Harrow County, Vol. 1

Content notes for body horror, lynching a witch, guts, and harm to animals.

As a horror comic it is perhaps unsurprising that violence and gore are a few notches higher then is usual for me. There is a certainly level of fascination and detail given to the blood and guts and every opportunity to have a character without skin and/or blood spattered everywhere is taken. That said, I didn't feel like Harrow County was trying to be the MOST grossest book I ever read or MOST violent or anything like that. But that is certainly not an objective observation.

What kinds of keywords came to mind reading this first volume of Harrow County? horror, isolation, guts, cult, wilderness, healing, escape, discovery, community, New England, control, and witches.

Writing wise... Looking through the negative reviews, it would seem that some people are tired of New England kill the witches plots. Which is fair, it's a heavily used point in history. Of course the only reason that I'm not particularly burned out on this sort of story is because I don't tend to read them. Which could have gone either way, but combined with the fact that it hit me (perhaps not objectively so) as a million times less offensive then Locke & Key Volume One: Welcome to Lovecraft. Which stomps on poor, disabled, and queer people to hold up an ideal white heteronormative family/bloodline... It's not that hard to be better then that in my books.

Stylistically, I will admit that the character designs weren't my favourite initially. There's certainly nothing wrong with it technically speaking though, so I eventually settled into it a bit more. The faces were just odd. But perhaps that can also be chalked up as part of the ambiance. I did enjoy the colour scheme and colouring technique.

I was a bit surprised by how much of the book was end notes. Overall a very fast read for sure.

Looking at the different identities intersecting in Harrow County.

Gender was one of the first things to jump out at me. Centering a young woman coming of age in a rural town; learning there's something everyone else knows that they aren't telling you. I appreciated how active and unsexualized Emmy is. Overwhelmed by an onslaught of new information, she keeps moving, adapting, and overcoming.

And overall sexuality has been pretty much a moot point so far with no character appearing to (at least currently) be in a romantic and/or sexual relationship with anyone else? Sexuality is one of those few things where it can be good both if you either include diverse and/or marginalized identities or can actually scrub out all representation entirely. The issue for me at least is mostly around only representing heterosexuality, particularly if it's held up as the default/norm.

Race saw a bit of diversity with a Black father and daughter in the small new england town. Digging a bit into what exactly a haint was, it was really interesting to read about the ways that it is intertwined in Gullah Geechee culture. As a side note, I would definitely recommend anyone who isn't already familiar with Gullah people do a deep dive on their history and culture.

Bodies, apparently normative or aberrant, feel like they are fairly central to at least the ambience of Harrow County. Like so many horror stories. Check back in with me for the series wrap-up for more thoughts on that.

Class felt the most ignored.

Wrapping things up. I do in fact enjoy horror comics, it's just hard sometimes to find the right kind that aren't just perpetuating stigma against marginalized people. That's literally all I ask, and to be fair so far Harrow County has delivered. I will be continuing with this series. Four stars.