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Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees Halloween Special
Patrick Horvath joins forces with James Tynion IV (Something is Killing the Children), Tony Fleecs (Stray Dogs), Che Grayson (Absolute Catwoman), Dave Wachter (Uncanny Valley), Jared Cullum (Usagi Kaito 84’), Tyler Boss (What’s the Furthest Place From Here), and Matt Emmons (The Council of Frogs) for an original one-shot set in the world of Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees! Years have passed since Samantha Strong left Woodbrook, but her legend has only grown. Now that the cat is out of the bag, more and more horrific murders have been tied back to her. Some are her doing…others mere folklore…but all absolutely gripping stories featuring everyone’s favorite cuddly serial killer. Gather around the campfire on Halloween night with some of the best creators working today and listen as the citizens of Woodbrook spill the beans on Samantha Strong’s most terrifying deeds.
60 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 7, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 9, 2026
This was a whole lot of fun. It's kids sitting around a campfire from Samantha's hometown telling ghost stories about Samantha Strong. Horvath ties the stories together very well with the interstituals and lets the other writers and artists cook with thier own stories. All of the stories seem plausible, none are more over the top than what's happened so far in the first 2 miniseries. There's also a preview for a 3rd miniseries at the back, "The Sping and the Fall".
October 8, 2026
This was freaking awesome. I loved it. The intensity, the dread, the horror. Exactly what I wanted from a Halloween special.
I really enjoyed the setup of kids sitting around a campfire telling stories about Samantha Strong. There’s something especially creepy about her becoming the story people tell to scare each other. You’re wondering how much actually happened and how much has grown in the telling, but either way, I loved seeing her through that lens.
The contrast between the art and the horror is still one of my favorite things about this world. These cute animal characters, these beautiful pages, and then something absolutely horrible happens. That disconnect makes the violence feel even more disturbing. I can appreciate how gorgeous a page is while also being deeply uncomfortable with what I’m looking at.
Having different creative teams tell the stories worked really well for me, too. The changes in style give each tale its own feel, while the campfire scenes keep everything connected. I felt that dread running through the whole book.
I already love Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, and this special absolutely delivered. Beautiful, brutal, unsettling, and so much fun to read. Easy five stars.
I really enjoyed the setup of kids sitting around a campfire telling stories about Samantha Strong. There’s something especially creepy about her becoming the story people tell to scare each other. You’re wondering how much actually happened and how much has grown in the telling, but either way, I loved seeing her through that lens.
The contrast between the art and the horror is still one of my favorite things about this world. These cute animal characters, these beautiful pages, and then something absolutely horrible happens. That disconnect makes the violence feel even more disturbing. I can appreciate how gorgeous a page is while also being deeply uncomfortable with what I’m looking at.
Having different creative teams tell the stories worked really well for me, too. The changes in style give each tale its own feel, while the campfire scenes keep everything connected. I felt that dread running through the whole book.
I already love Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, and this special absolutely delivered. Beautiful, brutal, unsettling, and so much fun to read. Easy five stars.
October 14, 2026
Campfire stories! The staple of a killer that has reached legendary status as there mere mention haunts the youth, this was such a fun special and a great exercise for getting some different art styles into the world of beneath the trees…while also remaining evident that Horvath is the king of this niche as they still provide the opening, closing, and interstitial art as we find a few kids in the town of Woodbrook on Halloween night gathering to make s’mores in forest as they tell horror stories about Samantha returning every Halloween night. The first kid gets them started with what happened to his cousin’s friend last Halloween. He has just started high school but wasn’t ready to give up trick or treating. So when the final bell rang he went to the bathroom and changed into his pretty sick astronaut costume…but on the way out he ran into a distraught woman with a bundle of missing person posters as she is looking for her polar bear husband. That odd in your face encounter aside, he went out and had a great time and then got to the last house once everyone started to clear the streets. He knocked on the door only to find the same woman from before…except now she is happy and looking behind the boy as her husband came back. The kid turns around to find a man wearing her husband’s hide like a bear suit, clear markings where it was stitched back together. The killer lifts up his knife and stabs the woman in the head as the young boy falls back. He screams for help with no one to hear him as the killer drags him into the forest, pulling down his bear mask to resemble someone looking like a male version of Samantha as they bring him to a tree with tons of skinned bodies hanging from it with this kid set to be next!
