History ComicBook / ThroughTheWoods

* BlameTheParamour: A young woman is put into an ArrangedMarriage with a rich man, but soon discovers that the man [[TheBluebeard murdered his first wife, cut her to pieces, and then scattered the pieces throughout the manor]]. The second wife gathers all the pieces of the second wife and ties them together with string, at which point the first wife [[CameBackWrong comes back to life]] as a RevenantZombie and attacks the second wife, calling the second wife a usurper. Fortunately the second wife barely manages to escape and the first wife then turns her anger on the husband who killed her.
-->'''First Wife:''' I gave my love everything... and he cut off my hands. Do you think he loves ''you'' now? Think you've usurped ''my'' role? When I've torn you to pieces girl, then I'll be whole.

* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: The man with the wide-brimmed hat never appears in-person, only showing his hat, arms, and hands, to create an aura of foreboding and build up tension as to what his true intentions for the girls are. [[spoiler:Fortunately, he's actually a very nice man who is implied to be TheGrimReaper ushering the girls' souls to the after life.]]

* BigSisterInstinct: Beth [[spoiler:is convinced that Mary was taken away by the man with the wide-brimmed hat, and searches for her all over the house. Unfortunately, while she's busy looking for Mary, the man with the wide-brimmed hat takes Hannah, too]].

* DarkIsNotEvil: From what little is shown, the man with the wide-brimmed hat and a toothy smile who haunts the three sisters is dressed in black, including his hat. [[spoiler:He's also implied to be TheGrimReaper who comes to take the girls into the afterlife after they die during a snowstorm. Both Mary and Hannah say kind words about him, and are cheered by his presence, and furthermore he is seen tenderly hugging Hannah when he takes her. Beth is afraid of the man at first, but she accepts him putting his hat on her head when they meet at the neighbor's house, possibly symbolizing her accepting that she's dead and is now able to reunite with her dead family]].

* SignatureHeadgear: The strange man who haunts the three girls is frequently described as having a wide-brimmed hat, but little else. [[spoiler:It's used to imply that the man is [[TheGrimReaper something else]], as once it's described by others or shows up on-screen, someone is going to die]]. At the end, [[spoiler:Beth accepts the strange man planting his hat on her head, symbolizing her acceptance that she is dead and is able to reunite with her dead family]].

* NoEnding: [[spoiler:Bell manages to save herself and stop Rebecca from stealing her body with some quick thinking and TalkingTheMonsterToDeath, but afterwards when her brother Clarence is driving her to the train to leave their house, she suddenly sees that he has been taken over by the same parasites inside Rebecca. The story abruptly ends there. Is "Clarence" is aware that she's noticed the truth? What are the long-term implications for Bell? Will "Clarence" talk "Rebecca" into revisiting the plan to steal more hosts for the "children" and move into the city or stay out in the countryside? If Bell gets away, will she try to take any action against them to stop more people from getting taken over? It's all left up to your imagination.]]

** Much of the story in "A Lady's Hands Are Cold" takes place in an extravagant mansion that is isolated by the surrounding forest. However, the trope is reversed: [[spoiler:The danger takes place inside the mansion itself, which is haunted. At the end, in trying to evade her husband's first wife, now a vengeful corpse hellbent on having the husband all to herself, the second wife flees the mansion and into the surrounding woods where she is safe, though understandably traumatized. The husband, meanwhile, returns home from a hunting trip in the woods to find the first wife he killed waiting for him, and he is gruesomely murdered]].

* DeathByWomanScorned: [[spoiler:The husband dies at the hands of his first wife, who is furious with him for murdering her and became violently possessive of him after her death. It also counts as a KarmicDeath]].

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The protagonist, a young woman in an ArrangedMarriage, finds pieces of her husband's murdered first wife concealed all over the house. [[spoiler:Wife #2 reassembles Wife #1, which Wife #2 (and the reader) assumes to be what the corpse wants. Unfortunately, now that she's reassembled, Wife #1's first goal is to kill Wife #2 so she can have her husband all to herself.]]

* TheyWouldCutYouUp: [[spoiler:Bell tells the monster that its children would be at danger of this (among other things) if they went to live in the city. This leaves the monster so afraid that it changes its mind and decides to stay away from the city to protect its children]].

