Short or tall
Here's what happens to us all
We go to sleep
We close our eyes
And leave behind a nest of flies.
- Traditional Canine verse
Beasts of Burden just came out in a very nice hardcover that isn't even expensive. Is it on your shelf? No? Why on earth not?
Want to check it out? The first few stories are online at Dark Horse.
The Premise
A group of dogs and one cat live on Burden Hill, a place being increasingly plagued by supernatural happenings.
This isn't your normal talking animal story. It is creepy, it is sad. It is also weird and funny.
The dogs all have different personalities and different breeds to emphasize that. Also of note is that they seem to have their own religion and legends. That being said, sometimes they act like typical dogs, and it never feels so personified they might as well be humans. The comic wouldn't work if they weren't animals.
The Characters
There's a whole slew of interesting charming characters. I happen to like them all.
It does take a while to match er, muzzles to names, but because of the difference in breeds, you always know who is who.
It also subverts expectations a little; the doberman Rex is a coward.
The Art
Jill Thompson, watercolours.
The art is gorgeous, evoking a fairytale feel while having enough leeway to be downright creepy and sometimes gruesome.
The art seals the deal, and the comic wouldn't be half as good without it.
More artists need to use watercolours for the entire comic (I'm looking at you Dustin Nguyen). Just because you can use digital colours for everything doesn't mean you should.
Just as the comic wouldn't be the same without the art, it wouldn't work if it wasn't for the writing.
The Writing
The dialogue is pretty good - all the dogs have individual voices. The plots are all very interesting and unique, the shorter stories and the longer stories are both paced very well, no bits that stick out as unnecessary or overly melodramatic. The narration, something I usually shy away from in this medium, is rather well done.
What really gets me, what's really important - is that you care about the characters. You believe these characters. Some scenes are genuinely heartbreaking or heartwarming, and that counts for a lot. So kudos, Evan Dorkin.
Other
One weird little nitpicky thing I have is with the lettering. The original lettering for the short stories is done by Jill Thompson (I'm pretty sure), and she's pretty decent with lettering. Her lettering has a character to its own that is hard to replicate. I get the feeling she hand-draws it like she does everything else, so it looks awesome. If you look closely at the bolded words you see inconsistencies and gaps that make a rather neat effect. The lettering itself is unique and carries a lot of emotion like everything else in this book.
For the main mini, the lettering changes. I'm assuming this is Jason Arthur here. While it's not bad lettering, per say, it looses a lot of the character and you can tell it was computer made. So for me it's a little jarring. It makes sense that you'd want to lift the burden of the lettering off of Thompson's shoulders, especially considering she's doing the colouring too, but I still miss it.
The extras are few, but neat, and not anything you haven't really seen before in terms of works in progress.
So all in all, Beasts of Burden is a good, unique comic that you really should be reading.
oh wow. that looks like something i'd really like.
ReplyDeletelooking forward to your future recommendations :D