Beasts of Burden: Wise Dogs and Eldritch Men #1 Featured Reviews 

“Beasts of Burden: Wise Dogs and Eldritch Men” #1

By | August 23rd, 2018
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Getting to see the “Beasts of Burden” again is always cause for celebration. This time the beasts are en route to Pennsylvania to stop a group of mutants. Series creator Evan Dorkin returns to writing duties alongside artist Benjamin Dewey. “Beasts of Burden: Wise Dogs and Eldritch Men” #1 is a new mini-series which guarantees we’ll get the chance to see the whole story through.

Written by Evan Dorkin
Illustrated by Benjamin Dewey
Lettered by Nate Piekos of Blambot

A heroic pack of canines known as the Wise Dogs set off on a mission to clean up a Pennsylvania corridor plagued by seemingly unrelated occult disturbances that include a fire salamander and a horde of mutant lurkers. A link is found among the various disturbances, leading our heroes to a mountain village inhabited by a survivalist witch-cult who have discovered the existence of a ”Blood Lure” attracting occult forces, creatures, and many more terrors to Burden Hill!

“Beasts of Burden” is back and the new installment of the mini-series immediately plays to the strengths, showing our characters get entangled in a horrifyingly dangerous situation. The narrative almost has a hook of a great survival story as the canine leads in the issue aren’t very powerful. When the stakes start getting high for the core cast members, nail-biting tension ensues.

The hyper-detailed contributions from Benjamin Dewey illustrate the issue’s absurd level of artistic craft. Dewey’s colors also depict so many of the small details which wouldn’t have been present in the pencils alone. When the opening battle winds down, there’s a supernatural force which Dewey is able to convey more clearly with some of the colors in the issue. When the hero exits the sequence, he goes back to the forest and switches up the color palette to show the differences in the environment.

Dewey does a phenomenal job keeping his work clear when the huge fight breaks out at the end of the issue. Readers can easily make out who is who and there are a huge amount of characters on screen at once. Even though Dewey’s work is incredibly detailed, cast members still look very expressive. The size of the cast members and threats also looks perfectly to scale and shows what makes a book like “Beasts of Burden” stand out from the pack. The way some of the sound effects brustle from quick movement and the speed lines coming from the movement is depicted wonderfully. Dewey is an underappreciated talent whose work needs more attention. The flashback sequence featuring the red background is a wonderfully composed page strongly showing off the horror side of the title.

The issue’s pacing starts to let up drastically after this sequence when the main cast reunites. It is good to see some of the familiar characters again, but the tension from the initial battle settles quickly. The issue also features too much dialogue between the cast members in the issue. Fortunately, Dorkin quickly breaks from this trend and does a great job delivering on a really creepy final sequence for the issue to end on.

The dialogue between the characters also feels natural and carefully worded. Some of the canines are definitely far more chatty than they should be, the characterization and strange scenes each member finds themselves in throughout the issue makes the title a great read throughout. The issue also does a good job grounding each specific character and establishing the story in reality before showing them some of the darker, supernatural aspects of the issue. Getting to know the characters on a personal level and getting some context for the horror aspects of the issue is needed to ensure you are telling a good story.

“Beasts of Burden: Wise Dogs and Eldritch Men” #1’s final moments do an excellent job showing what the title does best. The final sequence features a group of unlikely heroes thrust into incredibly complicated and dangerous occult-like threats. The full cast of the title is further drawn together in a strangely bizarre twist. Hopefully, Dorkin will continue to explain where the new threat is coming from. The issue is loaded with supernatural twists and has a few stand-out, haunting moments I won’t soon forget. The art from Benjamin Dewey is some of the very best you are likely to find on the shelf this week. Hopefully, in future installments, Dorkin will pare down the dialogue so it will match better with the fluid, fast-paced story.

With a focused and return to form, “Beasts of Burden: Wise Dogs and Eldritch Men” #1 is a good way to reintroduce the “Beasts of Burden” to concept to today’s audience.

Final Verdict: 6.8 – “Beasts of Burden: Wise Dogs and Eldritch Men” #1 is a solid reintroduction to the cast which also happens to feature phenomenal illustration work.


Alexander Jones

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