Posted in: Comics | Tagged: beast of burden, Comics, Review

Review: Beasts Of Burden: Neighborhood Watch by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson

Eliot Cole writes for Bleeding Cool

I didn't ever get to read the first mini-series, so I came in to this cold. This didn't stop me picking this up, and shouldn't stop anyone else doing the same with what is a wonderful piece that, in the mould of Watership Down and Mouse Guard, can be enjoyed by children of all ages.

Lately I've generally not gotten on very well with books for children, which has seen me drop Super Dinosaur (amongst others), despite it being really rather good. So it's always refreshing to find a book where the younger elements of the work aren't overpowering. I also don't think that Neighborhood Watch is a case of striving for the Toy Story ideal of "there's plenty for adults". It's a book for children, that adults can read and enjoy with genuine love of the medium or with nostalgic feelings of what it was like to enjoy such tales as a kid.

I suppose that you might want to take a flick through before handing it down to little Johnny or Joanna, as there's a war scene and a couple of gory moments, but nothing harrowing that shouldn't be harrowing. Hey, Watership Down still scares the bejesus out of me to this day, but I'm a wuss.

Neighborhood Watch is a collection of three stories revolving around the coalition of neighbourhood animals that look after Burden Hill. Various supernatural events occur and they investigate and fight back for the good of the town. The three stories are unconnected, and give you a taste of what you might get if you go for the Blu-Ray release, pointed out a couple of months ago here on Bleeding Cool.

I won't bang on about anthropomorphism, but there's always an ease with its use to engage with characters, and our inherent sympathies for animals obviously assist this. The element at the forefront of my experience from the first couple of stories is the playfulness that Thompson brings to Dorkin's script. This even comes across during the second, more battle focused, yarn. There's an obvious sense of history in "Story Time", but the sense of community that the art team bring out is very much present in how the animals speak to each other.

The humour is nice, too, in all the stories, but particularly in "Food Run". Skipping through; stupidity, clever head fakes, and a nice fourth wall breaker in "Story Time". That humour disappearing entirely for a heartfelt ending to "The View From The Hill". Itself a story which deserves framing somewhere. View manages to fill more story in to eight pages than a lot of the books I read regularly fit in to twenty or more.

Dark Horse have a preview of the issue up on their website, here:

I've included page two with this. It's really beautiful, beautiful stuff.

Dark Horse, Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson have crafted the perfect little comic book via the Dark Horse Presents strips, and this could *easily* work as a bi-monthly ongoing. If I had younglings to provide entertainment for, I would not hesitate to drop this five star wonderment in their lap to read.

Right, I'm off to find the original mini-series!

Eliot's review copy provided by Chameleon Comics – 3 Maiden Lane, New York City

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