* {{Mundanger}}: All of the stories have at least elements of the supernatural and/or monster dangers, but it's often much more mundane dangers that are less focused upon that are actually the biggest threats to the protagonists.
** "Our Neighbor's House" spends a lot of time and energy on the mysterious man with the wide brimmed hat, but the real danger to the children was lack of food supplies, the cold, and the snow storms that cut them off from possible safety/rescue. This goes double if you believe the implication that [[spoiler:the man with the hat is in fact TheGrimReaper, and only shows up to collect the children [[DeadAllAlong after they are already dead]].]]

** In "His Face All Red", the monster turns out to be an ordinary wolf, and the only thing the older brother had to worry about was his own younger brother, who would be willing to commit murder out of sheer envy and anger at being humiliated.
** "My Friend Janna" has a mysterious ghost (if it isn't something else entirely), but is primarily about a best friend having a mental breakdown and being unable to help them in any way. All of Janna's behaviors and eventual [[spoiler:death or disappearance]] has many of the hallmarks of someone becoming suicidal.

** In "His Face All Red", the monster turns out to be ordinary wolf, and the only thing the older brother had to worry about was his own younger brother, who would be willing to commit murder out of sheer envy and anger at being humiliated.

* RedIsViolent: A recurring motif in the series. Whenever the color red appears, especially in great quantities, it's usually a sign of approaching danger and death. Curiously, nearly all the characters in the various stories are depicted with a permanent blush.

* {{Irony}}: When thinking of the people who come to see her and Janna, Yvonne is disdain of them because of how much emotional energy they spend on dead people, who can no longer appreciate it and for whom it does no good. At the end, [[spoiler:after Janna has possibly been killed and her body disappears, Yvonne is clearly thinking and feeling about Janna in a very similar way. It's implied that it's this kind of outpouring of energy that allows the "ghost" to haunt her. Furthermore, Yvonne had been growing increasingly distant from Janna before her disappearance. As soon as Janna disappears, Yvonne shows much more passion about her friend.]]

* SanitySlippage: Much of the story consists of Janna gradually having a mental and emotional breakdown, much to the horror of Yvonne, who can think of no way to help. complete with a [[RoomFullOfCrazy Diary Full of Crazy]].

* {{Irony}}: At one point when thinking of the people who come to see her and Janna, Yvonne marvels at how much emotional energy they spend on people who can no longer appreciate it and for whom it does no good. At the end, [[spoiler:after Janna has possibly been killed and her body disappeared, Yvonne thinks about how Janna will always be her friend. It's implied that it's this kind of outpouring of energy that allows the "ghost" to haunt her. Furthermore, Yvonne had been growing increasingly distant from Janna before her disappearance. As soon as Janna disappears, Yvonne shows much more passion about her friend.]]

* SanitySlippage: Janna is gradually losing her grip on reality, complete with a [[RoomFullOfCrazy Diary Full of Crazy]].

* AdultFear: Multiple stories feature characters who, supernatural elements aside, are put in horrible situations that could happen in real life, such as [[spoiler:weather disasters, marrying someone who turns out to be a despicable killer, and dealing with a close friend's increasing madness]].

* AdultFear: Three young girls are living alone in their parents' house during a heavy snowstorm [[spoiler:after their father died while hunting in the forests outside]], and they are faced with the decision of either staying put at home or braving the harsh cold to travel to a neighbor's house for safety. Not only that, a strange man with a wide-brimmed hat is haunting them for some reason. [[spoiler:Beth, the middle-born sister, is convinced the strange man kidnapped her sisters after losing both Mary and Hannah in quick succession, and once they're gone, she has to make the dangerous trek alone. Then it turns out the neighbor also died sometime before]].

* AdultFear: The second wife's marriage is quite the ordeal. [[spoiler:Her husband turns out to be a murderer who killed his first wife so he could have her wealth for himself, and the first wife's body is then cut up and hidden in various places all over the mansion the second wife now lives in]].

