Beasts of Burden

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"Oh crap. Looks like stupid's back in season..."

"I can't believe we made it" "What do you think happened to the Getaway Kid?" "I dunno. Maybe he got away. There's a reason they call him that."

A new supernatural horror/adventure comic series from Dark Horse Comics. It follows the residents of Burden Hill, a picturesque small town that seems to attract plenty of paranormal activity. Luckily there is a society whose sole duty is to defend against these various evil forces, with the only catch being that this society is made up of dogs (and one cat).

Originally starting as a series of short comics that were released online and in a few anthologies, it has received it's own limited run, and even got a hardcover Omnibus (hint hint). Written by Evan Dorkin with colors by Jill Thompson, the pacing, art, and script are all top-notch, with it already becoming a popular (if low-profile) new property.

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Tropes used in Beasts of Burden include:

• All Witches Have Cats: At least, the ones seen all had a cat as a Familiar.
• And This Is For
• Animal Stereotypes: A bit, but it's mostly for comedy and the characters have other attributes.
• Anyone Can Die: Or at least a fair few Mauve Shirts can.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Pugs.
• Artifact Title: The Wise Dogs Society became this the moment they let a cat in. Admittedly it is the first time they appear to have done so, and it's mentioned that their numbers are lower than usual.
• Big Ball of Violence
• Cats Have Nine Lives: Metaphorically used, thus far the cats tend to have a higher chance of getting away from the Monster of the Week than the dogs. Personified by "The Getaway Kid", a tomcat who is infamous for this.
• Chekhov's Skill and you thought it was an Informed Ability
• Cowardly Lion: Rex the doberman.
• Crossover: With Hellboy.
• Dark Magical Girl: Dymphna
• Dating Catwoman: Orphan and Dymphna.
• Deadpan Snarker: Orphan. The other characters have their moments too.

"I feel safer already."

• Demonic Possession: The ghost puppies possess our heroes to take brutal vengeance on their murderer.
• Domino Revelation: Ghosts, zombies, vampires, you get the point.
• Everything's Deader with Zombies: The dog zombies.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Orphan, essentially.
• Foreshadowing / Harsher in Hindsight:

Whitey: "W-witches?" Pugs: "Yeah. An' demon cats. An' later we'll have werewolves."

• Fridge Horror: During the Demonic Possession, the dogs break into a house to brutally murder a teenager. At first you're horrified that freaking animal children would want to do such a thing...but take a close look at the teenager's collection of animal skulls and collars...
• Functional Magic
• Gory Discretion Shot: Used in concert with Nothing Is Scarier
• Heel Face Turn: Possibly Dymphna, in an Anti-Hero kinda way...
• Heroes-R-Us: The Wise Dogs Society, though it's a volunteer thing, and seems to have been around for a while
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Plenty in the comic itself, and almost every issue title and the series title is.
• In Medias Res
• Magnetic Plot Device: The town itself, for reasons yet to be revealed. Fanon has posited a Hell Gate situation, considering the nature of a lot of the events, but it's still not very clear.
• Mauve Shirt
• My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: Or in Orphan's case, his first three did.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Rex does a Big Damn Heroes to save the Orphan from a cat goddess, but at the time he was supposed to be keeping an eye on a captured witch-familiar cat. The cat escapes while he's off saving the day and causes them a lot of trouble later on.
• Nothing Is Scarier
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Very. Silver bullets still work though.
• Rodents of Unusual Size: Rat King included.
• Scenery Porn: Perhaps not intentional, but Jill Thompson's watercolors are pure eye candy.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Rex does this a few times, fitting in with his Cowardly Lion status. Pugs suggests this very often, but doesn't actually follow through.
• Sixth Ranger: All of the cats who get mixed up with the Wise Dogs are regarded as this. and then there's Dymphna
• The Masquerade: With the animals for the humans
• The Obi-Wan: Any Wise Dog
• The War Has Just Begun: At the end of issue four.
• Urban Fantasy
• Xenofiction: With admitted doses of anthropomorphism, it's still a good example of the genre.
• X Meets Y: Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the cast made up of Intellectual Animals.
  • Or Hairy Maclary meets Supernatural.