plums. And what was still more wonderful, the goose jumped down from the dish and waddled across the floor, with a knife and fork in its breast, to the little girl. Then the match went out, and there remained nothing but the thick, damp, cold wall before her. She lighted another match, and then she found herself sitting under a beautiful Christmastree. It was larger and more beautifully decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door at the rich merchant’s. Thousands of tapers were burning upon the green branches, and colored pictures, like those she had seen in the show-windows, looked down upon it all. The little one stretched out her hand towards them, and the match went out. The Christmas lights rose higher and higher, till they looked to her like the stars in the sky. Then she saw a star fall, leaving behind it a bright streak of fire. “Someone is dying,” thought the little girl, for her old grandmother, the only one who had ever loved her, and who was now dead, had told her that when a star falls, a soul was going up to God. She again rubbed a match on the wall, and the light shone round her; in the brightness stood her old grandmother, clear and shining, yet mild and loving in her appearance. “Grandmother,” cried the little one, “O take me with you; I know you will go away when the match burns out; you will vanish like the warm stove, the roast goose, and the large, glorious Christmastree.” And she made haste to light the whole bundle of matches, for she wished to keep her grandmother there. And the matches glowed with a light that was brighter than the noonday, and her grandmother had never appeared so large or so beautiful. She took the little girl in her arms, and they both flew upwards in brightness and joy far above the earth, where there was neither cold nor hunger nor pain, for they were with God. In the dawn of morning there lay the poor little one, with pale cheeks and smiling mouth, leaning against the wall; she had been frozen to death on the last evening of the year; and the New-year’s sun rose and shone upon a little corpse! The child still sat, in the stiffness of death, holding the matches in her hand, one bundle of which was burnt. “She tried to warm herself,” said some. No one imagined what beautiful things she had seen, nor into what glory she had entered with her grandmother, on New-year’s day.
The end
April 2, 1805 – August 4, 1875
Chronological list of Andersen’s works 1. 1835 The Tinder-Box 2. 1835 Little Claus and Big Claus 3. 1835 The Princess and the Pea 4. 1835 Little Ida’s Flowers 5. 1835 Little Tiny or Thumbelina 6. 1835 The Saucy Boy 7. 1835 The Travelling Companion 8. 1836 This Fable Is Intended for You 9. 1836 The Talisman 10. 1836 God Can Never Die 11. 1836 The Little Mermaid 12. 1837 The Emperor’s New Suit 13. 1838 The Goloshes of Fortune 14. 1838 The Daisy 15. 1838 The Brave Tin Soldier 16. 1838 The Wild Swans 17. 1838 The Garden of Paradise 18. 1838 The Flying Trunk 19. 1838 The Storks 20. 1839 The Elf of the Rose 21. 1840 What the Moon Saw 22. 1840 The Wicked Prince 23. 1842 The Metal Pig 24. 1842 The Shepherd’s Story of the Bond of Friendship 25. 1842 A Rose from Homer’s Grave 26. 1842 The Buckwheat 27. 1842 Ole-Luk-Oie, the Dream-God 28. 1842 The Swineherd 29. 1844 The Angel 30. 1844 The Nightingale 31. 1844 The Ugly Duckling 32. 1844 The Top and Ball 33. 1845 The Fir Tree 34. 1845 The Snow Queen 35. 1845 The Little Elder-Tree Mother 36. 1845 The Elfin Hill 37. 1845 The Red Shoes 38. 1845 The Jumper 39. 1845 The Shepherdess and the Sweep 40. 1845 Holger Danske 41. 1845 The Bell 42. 1845 Grandmother 43. 1846 The Darning-Needle 44. 1846 The Little Match-Seller 45. 1847 The Sunbeam and the Captive 46. 1847 By the Almshouse Window 47. 1847 The Old Street Lamp 48. 