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by **Mr_Batman** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 5:24 pm

Beasts of Burden #1

I'm glad this was this week's pick or I never would've picked it up. I got the second to last one at my shop and boy am I happy. This was a FANTASTIC issue. I loved it from beginning to end, story and art. The whole raining frogs and giant frog thing was awesome. The art only made it better. The story was great, and the dialogue was perfect. Pugs most definitely had the best lines. It was only mentioned slightly, but the fact that Ace was bit by a werewolf excites me. This is going to be a great series. Just a wonderful first issue in terms of story.

As for the art, amazing. The art complements the story perfectly. It's like nothing I've ever seen, but I absolutely LOVED it. It kind of made the story more realistic, but at the same time, didn't try too hard. It was great all around, and the giant frog looked really good. It was peaceful and what not, but when the deaths and blood started coming, it still looked good. I'm on board for this series.

Story- 9
Art- 9.5
Overall- 9.25

by ****** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 5:37 pm

Dayumn, lots of good scores.

by **guitarsmashley** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 6:11 pm

Got a copy. I'm very excited to read and review this.

by **guitarsmashley** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 6:35 pm

what an amazing gorgeous, strange little story. I'll write a review sometime after laundry and dishes.

by **doombug** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 7:17 pm

6 so far, punchy might be wrong. :-D

by ****** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 7:25 pm

doombug wrote:6 so far, punchy might be wrong.

Wha?!

by **doombug** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 7:45 pm

amlah6 wrote:Wha?!

I'm giving him some hope.

He's british man, already losing at life. :lol:

by **Old Man** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 7:52 pm

What the hell is this?

Early in the book, it's West Coast Avengers visit with the main group of Avengers at Avengers mansion.

Later, it becomes a Hellboy story, re-enacting scenes from Frogs.

Then it becomes a Scooby Doo episode.

Then there is a Big Bad that goes all splody shortly after a witch tries to burn it with a spell. Then Giles shows up to say that the Five Hundred Acre Woods is becoming a Hellmouth.

Or is it Obi-Wan Kenobi? Or Albus Dumbledore?

Then, in a scene seen many times in comic books, all the members of the group pledge to work together for the common good. In doing so, they replicate the scene from Fantastic Four #1 where everybody puts a paw into a circle (without the overlap from FF #1), even the ornery, tough little guy who is probably Jewish and smokes cigars.

What a mishmash. I'm tired just from discussing it.

9

Oh, you want me to discuss it?

Not too much to say about the story. It's all well set up. For newcomers, all the characters are named (except the mother-humpin', big-ass, giant frog) during the story. Characterization is both told and shown. Even the sudden appearance of the heroic and mystical Old English Sheep Dog (see, I told you it was Giles...or Dumbledore...or Alec Guiness) is alluded to early in the story.

The art, as was to be expected, was great. I don't think I've ever been disappointed by Jill Thompson's art. An interesting touch was allowing the color palette to be mostly pastels, which is in direct contrast to the mood of the story.

This was a very satisfactory story, and I'm going to buy the rest of the story. As I hesitate to rate any comic book a 10, I'll rate this a 9 for now.

by **thefourthman** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 8:12 pm

Old Man wrote:What the hell is this?

Early in the book, it's West Coast Avengers visit with the main group of Avengers at Avengers mansion.

Later, it becomes a Hellboy story, re-enacting scenes from Frogs.

Then it becomes a Scooby Doo episode.

Then there is a Big Bad that goes all splody shortly after a witch tries to burn it with a spell. Then Giles shows up to say that the Five Hundred Acre Woods is becoming a Hellmouth.

Or is it Obi-Wan Kenobi? Or Albus Dumbledore?

Then, in a scene seen many times in comic books, all the members of the group pledge to work together for the common good. In doing so, they replicate the scene from Fantastic Four #1 where everybody puts a paw into a circle (without the overlap from FF #1), even the ornery, tough little guy who is probably Jewish and smokes cigars.

