I wanted to write a haunted house story, but not along traditional lines. After a few false starts I hit on the idea of a haunted doghouse, which became my pitch for “Stray.”

Evan Dorkin

The Beasts of Burden Omnibus (2025) brings together all the stories of the supernatural investigators of the town of Burden Hill as written by Evan Dorkin and illustrated by Jill Thompson and Brian Dewey. What separates the protectors of Burden Hill from others in their field like John Silence or Carl Kolchak is that they are animals. Dogs, in fact, mostly, with a few cats enlisted along the way.

Let me start by providing several warnings for this review. First, I love psychic investigator stories. I watched the Kolchak tv show with my mom when it premiered and I was 8, and Manly Wade Wellman’s John the Balladeer is one of my absolute favorite series of stories. Second, I’m very fond of talking animals, from Wind in the Willows to Rita Mae Brown’s Mrs. Murphy books (well, at least the first half-dozen or so). Third, and finally, I’m friends with Evan Dorkin. We’ve known each other for, well, a very long time. Nonetheless, before I go any further, let me say, while I might have been predisposed to enjoy Beasts of Burden, there was no guarantee I’d like it as much as I do. It also means I got to ask him a couple of questions about the his stories and the series’ evolution.

When Evan told me about this series when he was first creating it over twenty years ago, I was hooked at once. As someone who had a dog (Luther, a beagle-border collie mix who was the greatest dog that ever lived, bar none) that led a pack of house dogs around my old neighborhood, this struck me immediately as  a perfect ideal. Now, I’d like to think my dog was fighting monsters, but I really only think he was leaving unexpected litters of puppies around the area.

That first story, “Stray,” introduces the main characters of the series right away; Whitey, a Jack Russell, Pugsley, a pug, Rex, a Doberman, Ace, a husky, and Jack, a beagle. And the Orphan, a stray tiger cat who’s not really part of the group, but likes to hang around and kibbitz. They’ve come together to call a wise dog, a dog possessing supernatural knowledge and power, to help them. Jack hasn’t  been able to sleep in his doghouse because he thinks it’s haunted.

The wise dog, an Old English Sheepdog named Emrys, does appear after a night of calling (or several nights, as it’s noted, “dogs aren’t known for their sense of time”). The doghouse is indeed haunted. Arising from an unfortunate event, the ghost of a dog named Trixie has become trapped on this side of the afterlife. Avoiding mawkishness, the story comes to a satisfying and poignant conclusion.

When asked to write a story for what became the  The Dark House Book of Hauntings (2003), Evan hit on the idea of a haunted dog house. The next step was to find an artist, which he did in Jill Thompson In the book’s afterword, he says:

I wrote “Stray” with Jill’s art in mind, specifically the lovely watercolors she painted for her Scary Godmother books. I wanted “Stray” to have that storybook feel..She also asked that I put a Pug in the cast, something else I’m eternally grateful for. I can’t picture this series without Jill — or Pugs, for that matter.

Thompson’s art is beautiful, sort of misty and diffuse and perfect for the sorts of supernatural tales Evan spun. Benjamin Dewey’s art is sharper edged and seems to bring the stories he illustrated more into the real world.

When I asked him about his inspirations for that first story, he said  it “was pretty much Watership Down and things like Poltergeist. A haunted house story with some references to the culture of the neighborhood dogs. And the cat.”

“Stray” wasn’t imagined as a series. Nonetheless, the response to “Stray” was terrific and there were more Dark Horse anthologies, so three more stories appeared over the next three years. Together, they expanded the world of Burden Hill and deepened the darkness beginning to hang over the town.

In “The Unfamiliar” a coven of witches and their familiars, black cats all, have descended on Burden Hill. When Emrys informs the others that “At midnight tomorrow, all will be in alignment for them to summon Sekhmet,” their patron goddess, something that “poses a threat to all who live on two legs or four.”

Fortunately, the wise dog has a plan. It happens to involve getting an undercover operative into the witches’ gathering. While they may not have a black cat, they do have a tiger cat who can be doused in black paint. The Orphan isn’t thrilled, but submits to the indignity with the intention of thwarting the witches’ plan.

“The Unfamiliar” introduces the black cat, Dymphna, one of the witches’ familiars. Taken prisoner in order to help the Orphan infiltrate the coven, she will become a major character in the subsequent stories, starting with the very next story, “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie.”

Dymphna might have some magical aptitude garnered from her time as a familiar, but not enough to properly raise and control a body of zombie pets. Things go very much wrong for her, and she’s forced to seek help from the very animals on whom she was hoping to work her vengeance.

“A Dog And His Boy”, co-written with Sarah Dyer, expands the Beasts of Burden world, introducing a boy who walks between the human and animal world. While it’s not obvious to the Beasts, it is obvious to the reader that the boy is a werewolf.

Despite Pugs’ distrust, the rest of the crew welcome the boy, especially Ace. Soon, both he and the boy feel like “they had discovered a long lost brother.” Unfortunately, as the full moon nears, portending horrible things, horrible things occur.

