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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nPeach Momoko Variant<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Spooky Season” doesn’t really mean much to me. For the most part, I like autumn more than the other seasons, I suppose, but while I do occasionally indulge in some horror – particularly in comics – it’s not really the genre I favor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, it is that time of year, so I thought I should take a look at something seasonally appropriate, and looking at my recent purchases it was either this or the DC Halloween special, and in the case of the latter, the only things about it that are scary is how expensive it is and how mediocre all the stories in it are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re not familiar with Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees<\/em>, it features a world very much like ours that is populated not by humans but by anthropomorphic animals. There are regular animals just like the ones in our world, and the anthropomorphic animals recognize their kinship with them but remain distinct, and so you’ll get bizarre scenes of things like an intelligent pig walking past a butcher shop that’s prominently featuring pork chops, hams, and pork sausage for sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But while it’s okay to slaughter those<\/em> pigs, it would be a crime to do the same to the latte-drinking pig on the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which brings us to our protagonist, Samantha Strong, a bear who is a vicious predator but also a small business owner and pillar of the community of Woodbrook. This bear shits in a toilet, not in the woods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She uses the woods for something else entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Samantha is a serial killer, one who leaves her small town on occasion to hunt in the big city, selecting victims at random, bringing them out the woods, killing them, bleeding them, chopping them up, and burying their various parts inside of paint cans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the most recent book, Sam was outed as a killer, but managed to escape justice, causing considerable mayhem in the sleepy little town she called home in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This story from James Tynion IV and Jared Cullum picks up some time later and does not directly feature Sam, instead providing us a look at the legends that have formed in her absence as a group of kids gather around a campfire on Halloween to tell stories about the serial killer who is still out there somewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the stories are untrue, of course, with untruths buried inside of untruth, but they reveal an essential truth about the way the memory of Samantha Strong still haunts their town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only one of the stories is true, though it doesn’t directly feature Sam, focusing instead on an encounter the kid had with a victim, albeit not one of Sam’s but rather of a wannabe who had hoped, in vain, to become Sam’s protege and partner. (A fatal error.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n That same kid has a story of an actual encounter with Sam that we see but that she does not tell because she fears what that story might reveal about her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The special closes out with a preview of the next book in the series, giving us a look at where Sam is ten years after the events that saw her fleeing Woodbrook (and nearly burning it to the ground in the process).<\/p>\n\n\n\nRelease: <\/td> Oct 07, 2026<\/td><\/tr> Cover: <\/td> Oct 2026<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2024\/07\/publisher-idw-publishing.png?resize=207%2C100&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nCreators<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Writer<\/td> James Tynion IV | Jared Cullum<\/td><\/tr> Artist<\/td> Jared Cullum | Dave Wachter<\/td><\/tr> Cover Artist<\/td> Peach Momoko<\/td><\/tr> Colorist<\/td> Patrick Horvath<\/td><\/tr> Letterer<\/td> Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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