Some people are fascinated by sharks. Some people have a peculiar obsession with diseases. Some people are curious about the most morbid of topics. The way I have come to understand this is that people have a strange compulsion to learn more about that which frightens them. All this is to say, is that when I was in high school, I had an unfortunate obsession with the television show Dexter. I’m hoping that this obsession was not the sign of something deeply wrong in the dark recesses of my psyche.
Beneath the Trees where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath is commonly described as Richard Scarry’s Busytown meets Dexter. Naturally, I had to check this out. Dear reader, let me tell you that this does not disappoint. Sometimes when you read such an interesting and off kilter tagline like “beloved children’s book series meets disturbing television show about a serial killer”, there’s no way that the actual story can live up to that premise. Patrick Horvath nails the execution. This is a extremely well told story.
Samantha, our protagonist, works at her local hardware store in a small upstate New York town. She is also a serial killer. She is also a cute cartoon bear who wears overalls. Samantha likes her quiet boring life in her quiet boring town. She also takes periodic trips to the city to satisfy her depraved psychotic murderous urges. Her peaceful life changes when a new serial killer start operating in her podunk town. Naturally, this is extremely bad for her because if the police start snooping around, who is to say that they won’t catch the wrong killer? So Samantha finds herself in a position where she has to put an end to another murderers’ killing spree.
Patrick Horvath is both the writer and artist behind beneath the trees where nobody sees. This work instantly launches him on to my auto read list. The artwork is absolutely stunning, not only when taken as a whole, but particularly when broken down on a panel by panel basis. I read the work on Hoopla, which is a comic reading platform that is offered by my library. Hoopla has an interesting way of assisting the reader. It’s e-reader program zooms in on each panel, which offsets the challenge of reading a comic on an incorrectly sized browser window. The downside to reading comics this way is normally that the zoom function provides too much of a close up, and depending on the art style, the high focus will do the artwork no favors. In the case of Beneath the Trees where Nobody Sees, each panel is rendered in glorious definition. The bright colours and particular fine attention to detail mean that closer scrutiny of the panels are greatly rewarding to the reader. I found myself in regular awe of the artwork. Seeing a highly detailed panel of an anthropomorphic duck exiting a New York subway station is an aesthetic pleasure I never realized that I would appreciate in my lifetime.
Samantha’s dedication focus to being a serial killer as well as to her routine, in particular her outward persona and her deeply messed up hobby have very specific Dexter vibes. In some ways this makes the story a tad predictable, but nonetheless it’s extremely entertaining. The execution of the story (no pun intended), and some of the characters (okay pun intended), is absolutely flawless. This story goes exactly as you might expect a story with this particular premise goes but that is not a flaw. Ultimately, my enjoyment of this story might make me a bit of a sicko, but when a serial killer story is this good, I’m going to have to embrace my own dark passenger and learn to live with it.
Commonplace Curiosities 