Story Synopsis: Beasts Of Burden Issues 1-4

Beasts of Burden issues 1-4 sees a coalition of dogs and cats taking on all things paranormal in their home town of Burden Hill in this week’s Comic Rewind.

The group of dogs were making their rounds going from house to house talking to their friends.  However, the nice day was ruined when is started to rain. This was not normal rain the sky began to rain frogs.  After a few seconds a hundred frogs littered the ground. The frogs began to eat each other.

All the dogs ran off to tell the others, but when they came back the frogs were gone.  They tracked the frogs into the forest. As the gang made their way deeper into the forest they hear a dog howl.  When they looked for the source they came across a mega frog at least 10 feet tall. It had eaten a cat friend.

The animals showed no fear as they battled the mega frog.  After the frog was defeated they were welcomed into the Wise Dog Society.  However, this is just the start to the weird going ons in Burden Hill.

Beasts of Burden issues 1-4 were written by Evan Dorkin with art by Jill Thompson.  Dark Horse Comics published the issues in 2009 and digitally in 2015.

Comic Rewind Beasts of Burden

Beasts of Burden: Too Many Characters

I really wanted to read more anthropomorphic animals after reading WE3 last week.  This book did not disappoint at all.  These animals had distinct personalities and motivations.  Some of them are very goofy and carefree like some dogs. However, others are brave and noble.

A little problem I had with the comic was just how many characters were introduced.  I counted eight characters in just the first issue and it is not even all of them. It became really difficult to know who was who, but they were all distinct.  However, the amount of characters overloaded me.

Beasts Of Burden Standalone Stories

I don’t believe the story was negatively affected by how many characters are in the comic, but it made it a little bit harder to read.  However, a big problem was I didn’t realize these issues take place right in the middle of the story. These are issues 1-4 and the volumes are not volume 1, 2 or 3.  They are all subtitled and the reader would have to do research in order to find the correct order to read these in.

Each issue is a standalone story set in the bigger framework story.  At first I really liked the way this was set up, but after a while I started to dislike it.  The stories started to be a little too simplistic. I wanted a little bit more of a longer and more advanced story.  A bigger more drawn out threat I think would have added to the story.

Comic Rewind Beasts Of Burden

Loved The Art And Story

I absolutely loved Thompson’s art.  The art is done in a watercolor style and added a lot of beauty to these dark themes.  A human could be torn to shreds, but the panel was beautiful. It is an interesting dichotomy, but it worked well for the comic.

This was a really interesting and well done comic.  I can see this being a Netflix series and doing really well.  The story was dark, but not depressing. All the characters had a strong bond and it was easy to have favorite characters.  This is just perfect for TV or Netflix. My only complaint is I wish the stories took multiple issues to tell.

For this edition of Comic rewind, we give a rating of:

5/5

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