With the announcement of the first line-up of the rekindled Vertigo label, DC once again has a dedicated home for creator-owned crime, mystery, horror and weird books. For a while there, they kind of had a home under the DC Black Label moniker. It was home to DC-owned real estate, but there was a lot of resistance. What was supposed to simplify age restrictions and content lineups instead ended up confusing identities.
DC Black Label was a place where you could see familiar DC heroes in adult situations, but heaven forbid you see Batawan, so it wasn’t too adult. And then there are the odd ones with no continuity. A very good, but sadly short-lived, was the pop-up horror imprint of Joe Hill’s Hill House Comics. It’s a piece that captures the spirit of the concise limited series that Vertigo is known for, even among longtime sellers, inside and out.
“Something happened to us.”
One of my favorites from this production, one of the strongest in the entire series of very strong stories, was The Low Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado, Dani, Tamra Bonvillein, and Steve Wands. The story of two high school girls coming to terms with an abandoned mining town, a skinless man, a deer woman, a feral-looking boy, a sinkhole, an abandoned sanitarium, and the creeping anxiety of a lack of memory. They had a faint suspicion that something absolutely horrible had happened that they couldn’t remember.
Similarities to Centralia, Pennsylvania, and even Silent Hill are immediately present, but this story goes even stranger and deeper. Through the lens of our two main characters, Octavia and Eldora, we see a city with terrifying secrets. They have essentially failed all women and turned a blind eye to abuse. It’s a pretty dense tapestry of how years of fear can degrade and corrupt an entire society. It is a very apt allegory, representing the silently hidden and accepted horrors that women have had to endure for centuries.
Most of the story is told through the diary entries of the two main characters. Machado gives each one his own voice, introspection, and backstory. This has deep implications for the broader story, allowing Steve Wands to display slightly different fonts in each one. It’s great to be able to visually differentiate between the two voices.
There’s also moody artwork by Dani and Tamra Bonvilin. Dani’s style is reminiscent of DC’s horror and crime artists of the past, such as Richard Case and Eduardo Risso, with an emphasis on black ink, fine scratchy lines, and an understated approach to character form. There are some unforgettable designs for the monsters and weirdness happening in the story. Bonvillain’s dark color palette is enhanced by morbid colors for washes and occasional odd sparkles.
“It’s easy to forget. We do it automatically, like breathing.”
The Low Low Woods by Machado, Dani, Bonvillain, and Wands is a deeply disturbing story that uses the conventions of horror to explore real fear in a very subtle and accessible way. It was a highlight for the diamond-filled sub-imprint, and another example of what horror can do with itself without ever ceasing to be a horror story. Magic and monsters are essential to the story itself.
Complete collection of classic comics: THE LOW LOW WOODS
The Low Low Woods
Screenplay: Carmen Maria Machado
Artist: Dani
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillein
Author: Steve Ones
Publisher: DC Comics – Black Label | Hill House Comics
Release date: December 18, 2019 – June 23, 2020
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