1847 The Neighbouring Families 49. 1847 Little Tuk 50. 1847 The Shadow 51. 1848 The Old House 52. 1848 The Drop of Water 53. 1848 The Happy Family 54. 1848 The Story of a Mother 55. 1848 The Shirt-Collar 56. 1849 The Flax 57. 1850 The Phoenix Bird 58. 1851 A Story 59. 1851 The Pigs 60. 1851 The Puppet-Show Man 61. 1851 The Dumb Book 62. 1852 The Old Grave-Stone 63. 1852 The Conceited Apple-Branch 64. 1852 The Loveliest Rose in the World 65. 1852 In a Thousand Years 66. 1852 The Swan’s Nest 67. 1852 The Story of the Year 68. 1852 On Judgment Day 69. 1852 “There Is No Doubt About It.” 70. 1852 A Cheerful Temper 71. 1853 A Great Grief 72. 1853 Everything in the Right Place 73. 1853 The Goblin and the Huckster 74. 1853 Under the Willow-tree 75. 1853 The Pea Blossom 76. 1853 She Was Good for Nothing 77. 1854 The Last Pearl 78. 1854 Two Maidens 79. 1855 “In the Uttermost Parts of the Sea” 80. 1855 The Money-Box 81. 1855 A Leaf from Heaven 82. 1855 Jack the Dullard 83. 1855 Ib and Little Christina 84. 1856 The Thorny Road of Honor 85. 1856 The Jewish Maiden
You can find this list and other resources in:
86. 1857 The Bell-Deep 87. 1857 A String of Pearls 88. 1858 The Bottle Neck 89. 1858 Soup from a Sausage Skewer 90. 1858 The Old Bachelor’s Nightcap 91. 1858 Something 92. 1858 The Last Dream of the Old Oak 93. 1858 The A-B-C Book 94. 1858 The Marsh King’s Daughter 95. 1858 The Races 96. 1859 The Philosopher’s Stone 97. 1859 The Story of the Wind 98. 1859 The Girl Who Trod on the Loaf 99. 1859 Ole the Tower-Keeper 100. 1859 Anne Lisbeth 101. 1859 Children’s Prattle 102. 1859 The Child in the Grave 103. 1859 Two Brothers 104. 1860 The Pen and the Inkstand 105. 1860 The Farm-Yard Cock and the Weather-Cock 106. 1860 Beauty of Form and Beauty of Mind 107. 1860 A Story from the Sand-Hills 108. 1860 Moving Day 109. 1861 The Butterfly 110. 1861 The Bishop of Borglum and His Warriors 111. 1861 The Mail-Coach Passengers 112. 1861 The Beetle Who Went on His Travels 113. 1861 What the Old Man Does Is Always Right 114. 1861 The Snow Man 115. 1861 The Portuguese Duck 116. 1861 The New Century’s Goddess 117. 1861 The Ice Maiden 118. 1861 The Psyche 119. 1861 The Snail and the Rose-Tree 120. 1861 The Old Church Bell 121. 1862 The Silver Shilling 122. 1863 The Snowdrop 123. 1864 The Teapot 124. 1865 The Bird of Popular Song 125. 1865 “The Will-o-the Wisp Is in the Town” Says the Moor-Woman 126. 1865 The Windmill 127. 1865 In the Nursery 128. 1865 The Golden Treasure 129. 1865 The Storm Shakes the Shield 130. 1866 “Delaying Is Not Forgetting” 131. 1866 The Porter’s Son 132. 1866 Our Aunt 133. 1866 The Toad 134. 1867 Vænø and Glænø 135. 1868 The Little Green Ones 136. 1868 The Goblin and the Woman(**) 137. 1868 Peiter, Peter and Peer 138. 1868 Godfather’s Picture Book 139. 1868 Which is the Happiest? 140. 1868 The Dryad 141. 1869 The Days of the Week 142. 1869 The Court Cards(**) 143. 1869 Luck May Lie in a Pin(*) 144. 1869 Sunshine Stories(**) 145. 1869 The Comet 146. 1869 The Rags 147. 1869 What One Can Invent 148. 1869 The Thistle’s Experiences 149. 1869 Poultry Meg’s Family 150. 1870 The Candles(*) 151. 1870 Great-Grandfather 152. 1870 The Most Incredible Thing(*) 153. 1870 Danish Popular Legends 154. 1870 What the Whole Family Said 155. 1870 Lucky Peer 156. 1871 Dance, Dance, Doll of Mine! 157. 1871 The Great Sea-Serpent 158. 1871 The Gardener and the Manor 159. 1872 What Old Johanne Told 160. 1872 The Gate Key 161. 1872 The Cripple(*) 162. 1872 Aunty Toothache 163. 1873 The Flea and the Professor 164. 1926 Croak 165. 1926 The Penman 166. 1949 Folks Say— 167. 1949 The Poor Woman and the Little Canary Bird 168. 1949 Urbanus
http://hca.gilead.org.il. All the work is credited to his author.
Thanks for reading!
Sam García is a profesional cartoonist working in Barcelona.