The town of Woodbrook might seem familiar to anyone who has ever read Richard Scarry or played Animal Crossing, but the little town has some dark secrets that will be exposed in Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees.
Written, drawn and colored by Patrick Horvath with lettering by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees offers a “cozy horror” story, according to IDW Publishing.
“One of my guiding principles for this series is to strike a balance between cute, fun, dark and disturbing, and I think that readers will be very pleased with the results,” Horvath said. “A lot of the creative work that I do tends to be these dark little existential explorations, carving a path through the dread of having your life up-ended. For as strange, or insane, or idiosyncratic your interior life might be, that type of story resonates with a ton of people. Every person goes through it in some form or other, and with Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees that person happens to be a cuddly brown bear who is a serial killer and owns a hardware store.”
Here are the details from IDW:
In the tranquil and welcoming little town of Woodbrook, humanoid animals happily live in harmony. This cute community isn’t quite as calming as it seems, though. On the surface, Samantha is the friendly face who owns and manages the hardware store. But beneath the surface lies something more terrifying. She visits the nearby city to let her violent urges loose and buries her victims in the woods… But what happens when the killing comes back to her harmonious home town and Samantha isn’t the only one unleashing her inner animal?
“It struck me as sort of profane, but setting this story in an idyllic little town of animal-folks just felt like the absolute right move. You can’t help but want to see how the events play out issue-by-issue, watching the horror unfold in this adorable community,” Horvath said.
Here’s a look inside:
Look for the first issue of the IDW Originals title on Oct. 18.