Can has Goblin? Beasts of Burden: Neighborhood Watch One-Shot Review

As Trebuchet can attest to, I often amuse myself to no end anthropomorphizing our dogs. So, although I’m late to the party in learning about the existence of these characters, I knew I had to pick up a copy as soon as I saw the description for Beasts of Burden in the weekly Dark Horse Digital newsletter:

The four-legged occult-investigating team—a heroic gang of dogs and one cat—are doing their best to protect their home, Burden Hill, from a chicken-stealing goblin, a frightful basilisk, and a strange lost herd of sheep!

Beasts of Burden: Neighborhood Watch is actually a collection of three short stories originally printed in Dark Horse Presents #4, 6, & 8 back in 2011.

Food Run sets the stage with Rex (dog) and Orphan (cat) teaming up to take on the aforementioned chicken-stealing goblin. I was immediately drawn into the world by Evan Dorkin’s dialog and Jill Thompson’s beautiful watercolor illustrations. Food Run is fast-paced and action-oriented, and at its conclusion, I couldn’t wait to dig into the rest of the book.

Story Time is my favorite of the three. A wise dog regales some young pups with the tale of a great warrior and his faithful, brave canine companion. Dorkin manages to fit quite a bit of adventure into just a few pages without making the story feeling unruly or rushed; and Thompson elegantly switches from full color illustration to gray wash during this telling of a story within a story.

The View from the Hill is sad and haunting. The sheep that the gang encounters are, as Dark Horse puts it, strange, indeed, and their meeting has quite an effect on the dogs and Orphan. There is plenty of dialog in these panels, however, a lot of emotion is communicated through the faces and eyes of the animals in this third story. The end is sad and leaves you impatient for a follow-up story.

While I was happy to learn that several other Beasts Of Burden short stories have been published over the years and collected into the hardcover Beasts Of Burden: Animal Rites; as well as a Beasts Of Burden/Hellboy one-shot in 2010, all three of these stories immediately made me wish that Dark Horse would turn this into an ongoing series. I intend to contact my local shop ASAP to put both of the above books on order, and I will certainly be keeping an eye out for future Beasts of Burden stories.