Free Comic Friday: Harrow County #1

Harrow County #1, Halloween ComicFest Edition
Script: Cullen Bunn
Art and lettering: Tyler Crooks

“Tales of Harrow County”
Art: Owen Gieni

Editor: Daniel Chabon
Assistant editor: Ian Tucker
Digital art technician: Ryan Jorgensen
Designer: Keith Wood
Published by: Dark Horse
Released: Oct. 29, 2016

We kicked off October last week with the not-very-spooky DC SuperHero Girls freebie from Halloween ComicFest 2017. And next week's will be a Halloween-branded entry without a Halloween story per se. But this one, judging from its cover,* is straight-up horror, generating simultaneous vibes of curiosity and “Maybe I don't want to read this one, even if it is free.”

Except, in my case anyway, it wasn't.

I have this reprint of “Harrow County” #1 because I found it going through boxes at a local shop's sale and added it to my haul primarily for the purposes of this blog. I'm not in danger of running out of entries for #FreeComicFriday, especially since I don't manage to post them regularly, but I saw this and figured I should add it to the pile anyway.

I'd heard of “Harrow County” but never read it. I continually try to broaden my horizons from the Big Two, and I have been watching more horror movies lately, thanks to the unexpected recommendation of Christianity Today's horror podcast “Be Afraid” from my pastor. But this one had largely flown under my radar.

A heads up, the imagery in this one is a bit more gruesome and unsettling than, say, DC SuperHero Girls. Proceed with caution or jump back to a more lighthearted Halloween Free Comic Friday.

For example, the issue opens with the hanging of a witch, which we've learned to view with skepticism over the years. This story does manage to make a more compelling case for the event than, say, “She turned me into a newt once.”

Hester Beck had been a healer, but she also had a strange effect on animals, with livestock deformed and dying in her vicinity. At least that's what the narration and images tell us. They also say she hoisted a massive skull over her head while performing “strange sermons and baptisms” for the local children. Panel 3 calls into question the reliability of the narrator, who refers to “rumors of blasphemous congress with heinous things out in the woods,” though it shows Hester interacting with a four-eyed bovine creature that calls to mind Shadowoman's statue-mate in “Secret Defenders.” And then we see her crawling on a rooftop with someone else's baby.

Sure, any of that would be alarming but not justification to shoot, stab, hang and set someone on fire.** But that's what the mob does, although they seem to feel somewhat bad about it. Hester remains defiant, promising to return and see them again as she's consumed by the flames.

We jump forward an undetermined amount of time and meet almost-18-year-old Emmy, awakening from what cannot be a run-of-the-mill*** nightmare given the preamble we just finished. She's concerned about “haints” and the foreboding tree she can see out her window that I presume is the one on which Hester finally, allegedly, died. In her dreams, the tree is moving, and it has teeth and a mouth that keeps saying “Lies.”

But Emmy seems like a nice enough young lady, as she excitedly goes to the barn with her father and suggests naming the new calf. Now, I am no expert in the field of agriculture, but I have covered enough county fairs to know naming animals you raise for food isn't necessarily the best idea.

It's an even worse idea when the calf is sick and, oh yeah, there's another one covered in blood with six legs and what appears to be some insides on the outside dead in the barn. It's rather reminiscent of what we saw with Hester.

As Emmy's Pa, Isaac, goes to get a shotgun to put the other calf out of its misery, she cradles the animal's head and, when her father returns...

We learn about a dozen deformed cows and chickens have been born and died on the far. Emmy's Pa assures her “it don't mean anything,” but you and I both know better.

Old Man Riah, a traveling salesman stops by, and when Emmy takes his granddaughter? Niece? Intern? Bernice to look at the new calf, Riah asks about Isaac's apparent recent misfortune and notes that Emmy's “almost of age.” Isaac assures him he hasn't seen any signs, and maybe he hasn't seen all of them, but we know that he knows something weird is going on. Riah says if he's wrong, “that girl will have her vengeance … against each and every one of us.”

The next day, Emmy is walking in the forest when she spots a young boy near a creek. When she tries to speak to him, he takes off deeper into the woods. She follows him into a large patch of thorns, getting cut along the way before finding a huge trail of blood, leading to, well, this...

I mean, I was assuming Isaac and Riah were worried about Emmy being Hester reincarnated or something, and maybe they are, but this suggests she might not be the problem. Which maybe suggests Hester might not have been the problem, or at least the only problem. Sure, she was giving off some creepy vibes, but, again, not a reason to quadruple execute somebody.

We also get a one-page story about a kid getting baptized in Harrow County's Kettle Creek and never coming back up. So that's cheery.

Bunn's writing and Crooks' art make for some rich and unnerving atmosphere. That alone makes me curious about what comes next, even if nothing about the story – yet – grabs me and makes me really want to know what the heck's going on. I'm interested to see if the religious references are anything more than window dressing. I'm not optimistic, but I don't have enough information to make any real determination.

A first issue or jumping-on point is always a good choice for a free promotional comic, but I can't say this one would have convinced me to start buying the series. Seeing if it's available through the library though, I'm going to be checking on that shortly.

* - Which is much more acceptable with comics than regular books.

** - Does the fact that I feel the need to emphasize that say more about me or the state of the world?

*** - I bet there's a mill in Harrow County.