OOOOH, maybe they are standing under that tree right now. Of course the older brother who is forced to hang out with his younger and his friends calls BS. So his younger brother jumping on the next story for the real story on Samantha Strong. She wasn’t one to dress up in people’s skin, instead he saw with his own eyes the basement in the bottom of the hardware store where Samantha did her real work. She would go out and stalk her prey, knocking them out and taking them back to her basement where she would keep them hung up for weeks at a time as she tortured them. Cutting them up and painting the walls where their blood splattered. His uncle, a cop, mentioned finding the walls thick with layers of paint and blood. And then she would stuff and perfectly preserve her victims, only removing their arms to place on the wall.
You may be seeing a trend here of kids who really don’t know what they are talking about and end up scared of their own stories, so now it’s time for the older brother to get involved. Telling them the real story of Samantha Strong. The girl in their group, Fiona, doesn’t buy he knows anything and is just a liar…he calls her chicken and she storms away into the night. But he proceeds work the story of how he spent a night in Sam’s house. It started at his video store job when his coworker brought up a time when he yelped at a scary movie, so in a desperate attempt to prove he isn’t a scaredy-cat (which has to be derogatory in this world, right?) his coworker bet he wouldn’t run up and touch the door handle at Sam’s old house. He closes the video store early as they rush over there as his coworker tells him the real reason Sam did it, how her house sits on a site where the occult would worship and perform blood rituals trying to awaken an entity. Sam was chosen to denies bidding, bringing lambs to the slaughter and using a ritual antler knife which is said to still be in her basement. As they arrive the coworker changes the bet, why touch the door handle when he could race down and get the antler! So he sneaks inside the house, only to continually hear creaking from behind him as figures with a reels sneak around the dark. And then he sees one of them in a mirror, he races to hide in a closet only for a dead body to fall on him. He falls out of the closet as the dead body stumbles forward and falls apart from decay in front of him. He runs down the hall where Chip’s dead body speaks to him, and then he runs for the basement as more dead bodies roam the hall. He tries to run back up from the basement only to slip and knock his head as he woke up strapped to a chair with his coworker, now in his Ken ceremonial garb and carrying an antler knife ready to sacrifice him. He brings the antler in close as he stabs him, only for Fiona to poke the boy in the back with a stick causing him to squeal from his own story.
This pissed him off enough that he stormed off into the night, leaving Fiona to tell a real story as she’s seen dead bodies before…her dad owns the funeral parlor and she saw what happened first hand when she was a kid. It was the night Cherry Gherkins, a victim from the first series, was brought into the funeral parlor. It’s a tough job and her father needed a break away to give her the proper respect to rest in peace. But with his attention pulled away, he left the door open for a young Fiona to wander in. She pulled up a stool and climbed up to pull the sheet away as her wide raccoon eyes for a full look at Cherry’s cut up body. Her father rushed in and dragged her away as the other kids are horrified she actually saw that.
Fiona wins their little scary story contest, but there is a part of the story Fiona hasn’t mentioned. Years later the sight of the body still stuck with her and she found an outlet for her emotions through her art…except there isn’t an art supply store in the town so the best place was Sam’s hardware store and its paint selection. Sam noticed Fiona having a hard time finding the shade of red she wanted and offered to help. Fiona admitted she tried to find the right red in class but her teacher took away her sketchbook and called her mom…Sam assured her she isn’t going to call her he mom but wants to see the sketchbook even as creepy as Fiona claims it is. Sam opens it to find detailed sketches of Cherry’s dead cut up body. Fiona explains her mom wants her to see a therapist, it wasn’t her fault there were always dead bodies in the house, but in a way this is her therapy. This makes sense to Adam, the world can feel out of control and this is a moment to take the chaos and put them in order. So Sam has her describe the rule of red she is looking for, it wasn’t dried out but it sent fresh and remained as a sticky reddish black…Sam knows just how to blend the paint together to make that color. And she gets it just right on the first try. For the first time Fiona feels as though someone isn’t looking at her like a monster, and Sam is just happy to help a fellow artist.
