On day one of NYCC, AIPT sat down with Patrick Horvath at the IDW booth for a quick interview about the sequel to the smash hit series Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees.
Sequel & Open Ending
AIPT: When you decided to continue the story with Rite of Spring, what made you feel there was more to explore in Samantha’s world?
Patrick Horvath: So I kind of always thought that it would do well, but I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do another one based on just them letting me do it, but I very much was like, “Man, I would like to do more!” And so I had an idea for the ending that was gonna leave it totally wide open in terms of whatever would happen with Samantha, also, just to play into the fact that she doesn’t get any comeuppance, and it’s very problematic. There was something really appealing to me about that, because she’s a horrible person, right? And the idea that there was something about letting it be “Oh, she won.” But is that good?
So I definitely wanted that to be the case and to leave it open without any sort of definite closure. Around issue three, when I was drawing it, I came up with the idea for what would be book two. And if they ever asked me to do it, this would be my pitch. Issue three from the first book deals with grief, and there’s specifically this whole scene at the end of the funeral where Samantha is acknowledging she’s created this scenario for countless people, except even worse, because they don’t even know what happened to the victim, right? And I was like, “What if we had a family member of the duck?” And then that was the idea to let it sit for eight years in the future. If you let that just sort of simmer on the stove for eight years, how would that warp a character? And that character ends up being Monica in Rite of Spring. So that was kind of how that all came about, and then I was working on issue four at the time when issue one came out, and the numbers were really good already. So IDW asked if I would want to do more and if I had any ideas. What’s funny is, I had an idea for one and two and three, and it was a real hazy sort of idea for three, but it’s become a lot more clear now. But it was definitely yes, I would like to do more.
AIPT: Speaking of that eight-year gap, what does that gap let you do narratively or emotionally that you couldn’t in the first series?
PH: It compounds the fallout from everything that happens. The characters from the first book that just survived are still around, and they’re living with the trauma of that. We see how it’s one of those things where it’s a couple of shifts in a degree, but then, if you let that play out over time, those shifts become very noticeable. And so then you see it play out through different things like emotional trauma, like substance abuse. So, it’s one of those things where it allows for that to be in starker relief, and then also it allows for a lot to have happened in between. And that is a really fun narrative device in that sense. And also, I’m not saying this is ever gonna happen, who knows, but if you have time in between where something did happen, maybe that’s something we revisit. To me, it just felt like there was so many interesting elements that brought to the table that that’s why I leaned into it.
AIPT: The new series captures that specific feeling of the early internet, the chat rooms, message boards. Did you draw on personal experience with that era? Or did you have to do research?
PH: My adolescence was during the internet coming in, like AOL discs, all that stuff was very much a thing. I remember charging up an astronomical phone bill for my parents. I didn’t realize I was even doing it. And so it was one of those things that felt like, this would be great. It’s one element of the 90s, and our world and the world of Beneath the Trees is very similar. And as such, it’s a really interesting place to explore the 90s where globalization was coming into its own in industry. And so we see the effects of that. We see big box stores coming in, we see the internet showing up. The world’s definitely getting smaller, and that was a really important thing.
But also, these are stepping stones of the past decades that led to where we’re at right now. And so that was very fascinating to me. How could you have the beginning of the internet and where we’re at right now with the internet? It was fascinating to me.
Courtesy IDW
Darker Woods, Darker Hearts
AIPT: So the first series balances this wonderful contrast, the cute storybook visuals, with the deeply unsettling subject matter. Has that balance shifted or evolved in Rite of Spring? Are you leaning darker or lighter, exploring something new in between?
PH: It’s definitely darker. But it feels like you can’t go back, the town couldn’t go back to the way it was before the murders happened. As a result, it’s still quaint in its way, but it’s definitely a darker element. And then focusing on Monica, it’s very dark, but it feels like it was necessary As I started writing it, and especially when I started writing Monica, it struck me that this is kind of what the tones got to be and to have someone in that space mentally, it just felt like a definite tonal shift in a good way. I was also, at that point, thinking of a book two and a book three, and what are those gonna feel like? And I wanted them to feel different. And so that was what went into the thinking.
AIPT: Now I’m wondering if book three is going to turn up the darkness even more.
