Evan Dorkin

Beasts of Burden Omnibus Hits This Week

Added 2025-02-18 08:57:39 +0000 UTC

I'm a little confused about the timeline because the ship date on the Omnibus is listed as today, but today's not New Comic Book Day (NCBD). And some folks who pre-ordered the Omnibus started getting theirs in the past day or so. So let's just say the book is officially out today, and roughly out this week depending on where you are and how you're getting it. Thanks to those of you who preordered it or are planning to pick it up at your local comic shop (LCS) this week. It's appreciated, and if you're new to the series, I hope you enjoy it. It's probably my favorite project, overall.

In case you've missed the pitch: The Omnibus collects all the Beasts of Burden material done so far, stories tat have earned the series 8 Eisner Awards, a Harvey, and a few nominations in some other programs here and there. If you pick this up you'll have everything in one big brick of a trade paperback.

What's the series about? Cats and dogs defending their neighborhood from supernatural evil. And there's a racoon, but he's a pain in the ass. And a witch cat. Also, monsters, ghosts, zombie roadkill, witches, undead mystics, goblins, mythological creatures, cat goddesses, rat cults, golems, yokai. Among other stuff.

The Omnibus is published by Dark Horse Comics (publishers of The Eltingville Club, Milk & Cheese and Dork hardcover collections), and retails for $30 US, which gets you almost 600 pages of comics, and back matter -- artist's layouts and sketches, process material with commentary, all the covers by Jill Thompson and Benjamin Dewey, along with all the guest variants by folks such as Tyler Crook, Rafael Albuquerque, Stephanie Buscema, John McCrea, Dustin Nguyen and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. There's a Hellboy crossover in the collection, and I think we did a good job with it. There's some sample pages in the gallery up above if you want to check that out.

Okay, pitch over. I'm going to bed. I'm on a terrible sleeping schedule and missed a good chunk of Monday, so I figured I'd post this in case the insomnia kicks in again and I end up conking out past this afternoon.

More, later. And soon.