The Low, Low Woods #4 Review

Writer: Carmen Maria Machado
Artist: Dani
Colors: Tamra Bonvillain
Letters: Steve Wands
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 18th, 2020

In the last issue Vee met with the town witch to get a potion that would make her and El forget that they forgot what happened in the movie theater, we found out that her girlfriend Jessica's mother has become a permanent sinkhole, and that the Vee and El have some sort of linked up physical connection. And it ended with the hand of one of those skinless men coming out of Jessica's mother's sinkhole.

This issue starts with a little more history on the two girls when they were younger. They were inseparable (as they are now) but every once in awhile they would get into little fights and not talk to each other (as they are now) but it would never last long and they'd get back together as best friends again (as is about to happen again). But one time when they were going through a spat, Vee hurt her right leg and got a huge scar. When they got back together, El had the same scar but on the left leg. She said she has no idea where it came from, it just appeared one day, but the dad blamed the dog.

Cut to present day (errr, 1995) and Vee is getting head from Jessica at Jessica's house, while El masturbates in her own bedroom with her Walkman playing. This started in the last issue and in that one you get the sense that Vee could almost hear the music that El was playing. After they're done, Vee leaves Jessica's house and El leaves her house, and they just naturally find each other on the street and hug and make up. They go back to El's house and have dinner with El's parents.

El's father is into making models and Vee notices that he has a model of Heaven on Earth, the old abandoned resort that the kids in town party at, but she notices a little shed on the model that she doesn't remember seeing there. El's dad says it was a pool maintenance shed where employees used to go to make out, just like himself and El's mother did. There's quite a bit of focus on this so it has to be important.

Later, the girls are hanging out in El's room and Vee's like "It straight-up smells like pussy in here" so they open a window to air out the room and start to talk about all the weird stuff happening. The movie theater, skinless men coming out of sinkholes, and whether or not they should take the witch's potion. Of course El does her best thinking while listening to Philip Glass and wearing a chandelle boa (because who doesn't?) so they pop the cassette tape in and she dawns the boa.

But then they're interrupted by El's dog barking at something outside the window. It's a herd of the skinless men rushing to the window to get to them! One of them gets his arm into the window so El slams the window on his arm, stabs it with her knife, and is able to close it. They're just swarming the outside of the house and suddenly the sound that the deer lady was making in the first issue comes from the woods, and the deer lady comes out and starts slaughtering the skinless men.

Now, for some reason El's dad is completely unaware of this while he lights up a cigarette on the porch. The deer lady sees him after she's taken care of business, she runs over to him, and it looks like she impales him. El runs to her dad and they get him into the car so her mom can rush him to the hospital. Her mom tells her "you know what you have to do".

What does she have to do? Go to the witch's house and call in a favor.

Bits and Pieces

I love the art style of this book because it just has this feel of a 90's indy comic to me. I wish Dani had more scenes like what you just saw in the previews to draw for it, because that just looks siiiiiiick.

Although I've liked this series overall, I haven't given a real glowing score to any of the individual issues yet. They've usually been in the 7's, meanwhile making it clear that it'll probably make for an excellent trade when collected all together. Well, this issue was the best issue of the series so far. It's got some messed up stuff like deer women slaughtering skinless men, and your understanding of the bond between the two girls is strengthened to the point where these are two characters that you genuinely care about, and a new question pops up: how did the witch owe El's mother a favor? Oh! Speaking of skinless men, those skinless men had to have come from Jessica's house. I'm not sure Jessica is still alive.

8.5/10