by Elisabeth@TFAW

I admit, when I first heard about Beasts of Burden, I wasn’t too jazzed. A group of pets band together to fight the supernatural forces of evil? Riiigghhht. Then I heard it was written by Evan Dorkin, creator of the savagely subversive (and hilarious) Milk and Cheese series, with painted covers and interiors by Jill Thompson from Invisibles and Hellboy: Weird Tales (and who also gave the funniest acceptance speech at the Eisners this year). Then I read the short stories from the Dark Horse Book of anthology series, as well as Beasts of Burden #1.

I was pretty much completely won over. Beasts of Burden isn’t a kid’s book–this isn’t Milo and Otis Meet a Ghost. The characters are well developed, by turns funny, brave, sorrowful, cowardly, noble, and wise. The stories are creepy. The artwork is gorgeous, skillfully rendering both the sun-filled front yards of the characters’ neighborhood as well as the spooky, ominous shadows of the nearby forest. And the monsters? Gross!!!! In a nutshell: giant carnivorous toad made of lots of little toads. It was awesome!

The best way to see what I’m talking about is to view Beasts of Burden for yourself. To that end, we have a First Look of the first three pages, as well as an exclusive preview of pages four through six right here on this blog! You can also read the earlier short stories right here.

So what do you think? Are you intrigued by a canine/feline-populated horror comic? Have you added Beasts of Burden to your pull list? Post your comments below!