It's "weird" if you compare it with modern-day "child-safe" stories/comics/movies. It's definitely not weirder or more shocking than its contemporaries or predecessors. Here in Germany, the most well-known ones from that era are probably Grimms' Fairy Tales (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimms%27_Fairy_Tales), Struwwelpeter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter) and Wilhelm Busch's Max und Moritz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_and_Moritz#Final_Trick:_Th...).