Review: Beasts of Burden

Let's get my bias out of the way: I like stories with talking animals. I was predisposed to like Beasts of Burden. I don't like scary stories, so I usually don't like horror comics.

But when I saw issue number 2 on sale at the comic store, with Evan Dorkin as writer, and Jill Thompson as illustrator, I immediately went to the back issue bin to find number 1. Bought them both, love them both.

The premise: A group of dogs and a cat band together to be the occultic protectors of a small town.

The review: Dorkin and Thompson do such a wonderful job of pulling you in. The characters are funny, and they have clear personalities based on their breeds, like a war movie. The art is a pleasant watercolor. There's banter, and then the horror clicks on. You can see the formula, but it's still so fresh.

Issue 1 was sort of weird, featuring a rain of frogs. A corgie. A character dies. Issue 2 was fantastically macabre. I was totally suckered by the horror of that story. I still think about it.

You can read the short stories where these characters debuted online at the Dark Horse Comics site. It's worth a few minutes to read.

you can also read the first 10 pages of issue 1 at the Dark Horse site.

Then go buy the comic to support this great thing.