Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites


Book Description

Welcome to Burden Hill — a picturesque little town adorned with white picket fences and green, green grass, home to a unique team of paranormal investigators. Beneath this shiny exterior, Burden Hill harbors dark and sinister secrets, and it's up to a heroic gang of dogs — and one cat — to protect the town from the evil forces at work. These are the Beasts of Burden Hill — Pugs, Ace, Jack, Whitey, Red and the Orphan — whose early experiences with the paranormal (including a haunted doghouse, a witches' coven, and a pack of canine zombies) have led them to become members of the Wise Dog Society, official animal agents sworn to protect their town from evil. This turns out to be no easy task, as they soon encounter demonic cannibal frogs, tortured spirits, a secret rat society, and a bizarre and deadly resurrection in the Burden Hill cemetery — events which lead to fear and heartbreak as our four-legged heroes discover that the evil within Burden Hill is growing and on the move. Can our heroes overcome these supernatural menaces? Can evil be bested by a paranormal team that doesn't have hands? And even more importantly, will Pugs ever shut the hell up? Adventure, mystery, horror, and humor thrive on every page of Beasts of Burden — a comic-book series that will capture readers' hearts and haunt their dreams. Award-winning comics creators Evan Dorkin (Milk and Cheese) and Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother) first introduced these very special investigators in The Dark Horse Book of Hauntings and the other Dark Horse Book of . . . anthologies, for which they won coveted Eisner Awards for Best Short Story and Best Painter. Those first tales are collected here, along with the comic series Beasts of Burden issues #1–#4.




Beasts of Burden


Book Description

2018 American Book Award Winner A beautifully written, deeply provocative inquiry into the intersection of animal and disability liberation—and the debut of an important new social critic How much of what we understand of ourselves as “human” depends on our physical and mental abilities—how we move (or cannot move) in and interact with the world? And how much of our definition of “human” depends on its difference from “animal”? Drawing on her own experiences as a disabled person, a disability activist, and an animal advocate, author Sunaura Taylor persuades us to think deeply, and sometimes uncomfortably, about what divides the human from the animal, the disabled from the nondisabled—and what it might mean to break down those divisions, to claim the animal and the vulnerable in ourselves, in a process she calls “cripping animal ethics.” Beasts of Burden suggests that issues of disability and animal justice—which have heretofore primarily been presented in opposition—are in fact deeply entangled. Fusing philosophy, memoir, science, and the radical truths these disciplines can bring—whether about factory farming, disability oppression, or our assumptions of human superiority over animals—Taylor draws attention to new worlds of experience and empathy that can open up important avenues of solidarity across species and ability. Beasts of Burden is a wonderfully engaging and elegantly written work, both philosophical and personal, by a brilliant new voice.




Hellboy/Beasts of Burden: Sacrifice


Book Description

The paranormal activity in the outwardly charming town of Burden Hill has gone from bad to worse, as seen in Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson's graphic novel _Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites_. Now the occult-investigating team of dogs (and one cat) needs some serious help. Contact with the Wise Dog Society has broken off, leaving the team on its own, as a series of unexplained animal slayings has begun. But magic can work in surprising ways, and help is brought to the team with the unexpected arrival of the world's greatest paranormal detective. Evan Dorkin (_Milk and Cheese_, _Bizarro World_) and Jill Thompson (_Scary Godmother_, _Magic Trixie_) join forces with Mike Mignola (_Hellboy_, _B.P.R.D._, _Witchfinder_, _Baltimore_) in an amazing one-shot bringing their supernatural worlds together! Mike Mignola's Hellboy joins the animals of Burden Hill!




Beasts of Burden: Neighborhood Watch


Book Description

This eight-time Eisner Award-winning comic book series blending fantasy and humor features the adventures of paranormal pets investigating the monsters of Burden Hill. The dogs and cats protecting Burden Hill from supernatural harm find themselves facing new threats and mysteries, including a vengeful demon, an invisible killer and an enigmatic flock of lost sheep. As a growing evil threatens to overwhelm their town, the animals find themselves some unlikely allies, most notably a seasoned paranormal investigator named...Hellboy. This volume collects the comic-book series Beasts of Burden: Sacrifice, Beasts of Burden: Neighborhood Watch, Beasts of Burden: Hunters and Gatherers, Beasts of Burden: What the Cat Dragged In, and Beasts of Burden: The Presence of Others #1 and #2.




My Dog: The Paradox


Book Description

This eponymous comic became an instant hit when it went live on The Oatmeal.com and was liked on Facebook by 700,000 fans. Now fans will have a keepsake book of this comic to give and to keep. In My Dog: The Paradox, Inman discusses the canine penchant for rolling in horse droppings, chasing large animals four times their size, and acting recklessly enthusiastic through the entirety of their impulsive, lovable lives. Hilarious and heartfelt, My Dog: The Paradox eloquently illustrates the complicated relationship between man and dog. We will never know why dogs fear hair dryers, or being baited into staring contests with cats, but as Inman explains, perhaps we love dogs so much “because their lives aren’t lengthy, logical, or deliberate, but an explosive paradox composed of fur, teeth, and enthusiasm.”




