Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees TP
Writer/Artist: Patrick Horvath
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Publication Date: September 2024
I hesitate to use the often-lazy construction of X meets Y to describe comics, but with Patrick Horvath and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou’s Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, the pull is just too strong. Dexter meets Richard Scarry’s Busytown is such an apt description for this comic — now collected in paperback and hardcover from publisher IDW — that I just have to go to that well here.
That’s definitely the concept. It’s right there on the cover with the bear dragging a bloody sack and a shovel through a bright and flowered woods, colored so gently by Horvath. In brief, the book is about a long-time serial killer who lives in a small town but goes into the big city to do her slaughtering. Her world is upended when a copycat murderer starts to operate on her home turf. And, to be honest, on its surface this is a concept I might find one-note or even cynical.
Which is to say that for me, I needed Beneath the Trees to do something beyond asking what if there was a serial killer loose in Busytown. And the book definitely goes beyond that. In Beneath the Trees, Horvath creates a compelling murder mystery, one carried out with impressive command of comics storytelling and craft. It’s more dense at its start, when the story calls for exposition and building to the reveal of who is behind its mystery. But it transitions to a rapid and chilling rush toward a bleak finish in the second half, and along the way establishes itself as something more interesting.
The fifth chapter is the one that stands out the most to me. In it, our main character must evade the authorities, take a darkly personal inventory, and decide what to do about the copycat killer, who is someone related to one of her close friends. This is where Horvath really lets loose with his cartooning, turning the storybook world to something trippier and more surprising, as we get a bit of an inward look at his sociopathic lead character. There’s a sequence wherein our talking, clothed, storybook bear faces down a traditional animalistic bear with a bloodied maw. This sequence is brimming with ideas around brutality and nature and the urge toward violence. It is perhaps the core of the book, and I absolutely loved it.
See, one of the questions I asked myself after reading this in installments, was how would this story function if you took away the children’s book veneer? Basically, I wanted to think about whether it found an interesting story past the surface juxtaposition. And upon re-reading the fifth chapter, I’m certain the answer is yes. That’s the chapter where the creator realizes a unique take on how a monster lives and why, as well as gives chilling insight into what it must feel like to be so violent and evil. It’s where to me the book elevates to become one of most interesting horror comics I’ve read all year.
But the storybook veneer is important. It’s what makes Beneath the Trees so perfectly-suited for comics, rather than animation, which is really the only other format it might work within. It’s a very creepy trick being played here, where the comic is evocative of bygone childhood storytime. Its format is reminding you of being young and innocent and thinking the world is so simple and bright — and then on the next page, reality asserts itself as much darker and more dangerous, a lesson you surely learned at some point between reading those kids books and growing into a full adult.
Overall, I enjoyed Beneath the Trees quite a bit. I’d been thinking about the book off and on since reading it in singles. It stuck with me, and I wanted to understand why. This new collected edition — delivering the story all at once — gave me a chance to do just that. It’s also a trade collection, I should note, that uses design in a way that enhances the story. Designed by Nathan Widick, the trade evokes thoughts of smalltown newspapers that heighten the already creepy vibes. It all makes for a great spooky season read, and a fun addition to your comics bookshelf from a cartoonist whose work definitely bears following into the future.
Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees is available now from IDW Publishing.
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English (US) · 