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Comic Book: Beasts of Burden

A supernatural horror/adventure comic series from Dark Horse Comics. It follows the residents of Burden Hill, a picturesque small town that seems to attract plenty of paranormal activity. Luckily there is a society whose sole duty is to defend against these various evil forces, with the only catch being that this society is made up of dogs (and one cat).

Originally starting as a series of short comics that were released online

and in a few anthologies, it has received it's own limited run, and even got a hardcover omnibus (hint hint). Written by Evan Dorkin with colors by Jill Thompson, the pacing, art, and script are all top-notch, with it already becoming a popular (if low-profile) new property.

It was recently announced that Shane Acker would be doing a CGI-animated film based on the property.

This series provides examples of:

All Witches Have Cats: At least, the ones seen all had a cat as a familiar.
And This Is for...
Animal Stereotypes: A bit, but it's mostly for comedy and the characters have other attributes.
Anyone Can Die: Or at least a fair few Mauve Shirts can.
Arbitrary Skepticism: Pugs.
Artifact Title: The Wise Dogs Society became this the moment they let a cat in. Admittedly it is the first time they appear to have done so, and it's mentioned that their numbers are lower than usual.
Big Ball of Violence
Cats Have Nine Lives: Metaphorically used, thus far the cats tend to have a higher chance of getting away from the Monster of the Week than the dogs. Personified by "The Getaway Kid", a tomcat who is infamous for this.
Cowardly Lion: Rex.
Crossover: With Hellboy.
Dark Magical Girl: Dymphna
Dating Catwoman: Orphan and Dymphna.
Deadpan Snarker: Orphan. The other characters have their moments too.
"I feel safer already."
Demonic Possession: The ghost puppies possess Rex and Ace to take brutal vengeance on their murderer.
Domino Revelation: Ghosts, zombies, vampires, you get the point.
Everyone Calls Him Barkeep: Orphan, essentially.
Everything's Deader with Zombies: The dog zombies.
Foreshadowing / Harsher in Hindsight:
Whitey: W-witches?
Pugs: Yeah. An' demon cats. An' later we'll have werewolves.
Functional Magic
Gory Discretion Shot: Used in concert with Nothing Is Scarier.
Heel Face Turn: Possibly Dymphna, in an Anti-Hero kind of way.
Heroes R Us: The Wise Dogs Society, though it's a volunteer thing, and seems to have been around for a while.
In Medias Res
Locked into Strangeness: A really weird example; Digger's entire face turns from black to white after he sees his owner get torn apart by dirt Golems.
Magnetic Plot Device: The town itself, for reasons yet to be revealed. Fanon has posited a Hell Gate situation, considering the nature of a lot of the events, but it's still not very clear.
The Masquerade: With the animals for the humans.
Mauve Shirt
The Mentor: Any Wise Dog.
My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: Or in Orphan's case, his first three did.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Rex does a Big Damn Heroes to save the Orphan from a cat goddess, but at the time he was supposed to be keeping an eye on a captured witch-familiar cat. The cat escapes while he's off saving the day and causes them a lot of trouble later on.
Nothing Is Scarier
Our Werewolves Are Different: Very. Silver bullets still work though.
Rodents of Unusual Size: Rat King included.
Scenery Porn: Jill Thompson's watercolors are pure eye candy.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Rex does this a few times, fitting in with his Cowardly Lion status. Pugs suggests this very often, but doesn't actually follow through.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: Pugs.
Sixth Ranger: All of the cats who get mixed up with the Wise Dogs are regarded as this. And then there's Dymphna.
Spiritual Successor: To Bunnicula, but for an older audience (and for those who aren't bothered by cute talking animals enduring horrific physical peril and scarring emotional trauma).
Urban Fantasy
The War Has Just Begun: At the end of issue four.
Xenofiction: With admitted doses of anthropomorphism, it's still a good example of the genre.
X Meets Y:
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a cast made up of Intellectual Animals.
- Or Hairy Maclary meets Supernatural.
- Or Ginga Nagareboshi Gin / Ginga Densetsu Weed meets Supernatural.