The Animal Side


Book Description

The Animal Side is a manifesto on the importance of animals for human thought. It attempts to characterize the importance, for human beings, of the fact that animals exist. Adopting a philosophical and poetic approach, the book seeks to show that animals' ways of inhabiting the earth are, for human consciousness, an expansion and an exploration of what philosophers and poets have tried to name by speaking of the Open. Beginning with the story of an encounter with a deer on a road at night, the book proceeds by showing that, beyond the diversity of animal life and the ways animals differ from human beings, there is a "layer of the perceptible" on which we all draw, humans and animals alike, in our own ways. At present, however, this layer itself is at risk. Thus the book can also be read as a defense and illustration of animals' modes of being, and as a plea for their survival.




Animal Lessons


Book Description

Philosophy reads humanity against animality, arguing that "man" is man because he is separate from beast. Deftly challenging this position, Kelly Oliver proves that, in fact, it is the animal that teaches us to be human. Through their sex, their habits, and our perception of their purpose, animals show us how not to be them. This kinship plays out in a number of ways. We sacrifice animals to establish human kinship, but without the animal, the bonds of "brotherhood" fall apart. Either kinship with animals is possible or kinship with humans is impossible. Philosophy holds that humans and animals are distinct, but in defending this position, the discipline depends on a discourse that relies on the animal for its very definition of the human. Through these and other examples, Oliver does more than just establish an animal ethics. She transforms ethics by showing how its very origin is dependent upon the animal. Examining for the first time the treatment of the animal in the work of Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Derrida, Agamben, Freud, Lacan, and Kristeva, among others, Animal Lessons argues that the animal bites back, thereby reopening the question of the animal for philosophy.




Satoshi Kon's Opus


Book Description

Brilliant anime director Satoshi Kon (Paprika, Paranoia Agent, Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, Perfect Blue) died tragically young in 2010 at the age of forty-six. But before he became a director, he was a manga artist, and Dark Horse is honored to remember Kon with the release of Satoshi Kon’s OPUS, an omnibus collection of a two-volume manga from 1996, created by Kon on the eve of his first film. OPUS contains the mastery of both realism and surrealism that would make Kon famous in Perfect Blue, as a manga artist planning a shocking surprise ending to his story gets literally pulled into his own work—to face for himself what he had planned for his characters! * Satoshi Kon was a Time magazine 2010 Person of the Year. * Kon was eulogized by director Darren Aronofsky. * Kon was a chief assistant to Katsuhiro Otomo on the Akiramanga.




Herd on the Street


Book Description

For more than sixty years, The Wall Street Journal has prided itself not just on its serious journalism, but also on the whimsical and arcane stories that amuse and delight its readers. In that regard, animal stories have proven to be the most beloved of all. Now, veteran Journal reporter and Page One editor Ken Wells gathers the finest, funniest, and most fascinating of these animal tales in one exceptional book. Here are lighthearted, witty stories of breakthroughs in goldfish surgery, the untiring efforts of British animal lovers who guide lovesick toads across dangerous motorways, and the quest to tame doggy anxieties by prescribing the human pacifier Prozac. Other pieces reflect on mankind's impact on the animal kingdom: a close-up look at the nascent fish-rights movement, the retirement of U.S. Air Force chimpanzees that once soared through space, and ongoing scientific efforts to defeat that most hardy enemy -- the cockroach. Each of these fifty-odd stories -- from the outlandish to the poignant -- exemplifies the superb feature writing that makes The Wall Street Journal one of America's best-written newspapers. This charming and utterly captivating collection will be a joy not only to animal lovers, but to all those who appreciate artful storytelling by writers who are obviously having a wonderful time spinning the tales.




Flaming Carrot Omnibus Volume 1


Book Description

The Eisner award-winning, surreal superhero series, The Flaming Carrot, returns with a new omnibus collection! Before there ever was a Deadpool, Twin Peaks, or Lady Gaga; the Flaming Carrot's madcap madness, manic mayhem, and impish mischief exploded from the vanguard of the 80s' New Wave comic revolution, taking us right down the rabbit hole of creativity-gone-off-the-tracks, and over the rainbow. Propagating dreamlike surrealism, disturbing violence, sexual adventurism, bar-hopping, and a bizarre and nightmarish costume, the world's first postmodern super man battled Road Hogs From Outer Space, went on drinking binges with Death, bounced around on a nuclear powered pogo stick, and ordered some of that new Brussels sprout flavored ice cream that wasn't even on the menu yet. Check out a comic book series that for many years most people believed to be nothing more than a ridiculous legend or an amusing joke. Doctor recommended. Maximum strength formula. New hope for a nation suffocating in the swill of its own mediocrity. Collects Flaming Carrot #1-2, 4-11, 25-27.