Reviews

Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites by Evan Dorkin

blibrarian's review

5.0

I loved this book. The artwork is gorgeous, the characters engaging and heartfelt, and the stories full of adventure, intrigue and a fair amount of horror—exactly what you'd expect from a good comic. I finished it in less than a day and immediately logged on to Amazon to order my own copy. In some ways it reminds me a little of the Tintin books, which is my all-time favorite comic series; it has the same mix of tongue-in-cheek supernatural "genre savvy" and real adventure (although maybe a bit more gore than Hergé ever dared). I highly recommend this collection.

renee_pompeii's review

3.0

Liked the dialogue, especially Pugs. Some of the stories lacked flow, though.

amyjoy's review

4.0

My review here.

slipperbunny's review

5.0

A wonderful comic book. The characters felt very real to me and it was easy to get in to this comic. There's really nothing bad to say about Beasts of Burden.

rlgpikachu's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

fairislemeadow's review

4.0

This book was hard to stomach at times, especially for one such as myself who has a sensitive constitution. There are A LOT of dead, maimed, drowned, zombie, etc. animals within these pages. But the story was just so good. It was funny, serious, poignant, foreboding, and creepy. Each character had a distinct personality. And the artwork by Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother) is amazing; it manages to be both cute and gruesome, often in the same panel.

Also, it has witch cats.

twyla's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

audbuttrue's review

4.0

Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites was a surprisingly dark, but fun read. I wasn't sure how easy it would be to write a good story about dog paranormal investigation team, but they managed it. Beautiful watercolor illustrations added an interesting tone to the story that I think would have been absent if a more cartoony or too realistic art style was used. Despite the children's storybook look, that is not what this is. The first couple stories were a bit on the light side, but things quickly take a much more serious turn. You could easily review each investigation differently, with some being better than others and with different levels of scariness, humor, or sadness. I liked the unique take on some classic ideas, and I hope that Dorkin will write more in the future to add to the animals' tales.

I do think it is worth noting that a couple of harsh things happen to dogs and while it is not usually pictured too explicitly, it can be a little hard to take. Just worth being aware of before reading.

queersubtext's review

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

lobodepapel's review

4.0

If I where a real four legged wolf, they would be my kind of #SquadGoals <3