Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer
Artist: Jill Thompson
Editor: Daniel Chabon and Scott Allie
Release Date: OUT NOW!
Price: $3.99

Everyone loves cute puppies and fluffy kittens, right? Well, in Beasts of Burden: What The Cat Dragged In One Shot, if you live in Burden Hill, you do more than love them, you depend on them to keep you safe from evil supernatural forces.

Back in 2005, Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer and Jill Thompson won the Eisner Award for Best Short Story using these same characters and now they’re back, which makes this an ideal jumping-on point for Beasts of Burden: What The Cat Dragged In One Shot.

Former witch’s familiar, Dymphna, needs the help of the good kitties, Orphan and the Kid, to get back into her former mistress’s house to retrieve some “important things”. They, in turn, need the help of a racoon called Hoke because racoons have hands and he’s the only one who can turn the doorknob! Anthropomorphic animals would have no problem here, but these are real cats and you just don’t realise how tricky some things can be for heroes without opposable thumbs. Once inside, our feline trio plus Hoke discover something decidedly nasty in the basement and the fur does literally fly!

Dark and funny in turns Beasts of Burden: What The Cat Dragged In One Shot is a decidedly different take on the supernatural. Inventive as anything and as addictive as a ball of string is to a kitten. This is billed as a One Shot but you can bet your last chew toy that these cool cats will soon be back before very long. And that is no bad thing. In the meantime, here are some uTube cat videos…..

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker