Broken Frontier

Burden Hill is the stereotypical Norman Rockwell town which just happens to be home to a rather atypical band of ghosthunters. A group of talking dogs and cats comprise the team called the Beasts of Burden Hill. Rex, Ace, Red and the rest of the gang are anthropomorphized in their ability to talk and personalities, but otherwise resemble the cute dogs and cats you might find on Hallmark greeting cards. The amazing juxtaposition of cute pets with the supernatural theme storyline is not only charming, it is mind blowing.

Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson are not content to merely toss out an amazing concept and traffic on its originality. The story draws on the Biblical imagery of a plague of frogs and transforms it into a paranormal menace at once disgusting and strange. Essential to the narrative and the concept in general is the camaraderie and loyalty of the “Beasts” and their character interaction is priceless. Many characters are introduced here, so an initial reading is a little overwhelming in terms of learning the players, but subsequent readings reveal how much tremendous development is packed into a standard twenty-two pages.

Thompson’s artwork is fully painted in watercolor, and every panel is a work of art. I have a general bias against painted comics because they usually tackle subject matter ill suited to full painted treatment, but not so here. The picturesque setting of Burden Hill comes alive in the lush greens of her palette. The pets are not caricatures, but rather realistic renditions of the various breeds, but she still manages to pull out believable expressions from them, mostly through the eyes. Dorkin provides her with some grisly stuff to flex her artistic muscle, and she is well up to the task.

One of the main complaints I have about painted comics is the lettering usually feels “pasted” on top of the paintings and feels unnatural. Letterer Jason Arthur relieves some of this pressure by using a lower case font and not perfect computer ellipse word balloons. The lettering is organic and fits in with the artwork giving the entire book and incredible graphic quality. A perfect artistic package.

It is hard to do this comic justice with a prose description. Suffice it to say that you owe it to yourself to buy it and see for yourself the wonderful creation that is Beasts of Burden.