Pick of the Week 22/2/2012

Call this week for what it is: Halloween in February. You'll see why.

Playing catch-up, it's a combo-week of superhero, sci-fi, and horror.

Playing catch on my reading duties, Batman #6 and Wonder Woman #6 remained on par with the excellence I've come to expect of both series and continued to move the story along. Challengers of the Unknown #1 (DC Universe Presents #6) started off interesting enough, lost me in the middle, and brought me back at the end. Prophet #22 was quirky in its amazing John Carter way of blending sci-fi with fantasy while Justice League Dark #6 came across as a mess of ideas when the series could stand to have an issue sorting out their troubled relationships. I, Vampire #6 began the "Rise of the Vampires" crossover with a solid issue but a yawn ending. 

With Swamp Thing and Animal Man being regarded as the Horror darlings of the New DC52 (and still two weeks away and that being scary in itself) Its a strange thing that in a week where I can read two books called Justice League Dark and I, Vampire the biggest scares came from this:

The purrs are coming... FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE!

Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites Hardcover (2010)

(Pick of the Week for the issue "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie"): Having seen the book once before I was impressed by the production value of the hardcover and decided to give Dark Horse Comics tale of cute-critters a try. Expecting a young-adult series about scaredy-cats and tough-dogs my impression was superficially coloured (excuse the pun) by Jill Thompson's can't-miss watercolours. The pages are remarkable and just flipping through the first three pages the series appears to be lost in time -- something unearthed from a classic children's novel long forgotten. The art invokes a feeling of warmth and whimsicality and after being introduced to the protagonists, five domesticated dogs and one stray cat living on Burden Hill, it's hard to expect anything but an Disney-ish tale of animal culture and superstition. There's jokes about cat's curiosity, dobermans being wusses, the humour is pretty smarmy fair.

And then this happens:

And then everything goes sideways.

I should have known better. Watership Down and numerous other "children's" stories have veiled the dark and gritty of life and I had seen artist Jill Thompson's work on the limited series FINALS  where the story starts as standard University drama but ends with mass-body-count-comedy that I still have troubles describing. Thompson's being attached to the project should have been my second red flag. To be honest, the previous image comes from the third story (of 7) in "Animal Rites" and takes place after the tale of a haunted doghouse and a coven of suburban witches. Even after these two dark-mysteries I found myself refusing to believe that these adorable fluffy animals could be in any real danger or at risk of the dark arts. 

I have never dreaded a page-turn so much as I have with this book. There are several pages where I get the same chills as the scene in SE7EN, you know the one, the "What's in the BOX!?". Perhaps it's the timid nature of the animals combined with their desire to know more about the world around them that makes the book so thrilling. The cast are childish, and pet-owners will agree we tend to treat our animals like children. For anyone who might have read "The Halloween Tree" by Ray Bradbury or "The Upturned Stone" by Scott Hampton, this is a must read. Horror-lovers rejoice because the darkest moments seem so much scarier when contrasted by something so light. 

Team: Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson

There you have it. Halloween... in February. I'm waiting for my American Vampire Hardcover but tell me, what are you reading? What books chill your spine and whisper to you in the dark of night? Leave a comment below!