Saturday, May 2nd is the Nerd Inferno release signing at JHU Comics in Staten Island, NY. It's also Free Comic Book Day. I'll be signing copies of Nerd Inferno and the Beasts of Burden omnibus editions, as well as other comics I've worked on, and folks can bring whatever they want me to sign that I worked on. But if you buy a copy of Nerd Inferno at the signing, you'll get an exclsuive ELtingville CLub cosplay print.
JHU should also have the prints available at the May 16th New Drop Con in Staten island, and there should be copies available with the print available on their website for online orders/shipping.
Beasts of Burden (series) by Evan Dorkin, Jill Thompson and Benjamin Dewey - have you read this xenofiction?
Yes, I've read all of it
Yes, I've read some of it (or, I've read the comic in the example image)
No, I've heard of it or the authors but haven't read it
No, I haven't read this or heard of it
Voting ended onOct 13, 2025
Beasts of Burden is a comic book series created by writer Evan Dorkin and artists Jill Thompson and Benjamin Dewey, and published by American company Dark Horse Comics. The title centers on an eponymous team of intelligent animals that investigate different paranormal events that occur in their small neighborhood of Burden Hill. The initial group consists of five dogs and a cat. They are often seen consulting with "Wise Dogs", local shamanic elders of their community.
[Wikipedia]
An installment in the series, The View from the Hill, has circulated on Tumblr in past years and a page from that piece is included in the photos for recognizability.
Interested in reading it, or have thoughts about having read it? Share them in the tags! This is a new blog, so reblogs for reach are also appreciated! 👻
Daily doodle from the sketchbook. Today it’s those ultra-violent dairy products, Milk and Cheese! Why did I pick these anthropomorphic misanthropic wild men? Well their creator, Evan Dorkin (along with Dark Horse), just released a ginormous tome of Evan’s comics spanning his entire career called Nerd Inferno. And a big part of Evan’s work was the popularity of these lactose lunatics. Along with the Eltingville boys they are probably what he is most known for, which is somewhat unfortunate since he’s put out a lot of great stuff over the years, writing and drawing. His run on the Bill and Ted comics was, dare I say, excellent (and, if you were a reader of those comics, you were introduced to a myriad of great bands via Bill and Ted’s t—shirts) and the Beasts of Burden series has been a great joy to read. He has done too much great work over the years to list everything but let’s just say it goes far beyond these two “cheesy” characters.
I also wanted to note that Evan is a very nice guy. I met him at one of Tony Moore’s comic cons in Cincinnati (well technically Kentucky but….). I was tabling there through the good graces of Tony himself and, to be really honest, I didn’t belong among the talent assembled in what was the most impressive artists’ alley I’ve ever seen. Across from me was Fables writer Bill Willingham, two tables across from me and to my right was the amazing artist Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother, Beasts of Burden) and next to her was Evan and his equally talented artist wife Sarah Dyer. The talent pool was insane as I mentioned. Dave Wachter, Eric Powell, Ryan Browne, and the list goes on and on. Anyway, I got to talk to Evan a few times during the con during some slower moments (he had a lot less of those than me, believe me). He was overly generous with his time and we talked about comics like I was anywhere near the same level of talent, which was nice of him. The Eltingville collection had just come out and I congratulated him on it since it was a great book and included what was to be their final appearance. Surprisingly to me, he wanted MY opinion of the last story and if I thought it was a fitting ending to their legacy. I was honored that he valued some schmucks opinion of his work. Especially some bozo who was only there because I entered a drawing in a contest Tony Moore held to win a free table and there weren’t a lot of entries.
It was probably the best interaction I’ve ever had at a con. I’m usually very anxious when talking to “celebrities” at shows, I always feel like I’m bothering them and try to drop some admiration on them and dart. I also always feel bad that I don’t have a lot of money and can’t be as good of a patron as I’d like to be, and I don’t want to block actual sales. Evan was cool though and the two chats we had were very easy and fun. Now I wish I had talked to him more but then I really would have felt like I was being a nuisance.
The main thing that I want to say is that Evan Dorkin is a cool dude and that you should support his work. He’s one of the good ones. Go out and buy Nerd Inferno from Dark Horse and be prepared to fall in love with his impressive draftsmanship, his goofy, slightly dark humor, and multitude of crazy characters. Thanks Evan for all the great comics and for being a mensch.
If I were being perfectly honest most of this would have just been my continuous reread of The Foxhole Court but I'm going to pretend I'm a well-adjusted person who is capable of reading other things...
fuck. i saved this draft to the wrong blog. it is too much work to redo this whole thing so here's an impromptu book update i guess enjoy
Beasts of Burden: Neighborhood Watch // Wise Dogs and Eldritch Men
Wildly varied quality. I quite liked the first volume of this series, as it introduced a world were average, every-day pets acted as the neighbourhood guardians against supernatural horrors. It was a fun twist on the monster-of-the-week genre, and introduced fun characters and laid out a story that seemed to be gradually building on itself. That all feel apart in volume 2 which was a collection of middling episodic nonsense. It felt like any bigger picture had disintegrated, characterization began to flatten, the art fluctuate in quality a lot, and there were suddenly more humans involved in this world that had so tightly revolved around the animals. The sheep story was really he only worthwhile one of the lot — and hey, why was Hellboy there??? Book 3 follows a different group of dogs but was much better than 2. The story felt more put together again, and the art was beautiful the whole way through. Still lost some of the magic that the first book had though.
