4 crampons out of 5

Yeah man.  Thank goodness Dark Horse knew it would make readers like me so happy by collecting the better bits of their recent Dark Horse Presents series into standalone issues… and thus, a Beasts of Burden one shot.  If you’re okay with animal books – which I totally, totally am (and maybe seek them out…) – I’d think it’d be hard to not like Beasts of Burden.  An intelligently written supernatural mystery series where the detectives are dogs and cats, beautiful painted / drawn by Jill Thompson… aw dang.  I hadn’t really been sold on Dorkin’s Milk and Cheese at any point, sort of too obvious for my tastes, but he finds a really nice Blend for his beasts stories, playing lightly with more serious fare and some of the silly humor he’s known for.

The tales in Neighborhood Watch aren’t connected, but they avoid the main problem with short tales of not feeling “complete,” so if you can track down this one-shot, its a great example of how childish concepts (doggie detectives?) can be written maturely and how rich even compressed comics can be.