4 out of 5

My opening statement was going to be similar to a quote that was already on the cover of this one shot: “I didn’t think it was possible to fall in love with ‘Beasts of Burden’ even more, but I was wrong,” says Greg McElhatton of CBR.  Indeed, can we get enough of BoB?  (The answer is yes, because I’ve now gotten enough of B.P.R.D. thanks to their several-times-monthly overkill)  What’s fun about these scattered one-shots or minis is that they build on one another.  I’d say the stories are certainly open enough for new readers, but we’re not starting fresh each time with our group of ghost/creepo huntin’ cats and dogs, and Evan Dorkin includes (in this book) a sort of pro- and epilogue that sets the stage for those of us with the previous issues.  Television does this kind of stuff too, and it’s a smart way to bookend a format so that it can work on its own or in sequence.

The meat of ‘Hunters & Gatherers’ is nothing new – the group teams up to take down a Big Bad in the woods – but it’s as charming as ever thanks to Jill Thompson’s lovely characterizing watercolor-ish work – cast in lovely greens and browns – that gives our animals full personalities without over-cuteing them.  Which is part of the appeal of the series in general – this isn’t Garth Ennis’ overblown attempt at ‘adult-ifying’ talking animals with his recent ‘Rover Red Charlie,’ but BoB isn’t exactly 100% kid-friendly either.  It harkens back to the PG territory of Goonies days, when kids could casually say ‘bastard’ on occasion and we accepted it.  I’d hate to say that that era of PG/PG-13 kids movies were more ‘mature’, but they didn’t pander as much and, in that sense, got away with more.  (Even if our kids are watching Game of Thrones nowadays.)

The only thing I’m docking the book for is that, for as fun as it is, I was expecting more before I got to the last page.  To spend a couple pages on setup makes it feel like we’re going to get into something more momentous than just a single monster hunt, so even while the chase was on, I assumed Dorkin had something else planned before the conclusion.  But ah well.  These creators are busy, and if the pages we do get are of this quality, then the most I’ll do is minus one star.  I know, cry about it later.