What a mishmash. I'm tired just from discussing it.

9

Oh, you want me to discuss it?

Not too much to say about the story. It's all well set up. For newcomers, all the characters are named (except the mother-humpin', big-ass, giant frog) during the story. Characterization is both told and shown. Even the sudden appearance of the heroic and mystical Old English Sheep Dog (see, I told you it was Giles...or Dumbledore...or Alec Guiness) is alluded to early in the story.

The art, as was to be expected, was great. I don't think I've ever been disappointed by Jill Thompson's art. An interesting touch was allowing the color palette to be mostly pastels, which is in direct contrast to the mood of the story.

This was a very satisfactory story, and I'm going to buy the rest of the story. As I hesitate to rate any comic book a 10, I'll rate this a 9 for now.

I don't have a problem with your review, it is your sig that I am going to take to task. On average, Trade waiters should be buying 1.666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666667 trades a week, screw that rounding up noise!

by **Victorian Squid** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 8:59 pm

Here's a link to Evan's blog:

http://evandorkin.livejournal.com/

Here's a quote from Thursday that proves Diamond can and will fuck up anything. But the main thing is the great reception this book has had:

Quick thanks to the folks at Comic Book Jones here on Satan Island for hosting Jill Thompson and I last night. We signed a lot of copies of Beasts of Burden #1 and Jill drew some beautiful sketches for the people who showed up. I drew some awkward things, sitting next to someone who actually knows how to draw is pretty fucking humbling...

Things went well, we didn't have a huge crowd but we had a constant group and most folks bought their books, got them signed, picked up Jill's free Beasts print, and skedaddled. And there was drama, Diamond effed up and didn't deliver nine boxes of comics and product (9!) to the shop on new comic day, including most of their copies of Beasts of Burden. Way to go, Diamond. But Bergen Street Comics in Brooklyn helped out with back-up copies of Beasts, and all went smoothly as far as the signing went. I felt bad for the Jones boys because customers showing up for their new books had very few new books to pick up, and had to be told to come back tomorrow for the rest. Ridiculous.

But we moved issues, and sold a few of our old books, and had a great time. Emily ran around the store and drew Milk and Cheese pictures and read the new Johnny Boo book by James Kochalka. Which we also took home. Waffle gave me a 60's Star Trek Viewmaster set. We had some food afterward, and booze was offered, but since I was driving, I stuck with the life-affirming Coca-Cola. We got home pretty late and Emily conked out.

Tom and Amy from Bergen Street Comics came by in support, and Jill and I will be doing our last appearance at their shop this Saturday night, with members of the Jones Family Clan in attendance. Looks to be a lot of fun. We might not have a formal table set up Saturday, but rest assured Jill and I will be available for sketches and signings.

I hope those of you who picked up Beasts of Burden #1 enjoyed it. Thanks again to Socko and Tiger and tha gang at Jones, thanks to those who came out in the crappy weather for the signing. And thanks to everyone on the web who have been plugging the book, it's appreciated. I haven't seen such decent word of mouth on anything I've been involved with for some time, if ever, since the interweb age began. Jill and I have been doing a lot of interviews, I'm sitting on three more for the end of this week, one for a non-comics source that sounds like it could be nifty. I'm not used to this sort of thing, I'm not kidding myself, I realize this is all small-time, insular stuff, but it's somewhat heady. For me, at least, based on the web response my last few comics had received. I didn't do this much press for the Eltingville pilot, which is kind of depressing, come to think about it. Whatever. It's been a pretty good week, it'll be over Sunday, so I'm trying to enjoy it while I can.

Speaking of enjoyment, I hope the series lives up to whatever expectations anyone might have of it. Like I've said, it isn't earth-shattering or art or anything, it's a straightforward comic book, and we hope folks like it and get there three bucks worth out of it.

And there's a lot of fun archived stuff at Evan and Sarah Dyer's site houseoffun.com