* AdultFear: Most of the story consists of Yvonne watching her best friend and closest companion slowly deteriorate and suffer a mental breakdown, and Yvonne has no idea how to help. Worse yet, Janna makes an unusual outreach for help, showing up at Yvonne's window late one night, only for a tired Yvonne to turn her away, and then Janna disappears. The parallels with a friend becoming suicidal and then actually committing suicide are pretty clear.

* TheBluebeard: The premise of the story draws on the legend of Bluebeard. [[spoiler:After an ArrangedMarriage, the second wife finds pieces of the first wife hidden all over the house (the husband's DarkSecret), then reassembles her. However, instead of the husband attacking like in Bluebeard, it's the first wife, [[UngratefulBastard who is not as grateful to someone restoring her as one might expect]].]]

* BigBrotherInstinct: Beth [[spoiler:is convinced that Mary was taken away by the man with the wide-brimmed hat, and searches for her all over the house. Unfortunately, while she's busy looking for Mary, the man with the wide-brimmed hat takes Hannah, too]].

** In "The Nesting Place", [[spoiler:the monster (who is [[BodySnatcher possessing Rebecca]]) twists Rebecca's face into all sorts of horrible shapes, even stretching it back until Rebecca's face is nothing but a gigantic open mouth with worms inside full of 'teeth', all while stating her intentions to have her children possess Bell so they can move to the city]]. At the end of the story, [[spoiler:Clarence, Bell's brother, is revealed to have been possessed by the parasitic worms as well]].

** Teeth figure prominently in many of the stories, and the artwork (especially when people are eating), often associates them with blood and violence. In "The Nesting Place", [[spoiler:the monster (who is [[BodySnatcher possessing Rebecca]]) twists Rebecca's face into all sorts of horrible shapes, even stretching it back until Rebecca's face is nothing but a gigantic open mouth with worms inside full of 'teeth', all while stating her intentions to have her children possess Bell so they can move to the city]].
** Hands appear in a few stories, associated with action and/or the true nature of a character. "Our Neighbor's House" has the hat-wearing man's long, almost bony hands and fingers, [[spoiler:which heavily imply that he's actually TheGrimReaper in disguise]].
*** In "A Lady's Hands Are Cold";one of the first wife's dismembered body parts is her desiccated hands/fingers, which later [[spoiler:reach out to the second wife with intention to kill her upon being reassembled]]. A bloody handprint later appears on a window, [[spoiler:which belongs to the husband as he is brutally murdered by his dead first wife, whom he murdered to inherit her wealth and mansion]].

* BraidsOfAction: Beth wears her hair in braids, and is seen braiding them herself [[spoiler:after losing Mary to the man with the wide-brimmed hat]]. She's depicted as [[OnlySaneMan the most reasonable of her sisters]], looking out for their well-being and trying to convince them it is better to go to the neighbor's house for safety, rather than stay at home where supplies are dwindling.

* ColorMotif:
**

* DeadAllAlong: One possible interpretation of the story. [[spoiler:The winter cold and lack of food killed all of the girls sometime between when their father left and when Beth makes a last ditch effort to travel to their neighbor's house. The story then consists of the girls accepting one by one that they are dead before the man with the wide-brimmed hat (in other words, TheGrimReaper) can collect them and help them to move on (notably, the narration does say that on the third day after their father left all three girls are hit by "a strange lethargy", and did little to nothing that day, which would be consistent with symptoms of hypothermia).]]

** Teeth figure prominently in many of the stories, and the artwork (especially when people are eating), often associates them with blood and violence.
** Hands appear in a few stories, associated with action and/or the true nature of a character. "Our Neighbor's House" has the hat-wearing man's long, almost bony hands and fingers, [[spoiler:which heavily imply that he's actually TheGrimReaper in disguise]]. Hands are featured more prominently in "A Lady's Hands Are Cold"; one of the first wife's dismembered body parts is her desiccated hands/fingers, which later [[spoiler:reach out to the second wife with intention to kill her upon being reassembled]]. A bloody handprint later appears on a window, [[spoiler:which belongs to the husband as he is brutally murdered by his dead first wife, whom he murdered to inherit her wealth and mansion]].