As the memories fade, the group is scared once more by the one kid’s older brother coming back for him. This time his mask and bloody knife are out to give them a real scare. The other kids leave him to head home with his brother, it’s very late, but what he hasn’t noticed…is that this isn’t his brother, and the blood on that knife belongs to his real brother cut up and ditched behind the bushes. Which I think brings us to the true point of this special, the tease it is setting up from the end of the last series leading into the summer and the fall. I think all of these stories, as fabricated as they may be, may also have a shred of truth as their foundation. It’s been years since Sam left and we know now that she was surprised to find out how many fans she had…I think a lot of the figures in these stories are her fans. A killer who wears skin, another who takes them to a murder basement, a ritual killer, one who comes out and cuts up kids on Halloween, and maybe even if we are getting horrific enough…a girl just trying to express her feelings in a world that rejects her. I really doubt and hope not in that last point, but I can’t wait for this next series to start coming out the preview looks fantastic.
OOOOH, maybe they are standing under that tree right now. Of course the older brother who is forced to hang out with his younger and his friends calls BS. So his younger brother jumping on the next story for the real story on Samantha Strong. She wasn’t one to dress up in people’s skin, instead he saw with his own eyes the basement in the bottom of the hardware store where Samantha did her real work. She would go out and stalk her prey, knocking them out and taking them back to her basement where she would keep them hung up for weeks at a time as she tortured them. Cutting them up and painting the walls where their blood splattered. His uncle, a cop, mentioned finding the walls thick with layers of paint and blood. And then she would stuff and perfectly preserve her victims, only removing their arms to place on the wall.
You may be seeing a trend here of kids who really don’t know what they are talking about and end up scared of their own stories, so now it’s time for the older brother to get involved. Telling them the real story of Samantha Strong. The girl in their group, Fiona, doesn’t buy he knows anything and is just a liar…he calls her chicken and she storms away into the night. But he proceeds work the story of how he spent a night in Sam’s house. It started at his video store job when his coworker brought up a time when he yelped at a scary movie, so in a desperate attempt to prove he isn’t a scaredy-cat (which has to be derogatory in this world, right?) his coworker bet he wouldn’t run up and touch the door handle at Sam’s old house. He closes the video store early as they rush over there as his coworker tells him the real reason Sam did it, how her house sits on a site where the occult would worship and perform blood rituals trying to awaken an entity. Sam was chosen to denies bidding, bringing lambs to the slaughter and using a ritual antler knife which is said to still be in her basement. As they arrive the coworker changes the bet, why touch the door handle when he could race down and get the antler! So he sneaks inside the house, only to continually hear creaking from behind him as figures with a reels sneak around the dark. And then he sees one of them in a mirror, he races to hide in a closet only for a dead body to fall on him. He falls out of the closet as the dead body stumbles forward and falls apart from decay in front of him. He runs down the hall where Chip’s dead body speaks to him, and then he runs for the basement as more dead bodies roam the hall. He tries to run back up from the basement only to slip and knock his head as he woke up strapped to a chair with his coworker, now in his Ken ceremonial garb and carrying an antler knife ready to sacrifice him. He brings the antler in close as he stabs him, only for Fiona to poke the boy in the back with a stick causing him to squeal from his own story.
This pissed him off enough that he stormed off into the night, leaving Fiona to tell a real story as she’s seen dead bodies before…her dad owns the funeral parlor and she saw what happened first hand when she was a kid. It was the night Cherry Gherkins, a victim from the first series, was brought into the funeral parlor. It’s a tough job and her father needed a break away to give her the proper respect to rest in peace. But with his attention pulled away, he left the door open for a young Fiona to wander in. She pulled up a stool and climbed up to pull the sheet away as her wide raccoon eyes for a full look at Cherry’s cut up body. Her father rushed in and dragged her away as the other kids are horrified she actually saw that.
