Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Mike sez: you gotta check out Beasts of Burden

Beasts of Burden by Evan Dorkin & Jill Thompson

You need to read this--seriously, it's that easy of a review to read, just go out, find the book in our library and sit down and read it. You will thank me for it.

What, that's not enough? All right, all right--for those of you who don't follow my recommendations with blind obedience, here's a quick run-down of the book: this is a world where a band of dogs and one cat (who has been allowed to tag along by the reluctant dogs) who come on some scary stuff going on in their neighborhood. The story quickly turns into a good-versus-evil plot line with magic and murder as the dominant drivers. But it's not as easy as all that--Evan Dorkin (of Milk & Cheese fame) and Jill Thompson (famous children's illustrator) have done a smash-up job of creating a group of animals that the reader quickly identifies with and cares about. Jill's ability to render anthropomorphic animals through her artwork is amazing, lending a depth to the animals' expressions that I haven't seen in comics or children's art before; and Evan's stories are thrilling and heart-breaking throughout. I can't wait for the next round of stories from this team--hopefully there's plenty in the works!

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