* ChildrenAreInnocent: Hannah is the youngest of the three sisters. Unlike Mary, who sunk into denial [[spoiler:following their father's death]], and Beth, who is concerned for everyone's safety, Hannah is a poor kid who doesn't really understand what's going on.

* RedIsHeroic: Beth is the middle-born daughter who wears red clothes, and the story is narrated from her perspective.

* ChekhovsGag: Done for very dark/ironic comedy. When Clarence first picks up Bell, he talks about going swimming in the ponds and creeks in the area. When Bell protests about getting leeches doing that, Clarence jokes about how a leech is just a friend you haven't met yet. [[spoiler:Clarence's fiancee Rebecca, whom he wants Bell to be friends with, is actually a parasite living inside a skin suit pretending to be human, and came from a pool of water inside a cave]]. And as the last page of the story reveals, [[spoiler:another of these parasites has taken over Clarence's body.]]

* CreepyLongFingers: The tree branches resemble long, grasping fingers which appear to be reaching toward the tiny figure crossing the field.

* TheBluebeard: The premise of the story draws on the legend of Bluebeard. [[spoiler:After an ArrangedMarriage, the second wife finds pieces of the first wife hidden all over the house, then reassembles her. [[UngratefulBastard The first wife is not as grateful as one might expect]].]]

** Much of the story in "A Lady's Hands Are Cold" takes place in an extravagant mansion that is isolated by the surrounding forest. However, the trope is reversed: [[spoiler:The danger takes place inside the mansion itself, and the mansion is haunted. At the end, in trying to evade her husband's first wife, now a vengeful corpse hellbent on having the husband all to herself, the second wife flees the mansion and into the surrounding woods where she is safe, though understandably traumatized. The husband, meanwhile, returns home from a hunting trip in the woods to find the first wife he killed waiting for him, and he is gruesomely murdered]].

* DeadAllAlong: One possible interpretation of the story. [[spoiler:The winter cold and lack of food killed all of the girls sometime between when their father left and when Beth makes a last ditch effort to travel to their neighbor's house. The story then consists of the girls accepting one by one that they are dead before the man with the wide-brimmed hat (in other words, TheGrimReaper) can collect them and help them to move on. (Notably, the narration does say that on the third day after their father left all three girls are hit by "a strange lethargy", and did little to nothing that day, which would be consistent with symptoms of hypothermia.)]]

* HiddenEyes: As she [[spoiler:flees the wrath of the first wife's corpse, the second wife is now drawn with her eyes being replaced with creepy eyeshadows. This, combining with her previously immaculate hair coming undone, represents her trauma over her near-experience and learning of the history between her husband and his first wife]].

* VomitIndiscretionshot: Happens at the end of the story: [[spoiler:After managing to evade being killed by the first wife's vengeful corpse, the second wife flees the mansion and listens to her husband's dying screams as he meets a bloody end at the hands of first wife, whom he murdered years before. The sheer fright and trauma of the ordeal understandably causes the second wife to vomit on-panel]].

** Hands appear in a few stories as well, associated with action and/or the true nature of a character. "Our Neighbor's House" has the hat-wearing man's long, almost bony hands and fingers, [[spoiler:which heavily imply that he's actually TheGrimReaper in disguise]]. Hands are featured more prominently in "A Lady's Hands Are Cold"; one of the first wife's dismembered body parts is her desiccated hands/fingers, which later [[spoiler:reach out to the second wife with intention to kill her upon being reassembled]]. A bloody handprint later appears on a window, [[spoiler:which belongs to the husband as he is brutally murdered by his dead first wife, whom he murdered to inherit her wealth and mansion]].

* NiceHat: The strange man who haunts the three girls is frequently described as having a wide-brimmed hat, but little else. [[spoiler:It's used to imply that the man is [[TheGrimReaper something else]], as once it's described by others or shows up on-screen, someone is going to die]]. At the end, [[spoiler:Beth accepts the strange man planting his hat on her head, symbolizing her acceptance that she is dead and is able to reunite with her dead family]].

* AdultFear: All stories feature characters that, supernatural elements aside, are put in horrible situations that would likely equally terrifying if they happened in real life, such as [[spoiler:weather disasters, marrying someone who turns out to be a despicable killer, having family members killed and replaced with imposters, and dealing with a close friend's increasing madness]].

