Patrick Horvath Said “Emphatically Yes” To The ‘DC K.O.’/’Beneath the Trees’ Crossover

Newly-minted Harvey Award winner Patrick Horvath had no hesitation when DC asked to use Samantha — his fan-favorite character from Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees — for their increasingly wacky crossover event DC K.O.. Horvath, who picked up his award on Friday night (October 10), was still riding high on the fun-but-baffling DC K.O. news, which had been announced earlier that day at the Jim Lee & Friends panel at New York Comic Con.

In spite of being generally perceived as the creator-owned and more “arty” comic book creator behind Beneath the Trees and Free For All, Horvath has worked with DC previously, contributing an Adam Strange story to DC Horror Presents #1 in October 2024.

“They had asked, and I said, ’emphatically, yes. That would be wonderful,'” Horvath told Comic Book Club during an appearance at New York Comic Con.

Asked whether he thought Samantha might make the jump from comics to something like a mobile game or an Injustice sequel, Horvath said he was open to it if DC was.

“I don’t even know! The sky’s the limit; I have no idea,” Horvath said.

That might sound ridiculous, but remember: Warner Bros. and DC are not only bringing Mortal Kombat‘s Sub-Zero into the DC KO storyline, but have brought characters like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into Injustice.

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees has been described as what happens when you throw Dexter Morgan into The Berenstain Bears. It centers on Samantha, an adorable, anthropomorphic bear who feels herself compelled to kill, in spite of the idyllic small-town community of animals in which she lives. A second volume, Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring, launched earlier this year.

A third volume of Horvath’s Harvey-winning Beneath the Trees series was also announced at New York Comic Con, cementing his relationship with IDW through 2027, but Horvath isn’t exclusive there; he could, theoretically, write or draw something elsewhere… If he ever has time. Samantha, after all, is an unmerciful taskmaster.

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