Out in stores tomorrow and this week, is The Beasts of Burden, a four-issue mini-series published by Dark Horse, written by Evan Dorkin (Milk and Cheese) and with painted art by Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother) featuring a band of neighborhood pets who get in supernatural adventures. Beasts of Burden was introduced in four Dark Horse Book of anthologies (Hauntings, Witchcraft, the Dead, and Monsters).
Pop Culture Shock tracked Thompson down at Comic-Con International, on the day before she would win another Eisner Award, this year for Best Painter/Multimedia Artist on Magic Trixie, Magic Trixie Sleeps Over. She first caught the attention of the masses with her work in the early 90’s on Sandman, Swamp Thing, Invisibles, and Wonder Woman, then began paving the way for her own creation, Scary Godmother (1997-2000), a series of children’s books and her love of Halloween. Other highlights include Finals (1999), The Little Endless Storybook (2001), Death: At Death’s Door (2003), The Dead Boy Detectives (2005) amongst countless other works. She has branded a whimsical, cartoony art style that’s filled with emotion, drama, and most of all, fun. Ernie Estrella caught up with Jill to discuss the truth about cats and dogs, reading oversized comics, and of course, painting The Beasts of Burden.
The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the 21st Century Limited Edition HC. $250 if you can afford it.
Robert E. Howard’s Thulsa Doom #1
“…I always wanted to write a comic full of imaginary subcultures that took place in an invented city, but with the ‘alternate history’ angle tacked on, I can custom-fit the environment. I don’t want cell phones, so there aren’t any. I don’t want Arizona’s crazy meth problems, which would just be silly to omit if I were writing about the state’s underclass realistically, so that’s gone, too. Whatever I say, goes. And when something comes up, someone asks me why Templar’s Arizona is (x) instead of (y), well hey, alternate history!
“…It must have struck a chord, which is the most we could have hoped for. We are not big name writers and [artist] Afua [Richardson] is fairly new on the scene so we would like to think it was the work that spoke for itself. There wasn’t a Fraction, Ellis or Bendis-like name on the cover to lure you in so it’s not like our legions of ‘followers’ bum rushed the stores.
“…Each page of ‘Wednesday Comics’ is actually the size of four regular-sized comic pages, so I made sure I always ended each page with a cliffhanger to make the reader come back for more next week. So every page starts with action as last week’s cliffhanger is resolved in the opening panels, next something happens to move the story forward a step, then a new cliffhanger is introduced. All of my books tend to follow that same cliffhanger melodrama structure, whether it’s ‘Nat Turner,’ ‘Plastic Man,’ ‘King David’ or ‘I Die At Midnight.’ The only real difference with writing a story in weekly installments is that I don’t expect the reader to remember what happened two pages back. In a book, I can have a character buy a gun on page one and not fire it until page twenty, assuming that the reader will remember that the character had a gun.” 
Escape From Wonderland #1 (of 6)
Mayhem #1 (of 3)
“…Since [Luke Cage Noir] is set in 1930’s Harlem, I did quite a bit of research of the look of the period. I drew studies of the hairstyles, the fashions, etc. One detail I was very conscious about in regards to Luke Cage’s design was his hairstyle. I was at a book signing and mentioned that Cage was my next project. An older African American man, who was a comic fan, was very excited but pleaded with me not to make Cage bald. Unfortunately, the defacto hairstyles for Black characters in the comic book industry are either bald or an outdated fade. I’d attribute that frustrating detail to a lack of diversity.”