* AdultFear: The second wife's marriage is quite the ordeal. [[spoiler:Her husband turns out to be a murderer who killed his first wife so he could have her wealth for himself, and the first wife's body is then cut up and hidden in various places all over the mansion the second wife now lives in. Out of pity, the second wife collects the body parts and reassembles them... only to find the first wife has become a violently possessive woman since her death and tries to kill the second wife for "replacing" her. The second wife barely manages to flee to safety, and her near-death experience, combined with listening to the dying screams of her husband from outside as he's brutally killed by the first wife, trauamtizes her enough to make her vomit]].

* AdultFear: Inverted. The story focuses on Bell, an adolescent girl, as she deals with [[spoiler:foreign invaders who killed and impersonated her older brother Clarence and his wife, Rebecca. Bell is able to deal with "Rebecca" by terrifying her into leaving her alone, but she doesn't know what happened to "Clarence" until he starts eating and his teeth start moving strangely...]]

* RedIsHeroic: Beth is the middle-born daughter who wears red clothes, and the story is narrated from her prespective.

* HumanoidAbomination: [[spoiler:The man who haunts the three girls is described with minimal detail, his only traits
being his wide-brimmed hat and his toothy smile, and only his arms are ever seen in the art. However, when Beth finally sees him she says that you can tell with only a glance at him that he isn't a man. The ending implies that he's actually TheGrimReaper (though a [[DontFearTheReaper pretty nice one]]) who has come to usher the girls into the afterlife after they all die during a harsh snowstorm]].

* BodyMotifs: Teeth figure prominently in many of the stories, and the artwork (especially when people are eating), often associates them with blood and violence.

** In "Our Neighbor's House", the girls' father leaves for the woods to go hunting, instructing that they leave for their neighbor's house if he doesn't come back in three days. [[spoiler:Sure enough, he doesn't return, having died of the extreme cold]].

* HumanoidAbomination: [[spoiler:The man who haunts the three girls is described with minimal detail, his only traits being his wide-brimmed hat and his toothy smile, and only his arms are ever seen in the art. However, when Beth finally sees him she says that you can tell with only a glance at him that he isn't a man. The ending implies that he's actually TheGrimReaper (though a [[DontFearTheReaper pretty nice one]]) who has come to usher the girls into the afterlife after they all die during a harsh snowstorm]].

* BreakTheCutie: Happens to the second wife. [[spoiler:Being nearly killed by the vengeful corpse of the first wife and listening to her husband's dying screams as he is gruesomely murdered by the first wife leaves the second wife with quite a bit of trauma. This is symbolized by her eyes turning into creepy dark eyeshadows and her previously immaculate hairstyle coming undone by the end]].

* KarmicDeath: It's heavily implied that [[spoiler:the husband took his first wife for granted and then murdered her to have her wealth and mansion all to himself. He eventually dies a gruesome death at the hands of his first wife after his second wife reassembles her dismembered corpse, the first wife having become violently possessive of the husband after death]].

* ReplacementGoldfish: [[spoiler:The murdered first wife believes the second wife replaced her as lover of her husband and rightful owner of the mansion. She tries to murder the second wife, but fortunately the second wife manages to flee]].

* EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce: The story features a version of Red Riding Hood (implied to be a semi-autobiographical of Carroll herself as a child.) The girl passes through the woods without incident to her mother's house, and as she's settling down to sleep she remarks that she knew the wolf wouldn't find her.

* {{Irony}}: At one point when thinking of the people who come to see her and Janna, Yvonne marvels at how much emotional energy they spend on people who can no longer appreciate it and for whom it does no good. At the end, [[spoiler:after Janna has possibly been killed and her body disappeared, Yvonne thinks about how Janna will always be her friend. It's implied that it's this kind of outpouring of energy that allows the "ghost" to haunt her. Furthermore, Yvonne had been growing increasingly distant from Yvonne before her disappearance. As soon as Janna disappears, Yvonne shows much more passion about her friend.]]

''Through the Woods'' is a collection of horror comics by Creator/EmilyCarroll.