“	If you'd like to back out of the deal, you're always welcome to join us here for some eternal agony. It would be fun--for me, anyway.	„
	― Old Scratch to Jack Horner, Jack of Fables #16 — "Jack o' Lantern"

Old Scratch is a Fable devil who first appears in Jack of Fables #16 — "Jack o' Lantern." He is one of several Devils (who are all the Devil) that Jack Horner made a deal with in order to prolong his life.

History

Background

Old Scratch is a man with pointy ears who wears a carnival-like red suit. He rules over^[1] his own version of^[2] Hell, where the entrance bears the inscription "abandon all hope ye who enter here."^[1]

Deal with Jack Horner

One day in the Homelands, a band of peasants outsmarted Old Scratch by ensnaring him in a tree encircled by silver crosses. A young Jack Horner happened upon this peculiar scene, and Old Scratch implored him to take away some of the crosses to facilitate his descent. However, Jack declined, finding no justification for aiding the Devil down. Noticing that Jack was a wicked fellow, Old Scratch offered him a deal: If he let him down, he would never be let into Hell when he died. Assuming that this left Heaven as the only alternative, Jack accepted the deal; they spat and shook on it, and Jack removed enough crosses so that Old Scratch could be on his way.^[1]

After Jack was beheaded for kidnapping a princess, his soul prepared to enter Heaven through the Pearly Gates, but the guardian of Heaven's gates couldn't find Jack's name on the list and refused to let him in. Jack then went down to the gates of Hell and confronted Old Scratch. However, Old Scratch correctly stated that what they agreed was that he wouldn't be admitted to Hell when he died; he never said anything about being let into Heaven. He gave Jack a burning piece of coal to light his way back to the world of the living, and ordered him to get lost.^[1]

After returning to the land of the living, Jack stole the Headless Horseman's head pumpkin to have something to carry the hot coal in. He searched for years after another Devil, and eventually managed to track down Pan, who claimed that he was the real Devil and that Old Scratch was "just an uncredentialed upstart in a badly stitched suit." Jack haggled for a new deal; a hundred new years of life in exchange switching his contract over to Pan. Pan accepted.^[1]

As the century was nearing its end, Jack found himself compelled to locate another Devil, Lucifer, who freed him from the pact he had made with Old Scratch, thereby granting Jack an additional one hundred years to his lifespan.^[1]

Elusive prey

Eventually, Jack is killed in a chaotic battle, and all the Devils — Pan, Chernobog, Lucifer, Old Scratch and Nick Slick — came to collect Jack's soul. However, as soon as they have their quarry in their sight, they start arguing about which of them will get his soul. Nick suggests that they should play poker over him, but Old Scratch refuses, saying that Nick is a notorious card cheat. Nick replies that they were all the Devil, so of course they cheat. Lucifer admits that Nick has a point. Taking advantage of the distraction, Jack's ghost slips away and escapes.^[2]

Reckoning

However, the group eventually catches up with him: One day, when Jack's ghost is hitchhiking, a red and black van with a flame motif stops to pick him up, but when the doors open, all five Devils jump out of the car, ready to catch him. After arguing which of their hells he will go to, they eventually decide to put Jack in a specialized Hell custom-made just for him, where he will sit alone on an empty planet with nothing to do but think about everything he'd done wrong.^[3]

Appearances

Jack of Fables Jack of Fables #16 (first appearance) (flashback) Jack of Fables #50

Fables Fables #148

Original source

Old Scratch is based on the Devil from the legend of Stingy Jack.

Etymology

Old Scratch is a nickname for the Devil.

Trivia

The inscription on the gates to Old Scratch's Hell, "abandon all hope ye who enter here,"^[1] is taken from Inferno, the first part of Dante Alighieri's narrative poem Divine Comedy. In the poem, Dante passes through the gate of Hell, which bears an inscription ending with the famous phrase:

"Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.
Justice the founder of my fabric moved:
To rear me was the task of Power divine,
Supremest Wisdom, and primeval Love.
Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.
All hope abandon, ye who enter here."^[4]

References