PH: Maybe…perhaps.
Samantha, Same Charming Monster
AIPT: Rite of Spring introduces some new faces and changes the dynamics around Samantha. What was important to you in building this next layer of her world and relationships?
PH: It felt really necessary to have an expansion of the social world. So we’re touching back in with Bertie. But Bertie has very much become an introvert, and he just works from home now. And it’s a direct result of what he went through before but he’s also coming to terms. There’s this nursing home that’s nearby and is becoming a thing for him. Also, we touch base with Charlie’s family in the wake of his murder. Now his children are in college and high school, and his wife has a benzo addiction. So the world of that, it felt necessary to breathe more life into that and expand it more.
Part of it is also, we’re all a step behind what Samantha’s got going on. And it’s a very fun place in this arc. Her interaction is with Monica primarily. A lot of that is feeding into this very specific interest she has in Monica for obvious reasons, and it’s very twisted. But as soon as I was starting to expand that, it felt like there needed to be more representation of Woodbrook in general. And that’s how I started focusing more on the characters. And plus, we’re already invested in them, so to expand out their worlds just felt natural and really fascinating.
Courtesy IDW
AIPT: Visually Beneath the Trees has that distinct storybook meets horror tone. How do you approach maintaining that delicate balance as both writer and artist, especially now that you’re revisiting it?
PH: So far, it’s very much an intuitive thing. I don’t have a formula necessarily that I’m following, but when it feels genuine and right, that’s just kind of what I’m going for. It’s hard to explain because it’s so intuitive, but I’m finding that it’s very flexible. It can hold a lot. You can be very corny, and then you can also be super dead serious. And it holds everything in between. I haven’t gotten to a point where a choice that I’ve made felt too corny. I’ve gotten really dark with it, but I’m only doing it because it feels necessary. I’ll go as far as it needs to, as long as it feels necessary. And anything in between is just whatever best suits that storytelling,
AIPT: Samantha has always been fascinating because she’s both monstrous and relatable in odd ways. How do you approach writing her now? Is she different in your mind than in the first series?
PH: No, she’s totally the same. This was always there in my mind, this was always Samantha. There’s always these reminders that you have to do that she’s horrible, she’s a horrible person. She’s not a hero, she’s just our main character. Issue three just came out and her backstory in that is very problematic. She’s still incredibly charming, and I think she’s as personable as she ever was . It’s only that you just know more about her, and that’s the problem.
Themes: Modernization & Identity
AIPT: You’ve mentioned before that the stories touch on routine, repression, and small-town facades. What themes are you most interested in exploring in Rite of Spring?
PH: A lot of it is this big step towards modernization that we’re living through now, but it started in the 90s, specifically in internet culture and globalization. Which is funny to say about this weird little book, but that was honestly it. I was like, this would be really fascinating to me, because I grew up during it, and we’re all feeling the effects of it now. And I asked myself “How can this be part of this world?” So I feel like those were definitely big things I wanted to include.
Also the idea of how you define yourself. With Monica, she’s essentially defined herself by the trauma that she’s trying to bring a close to. And Samantha is aware that things are changing, and life as she knows it doesn’t feel like it’s going to remain the same for much longer. So in a sense, more abstractly speaking, it’s existential, but it was always existential. The first book was existential, and that continues, but the examination has sort of shifted perspective a bit. For me, that’s how it’s evolved.
Courtesy IDW
AIPT: I thought it was really fascinating how Samantha at first kind of dismisses the internet, she doesn’t really know what it is, and then she realizes there are people talking about the murders on there, and she has to look into this and figure out what’s going on.
PH: I’m always reminded of the movie Wag the Dog. There’s this great moment where they basically pull off this giant hoax that’s for the news. They hire a Hollywood producer to produce it, and it works! So the producer goes to Dustin Hoffman’s place, but he’s like, “Nobody’s ever gonna know!” And he can’t live with the fact that nobody’s ever gonna know. And so in this scenario, it’s really interesting for me to have Samantha’s work be known to some degree, and just to be able to see the lives it’s touched for the first time. That part was totally fascinating for me.
Issue four of Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring drops November 12th
You must be logged in to post a comment.