Summer of Screams: Through the Woods

Through the Woods
Written and Drawn by Emily Carroll
Published by Independent
Released 2014

Fun fact, I've had a fully written and edited blog entry for a non-WTF comic book finished since March. I haven't posted it for some fairly idiotic reasoning revolving around how I want the picture of the cover to look. Needless to say I am throwing all that concern out the window to write about this comic. I'd never really heard of Emily Carroll before I discovered this delightful little bundle of stories. Apparently she makes creepy comics and posts them all the time on her website. If you're interested, check it out.

Through the Woods is a collection of seven short stories of varying lengths. I enjoyed most of them quite a lot, but a few did disappoint me. The most common thread running through these stories is Carroll's art, which I think looks great. I'm not really sure how to explain my appreciation for art. If you like what you see of her work you'll enjoy the rest of the book though.

I'm not going to spoil much of this comic, but I'm not going to go out of my way to avoid them either, I'll be considerate for anyone who wants to get the full feeling of horror by reading the actual comic later. The first and last stories are really short, fittingly named "An Introduction" and "In Conclusion" (which is kind of clever actually). Both of them set a lightly creepy vibe, with the first playing off fear of the dark, while the second is a bit more effective to me. It is essentially little red riding hood retold with the girl not being harmed by the wolf. But as she goes to sleep the wolf looks in her window and tells her that she must make the journey safely every night, whereas the wolf only needs to catch her once. I really liked that.

"Our Neighbor's House" is mostly a somber tale of a dwindling family. The ending is kind of open to interpretation, but either way it gets fairly dark. "A Lady's Hands are Cold" was probably my least favorite. A rich man's new wife hears morbid singing about how a previous wife had been wronged. Eventually she pulls it altogether and... the pay off just feels really weak and strange to me. She does play with the conventions of a helpful spirit which I thought was pretty neat, but the conclusion overall just didn't do it for me. "His Face All Red" is another somber tale of a man who murdered his brother in an intense burst of jealously, but a few days later his brother comes back.

The last two major stories are probably my favorite, "Our Neighbor's House" is up there though. "My Friend Janna" explores the relationship between two best friends who scam people with phony ghost communications, along the way they might have actually made some kind of contact though. Watching the characters in this handle their situation was really entertaining, and while the ending is kind of obvious, it still works as the whole idea of detachment is prevalent throughout. The best story by far though is "The Nesting Place", fucking creepy. A girl's mother tells her of monsters, and how the worst kind is that which burrows within your soul and nests there. Years later she's an outcast, her mum is dead and her brother is out of touch. She goes to stay with him and his wife over vacation though. Quickly things become incredibly odd, strange noises, strange teeth movements, a strange cave, a strange acting nanny, everything feels off in both the writing and the art and it works perfectly. There's an actual monster in this one, and Carroll did a fantastic job of making something both unique and terrifying. Not only that, but the hero survives in a fairly clever as well. The ending isn't quite as simple as that though.

If for no other reason, you should read this for "The Nesting Place". All of the others, even the weakest, are worth a read as well. The art style doesn't seem to lend itself to horror, but it really does. Plus when Carroll draws seriously creepy shit it bleeds through. All of the stories are pretty ambiguous, a key ingredient to creepy, and are written very well. Most of the characters are easy to identify with, and those who aren't are meant to subtly make your skin crawl. Read this by the fire, on a dark night, maybe during a storm.