Boyfriends
Some day I’ll learn to stop trying to read books published by Webtoons
The Convenience Store by the Sea
A nifty little book. It’s doing something similar to The Kamogawa Food Detectives, in that it creates a cosy, low-stakes story that revolves around different people who pass through the Tenderness Convenience Store. It’s not quite as successful as Kamogawa in my opinion — some stories were better than others, and it took a while for me to really figure out what was happening with the pacing but it was interesting enough. I appreciate some of the heavier topics it tackled and how compassionate it was too such a wide range of characters.
Girl Giant and the Monkey King
A middle-grade novel I bought secondhand on impulse — it had Sun Wukong on the cover, I was intrigued! Unfortunately what I had hoped would be a fun romp (Monkey King teaming up with a teenaged girl??? Sign me up, there are gonna be hijinks!) was instead mostly just middle school girl drama. The pacing was slow and repetitive, there was really no adventure, and it circled the same few issues in a heavy-handed way. I ended up not finishing it.
Haikyu!! v7-18
I continue my Haikyu!! Reread and continue to love it. Some books are slower than others, but that’s honestly just the natural flow of a series this long — there needs to be some breathing room so that you’re ready when the narrative kicks back into high gear. I love the summer training arc that you get around book 10, I love the characters that are introduced and I love seeing the growth in those chapters!
Hockey Rants & Raves
This book was recommended after I finished reading Alan Doyle’s books, and I totally get why, it’s the same sort of exuberant, sincere comedy that you can’t help but get sucked into. I can’t say I honestly know all that much about hockey — beyond being Canadian and absorbing a certain amount through general osmosis — but the author is both a very funny speaker and has a very honest, approachable love for the sport. This man is the opposite of a gatekeeper. He explains what he’s talking about, and is clearly welcoming everyone to come and enjoy this thing he loves so much. It’s just fun, like listening to a friend gush about their favourite thing.
Paddington: Here and Now
I needed something chill to listen to while I was falling asleep so I decided on another Paddington book. It delivered exactly what I wanted. It didn’t stand out in any particular way, but it was charming and cosy in the way of most Paddington stories.
The Role I Played
A second hockey book. After Hockey Rants & Raves I realised I was curious about learning a bit more about the sport beyond the surface level knowledge I’ve scraped up passively over the years. This is a memoir written by Sami Jo Small, an accomplished goalie who played in a number of games and leagues over the years. The most interesting thing about the story is her time participating in the Olympics — specifically the fact that she was generally a third-line goalie, meaning she was almost exclusively a backup and didn’t actually see much if any ice time. It’s such a strange situation that I had never considered before… one of the three women considered good enough out of the entire country to participate on the Canadian Olympic hockey team, but not good enough to win the ice time she so desperately wanted. Unfortunately while the topic is interesting, and I enjoy the stories about her teammates and training camps, the writing itself is pretty tedious. Small is not the most compelling writer out there.
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk
Absolutely bizarre little book. It’s like a modern day Aesop’s Fables for adults… each short story is uniquely strange. It made me feel some sort of emotions. Couldn’t tell you which.
The Smiling Land
The second Alan Doyle book I read after All Together Now from last month. I do think I liked All Together Now more, since it was such a fun collection of vignettes, but The Smiling Land was a charming book in its own right and I definitely enjoyed my time reading it. In this one, Alan Doyle travels around his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador and shares all sorts of descriptions and stories about the places he stops and the people he meets. It’s warm and welcoming and fun; it makes you want to go on a trip there immediately.
The Sunshine Court // The Golden Raven
I am so unwell about this book series 😌 This is the second arc from the All For The Game series. The first trilogy (starting with The Foxhole Court) followed Neil Josten, a boy on the run from his murderous father who is just trying to play exy and figure out how to survive his unhinged teammates. This new series picks at the tail end of book three and follows Jean Moreau, a member of the ruthless Raven exy team who was rescued at the end of the first trilogy. Deeply traumatized and rightful scared for his life, Jean finds himself dumped in California with the USC Trojan exy team, a group of individuals that may as well be the polar opposite to what the Ravens represent. This new trilogy has everything I love from the first trilogy (an oversaturated world of intense mafia drama and sports and whump) but brings a very different energy. Jean’s story is very much one of recovery, and the more we learn about what he experienced with the Ravens and just how broken he is as a person the deeper invested I get. I am going to go insane waiting for the final book.
