Beasts of Burden #2

[suzene.insanejournal.com]

Title: Beasts of Burden #2 - "Lost" (Dark Horse, 2009, 24 pages)
Creators: Evan Dorkin (writing) and Jill Thompson (art)
Availability: On sale now -- Previous installments available online

I wanted to save this for Halloween Week, but...

When last we left the dogs and cats of Burden Hill, the Wise Dogs had taken them under their tutelage and began teaching them the ways of the supernatural. The novices are approached by Hazel, a mother dog desperate to find her puppies, who were kidnapped from their yard.

After a long, fruitless search, the rescuers are directed to search the lake at Devil's Well. Thinking that the puppies might have fallen in and drowned, they perform a summoning...



The puppies communicate through their host that "it took us...it hurt us...it put us in the cold dark with the others...they're so angry...THEY'RE AWAKE NOW! YOU WOKE THEM UP!"








And it gets worse from there...

Good book -- deserves your money.

Comments

[tacobob.insanejournal.com]

Worse? Did they eat any of that pizza!!? Bad dogs! Pizza's not good for the pups!

Hmmm. You don't get enough Jill Thompson. She needs to do more! More!

[suzene.insanejournal.com]

Worse. The last page of this issue is a killer.

[tacobob.insanejournal.com]

I'll have to pick this up the next time I go funny-book shopping. I've always liked Jill Thompson art and of course you got a great writer as well. Shame this doesn't happen in real life. You mess with the pups, you get a doggy version of the Spectre after your ass.

[neuhallidae.insanejournal.com]

I went out and got it today, and Jesus, you weren't kidding about that last page. I had to go hug our doggies.

[suzene.insanejournal.com]

Most horrifically heart-wrenching piece of art I've seen in quite some time. It makes me want to send Jill Thompson scads of praise and my therapy bill.

And yeah, I hear you. My pups got an evening in with an extremely doting owner after I finished this issue.

[jeyl.insanejournal.com]

Forget the pizza. What about the iBook?!

[neuhallidae.insanejournal.com]

Was the kid someone who killed a dog, or is it blind spectral rage at humans in general?

[neuhallidae.insanejournal.com]

Oh, fuck, nevermind. I just took a closer look and saw all the little skulls.

[suzene.insanejournal.com]

The details of that panel are just creepy as hell.

[geoffsebesta.insanejournal.com]

Yes, the world is better off without either that kid or his interior decorator.

[ravenous_raven.insanejournal.com]

...man, that's creepy as all heck. gotta say though: the kid had it coming, even if his end was all gruesome. I actually am more worried for the dogs that got possessed. the tell-tale blood on the muzzles and chests could get them killed, right?

[silverzeo.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, but imagine what it would be for the parents? To find your son dead, being horrible mauled, in his closet, to discover the tags and collars of missing pets, as well as a knife and syringes

[ravenous_raven.insanejournal.com]

oh, of course I feel bad for the parents, I was mainly thinking about the dogs and the kid as protagonists. but yes, the speech bubbles said by the parents were really heartbreaking, it's true (and I didn't look /that/ closely at the closet, so I'll take your word for it ;)).

[silverzeo.insanejournal.com]

Just look at the ontop the shelf in the scene of the kids' body and you will see them... along other things...

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

Next issue: Michael Vick!

[silverzeo.insanejournal.com]

Karma has to bite him back on the ass now that he playing again.

[silverzeo.insanejournal.com]

WOW.... I mean, that kid may have been a psychopath... but what are they going to do next with the the heroes...

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

...Oy. Now THIS is screwed-up stuff. Especially since - and I only JUST noticed this - the dogs are UNpossessed in that last panel. They're going to be dealing with some serious doggy guilt there.

[suzene.insanejournal.com]

Seriously. Check Hazel's expression in the last panel; I think it broke her.

[kagome654.insanejournal.com]

Whoa! Okay, usually I'm not down with fatal retribution (yes, even when it comes to people who hurt/kill animals or other vulnerable beings), but that was an extremely effective scene. I'm gonna have to look into this title.

[suzene.insanejournal.com]

Agreed. One of the reasons this scene works for me is because our protagonists aren't acting under their volition and that they don't consider this a good thing -- this isn't the justice they'd choose, and they're clearly horrified by what they've just been made to do, particularly Hazel, who's been through hell already that night. The other is that there are consequences to the act, so I didn't put the book down feeling that either camp got out unscathed for their actions, though I suspect the full extent of some of it may not be explored until later stories.

[idreading.insanejournal.com]

Interesting. I like this art, and I liked the first issue aside from the last story. (I was expecting a bigger payoff.)

I'm curious how they'll keep this interesting.

[suzene.insanejournal.com]

Though the issues are still largely self-contained, I'm very curious about the training storyline they kicked off last issue. Though the group's tangled with the supernatural before, I think the training under the Wise Dogs has just opened them up to a much deeper, darker level of exposure, and that seems to be the angle kicked off with this issue. I'm curious to see how it'll continue on.

[janegray.insanejournal.com]

I feel conflicted.

On the one hand, the kid so very, very deserved it. Plus, kids who torture animals to death often grow up into adults who do the same to people. Looking at his "trophies", I can easily see him eventually become the next Jeffery Dahmer.

On the other hand, I'm so sick of dead kids in comics. It's a really depressing trend.

[joysweeper.insanejournal.com]

Motto. It's just... yeah, I know, it's supposed to be shocking, but at a certain point a switch gets flipped in your head and you get all cynical about it.

...I think that just happened to me. Yeesh.

[(Anonymous)]

That's really not true. A lot of kids who torture animals grow up to be horrified and ashamed about what they've done. Of course, they don't tend to talk about it much, save to their therapists, so the numbers are a bit skewed towards those who are less discrete in dealing with their issues.

[kaetepixie.insanejournal.com]

I dare say a lot of kids who tortured animals grow up to regret it, or grow up to forget entirely about it... but anyone with an entire locked trophy room full of saved skulls and remains and Lost Pet posters documenting his victims is firmly on the potential serial killer side. Brrr.

[suzene.insanejournal.com]

I kind of agree, but I have more tolerance for it here mostly because, despite the fact that the killing is a horrific act, David isn't really standing in the role of a kid for purposes of the story - he's not the helpless, powerless one. From the POV of the animals, and his victims in particular, he's already hit the Dahmer mark.

The other reason death of kids -- be it David or Ty and Chloe -- doesn't annoy me here as it does when it happens in the Big Two is that this is the first time that things have gotten so grim in this particular fiction. The protagonists are learning that, as much as they think they've had experience with the supernatural, they can still get in way over their heads. For them, this is a scarring experience, whereas if a kid gets horribly mutilated over in X-Force, it's just Tuesday.

[lots42.insanejournal.com]

Holy pie plates! This has got to be the most fucked up thing ever. I must own it.

[greenmask.insanejournal.com]

Ohhwow. Spooky. And very good!