Fiona wins their little scary story contest, but there is a part of the story Fiona hasn’t mentioned. Years later the sight of the body still stuck with her and she found an outlet for her emotions through her art…except there isn’t an art supply store in the town so the best place was Sam’s hardware store and its paint selection. Sam noticed Fiona having a hard time finding the shade of red she wanted and offered to help. Fiona admitted she tried to find the right red in class but her teacher took away her sketchbook and called her mom…Sam assured her she isn’t going to call her he mom but wants to see the sketchbook even as creepy as Fiona claims it is. Sam opens it to find detailed sketches of Cherry’s dead cut up body. Fiona explains her mom wants her to see a therapist, it wasn’t her fault there were always dead bodies in the house, but in a way this is her therapy. This makes sense to Adam, the world can feel out of control and this is a moment to take the chaos and put them in order. So Sam has her describe the rule of red she is looking for, it wasn’t dried out but it sent fresh and remained as a sticky reddish black…Sam knows just how to blend the paint together to make that color. And she gets it just right on the first try. For the first time Fiona feels as though someone isn’t looking at her like a monster, and Sam is just happy to help a fellow artist.
As the memories fade, the group is scared once more by the one kid’s older brother coming back for him. This time his mask and bloody knife are out to give them a real scare. The other kids leave him to head home with his brother, it’s very late, but what he hasn’t noticed…is that this isn’t his brother, and the blood on that knife belongs to his real brother cut up and ditched behind the bushes. Which I think brings us to the true point of this special, the tease it is setting up from the end of the last series leading into the summer and the fall. I think all of these stories, as fabricated as they may be, may also have a shred of truth as their foundation. It’s been years since Sam left and we know now that she was surprised to find out how many fans she had…I think a lot of the figures in these stories are her fans. A killer who wears skin, another who takes them to a murder basement, a ritual killer, one who comes out and cuts up kids on Halloween, and maybe even if we are getting horrific enough…a girl just trying to express her feelings in a world that rejects her. I really doubt and hope not in that last point, but I can’t wait for this next series to start coming out the preview looks fantastic.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 15, 2026
This was fantastic! It captures the essence of how urban legends are created and spread from a more simple story. This also ties into the original material while being new reader friendly. Some of the stuff in here is BRUTAL. Exactly what I wanted from a Halloween themed one shot.
October 13, 2026
This is such a smart use of a Halloween special. I love how we get to see the legacy of Samantha’s terror, now filtered through urban legends and hearsay. As is typical, the scariest story was the true one. Plus, Tyler Boss interiors!!! Come back, What’s the Furthest Place, please!
October 17, 2026
Absolutely loved this Halloween Special! So fun, artwork is great, still has that cozy horror vibe with the cutesy art and gory scenes. I love the classic telling tales around a campfire feel and how it wraps up.
October 8, 2026
Enjoyable enough and beautifully drawn, but without the character-driven horror of the full-length stories it kinda feels lacking in comparison.
October 9, 2026
Loved this trip back to Woodbrook!
October 9, 2026
Hiring talented faves for an anthology of 8-pagers in your original universe must feel incredibly satisfying. Great job across the board.
CHOOSE THE BEAR
CHOOSE THE BEAR
October 10, 2026
I was randomly shopping at multiple comic book stores and I popped up to this Halloween special! And lo and behold, the cover that I got was created by THE Peach Momoko. Such a great find!
October 11, 2026
In my opinion the best issue of the series so far!!!
October 11, 2026
Really great. I hope it is collected in the third hardcover.
October 13, 2026
a perfect graphic novel for the spooky season, I can't wait to see what happens next!
October 16, 2026
I loved this! And we have the conclusion to the series to look forward to in 2027 with Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: The Summer and the Fall. Can't wait!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews