Pets & the Supernatural-Beasts Of Burden Review
Dogs & Cat Confront Otherworldly Horror in Comic Mini-Series
Nov 8, 2009
Beasts Of Burden is a mini-series six years in the making. Comics humorist and horror fan Evan Dorkin wanted to write a haunted doghouse story. Teaming with Scary Godmother creator Jill Thompson, that short story became the Eisner award-winner Stray. Three more short sequels, one another Eisner winner, appeared in several Dark Horse Comics supernatural anthologies over the years. Now Dorkin & Thompson bring back the stories’ pet paranormal guardians for a four-issue mini-series.
A Successful Mix of Animal Fantasy and Horror
The stories are set in the rural and seemingly bucolic community of Burden Hill. In this place and the world at large, there is a secret society of dogs dedicated to protecting their communities from supernatural menaces. Burden Hill currently has no wise dogs, as these protectors are known. Instead, the otherworldly perils that visit this community are held at bay by the bravery of five ordinary dogs and a cat.
Beasts of Burden works as a plausible extension of observed pet behavior. Pet owners are familiar with the occasional sight of their dog or cat staring attentively at apparently empty air. Dorkin merely supplies a rationale for that behavior. Having dogs become protectors against supernatural occurrences only expands on their roles as defenders of human home and hearth. One wonders what motivates the cat to fight supernatural menaces, though.
New readers can easily jump into Dorkin and Thompson’s world with these first two issues. The basic set-up is explained quickly and the background details don’t detract from enjoyment of the current story. Thompson’s painted animal protagonists move like their real-life counterparts. Yet she also manages to give her dogs and cats facial expressions via a plausible curve of the mouth here or a change in the eye shape there.
Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer But With Pets
Beasts of Burden’s closest aesthetic predecessor would have to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy’s Hellmouth and Beasts’ as yet unknown evil force both draw supernatural menaces to a supposedly peaceful environment. Both series smoothly and plausibly glides their story’s tone from humor to drama to horror and back. Yet Dorkin and Thompson’s animal characters don’t utter pop culture one-liners. Beasts’ violence feels more brutal and graphic than anything Buffy allowed for.
Dorkin and Thompson’s ace in the hole is their dialing down of reader sentimentality regarding dogs and cats. The writer may mention a puppy’s landing in cow manure while chasing a squirrel. But his pets display predominantly human behavior occasionally expressed in animal terms. The breeds of Thompson’s pets may be easily identifiable. Yet visually playing up the animals’ cuteness would undercut the story’s plausible shifts from drama to horror.
Catching Up On Beasts Of Burden
Publisher Dark Horse Comics is running Beasts Of Burden as an experiment. If sales of these four issues warrant further tales of Ace, Rex, Jack, Whitey, Orphan, and Pugs, then more issues will be forthcoming. One hopes that scenario comes to pass. Beasts offers a unique slant on the horror genre. (For readers interested in reading Beasts, the comics company has made available online several of the earlier tales and samples of the new miniseries.)
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