In 2009, the first issue of the Beasts of Burden comic appeared , featuring the story “Lost.” It’s the first clear intimation that bigger, badder things are readying to descend on Burden Hill, something that’s developed over the course of the three following issues. A Fortean-torrent of frogs leads to the appearance of something monstrous that might cost all their Beasts their lives.

Evan told me that “we’ve lost readers who can’t deal with the harm that happens to some of the characters.” Well, none of the main characters are hurt in “Lost,” but the Beasts are asked by a Weimaraner to help find her two missing pups and the investigation and its resolution is emotionally brutal. I doubt even the most stone-hearted person I know wouldn’t be tearing up at the end.

After “Lost,” the stories largely keep ratcheting up the level of danger faced by the Beasts and Burden Hill. In “Something Whiskered This Way Comes,” Dymphna makes her reappearance as the forced servant of monstrous sewer rats, and in “Grave Happenings,” golems and a resurrected wizard almost succeed in killing everyone.

“Sacrifice,” co-written by Mike Mignola, is a Hellboy crossover and a direct sequel to “Grave Happenings.” Hellboy fits in perfectly with the gang of investigatory house pets.

The following stories, “Food Run,” “Story Time,” and the touching, albeit gruesome, “The View from the Hill,” step back from the looming big events, but they all serve to continue to flesh out the Beasts of Burden universe and characters.

“Hunters and Gatherers” is largely a straight up action piece and serves to show how far the Beasts have traveled from the earliest adventure at being able to confront danger and evil on their own. It’s also an important setup for future events.

Another story co-written by Sarah Dyer, “What The Cat Dragged In,” is Dymphna-centric. Here we learn of what she did before she raised the zombies in “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie.” It’s yet another story that ends with a melancholy tone.

The rest of the Omnibus collects three multi-issue stories; The Presence of Others, Wise Dogs and Eldritch Men, and Occupied Territories. The second part of presence introduces the artwork of Brian Dewey. It’s more delineated than Thompson’s but feels natural for the more epic feel of these later tales. Occupied Territories is co-written by Sarah Dyer.

Presence brings the Beasts into contact with a family of supernatural investigators. It brings together numerous elements from several of the earlier stories, as well as serving as a conclusion to the events that started in “Grave Happenings.” It’s  the last tale featuring the original Beasts of Burden cast as the comic’s eyes turn toward the Wise Dogs themselves in the last two stories.

Over the course of the preceding stories, the lone wise dog from the “Stray” became part of a larger group of wise dogs. Under their guidance and mentoring, younger, promising dogs are brought into their circle. We learn that they see the bigger picture of some growing evil, of which Burden Hill appears to be the nexus.

In Wise Dogs and Eldritch Men, the council of Wise Dogs itself steps into the fray. Starting with the rescue of a young fire salamander and culminating in the release of a giant, subterranean monster, the Wise Dogs find themselves battered and betrayed, and forced to bring all their many magical skills to the fight.

The Omnibus‘ closing story, Occupied Territories, goes back to the forties and occupied Japan for a monster-filled adventure from Emrys’ earlier days. It also explains the relationship between certain humans and certain dogs and their unified fight against supernatural evil.

The only thing I don’t like about Occupied Territories is that it’s the last published story and I want more of the original cast and their adventures. Fortunately, Evan’s on record saying there are plans for more stories, unfortunately limited by the availability of Thompson and Dewey. In anticipation of future stories, if you’ve somehow missed out on the extant ones, do yourself a favor and grab a copy of the Beasts of Burden Omnibus right now.

Seriously, Evan Dorkin might be more well-known for his psychotic Milk and Cheese comics or his discomfiting Eltingville Club books, but I think Beasts of Burden is his most successful work. The stories really feel like supernatural encounters dogs (and cats) might really experience. By which, I mean, in these stories, he’s created a tangible world, that feels real, and that the art of Thompson and Dewey make look real.

He told me “we didn’t plan for this to be a series so the world building trickled in across the four short stories, when we went to series I started drawing on folklore, the Call of Cthulhu rpg, the Silver John stories, occult lore etc. and some actual research on dogs and cats, rats as well.” One can see all those elements, but they’re melded together skillfully, never feeling just cobbled to each other. The Beasts of Burden universe emerges bit by believable bit across the stories until by the end, the reader and the Beasts are engulfed in something monstrous.

For me, a successful ghost story needs to create a sense of unease, and, as it involves something dead, it helps if it has some sort of emotional component. The best do more than just spook you a little, they might also leave you a bit psychically bruised. These stories, some of them almost too well, do those things.  It’s a solid achievement that he took an idea that could’ve easily yielded to cutesiness or goofiness and turned out some of the best and affecting supernatural stories I’ve read in a long time.

Finally, I asked Evan what was he proudest of about Beasts of Burden and what he thought was most successful, and he said he was:

“most proud of the characters and having people accept the admittedly goofy premise, talking animals is a non-starter for a lot of people and we’ve worked hard to ease readers into the stories by making the animal societies feel real. Otherwise I’m pleased we made people cry because of a few of the stories, because that’s not something I expected, having that strong a response.”

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Fletcher Vredenburgh writes a column each first Friday of the month at Black Gate, mostly about older books he hasn’t read before. He also posts at his own site, Stuff I Like when his muse hits him