Death: At Death’s Door by Jill Thompson in consultation with Neil Gaiman

Once more we return to the shoju Vertigo stylings of Jill Thompson. Here Thompson does a re-perspective on the events of A Season of Mists. That’s the Sandman story-arc where Dream goes to Hell to spring free a girlfriend he’d condemned there ages ago and ends up being given the keys by Lucifer after the Morningstar closes the place down and kicks everyone out.

In At Death’s Door Thompson occasionally stops by the regular story with Dream, but mostly she follows his siblings Death, Delerium and Despair as they wrangle the newly expelled ghosts of the Damned. That includes Delerium and Despair trying to throw a party at Death’s to cheer up some of the Damned.

Thompson’s work is fun and makes for a wonderful contrast and companion to the original story. But, as always, part of the enjoyment will depend on one’s tolerance for manga-style art. Especially the shoju or girly style that Thompson does so well…

Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites written by Evan Dorkin, drawn by Jill Thompson and lettering by Jason Arthur and Jill Thompson

Burden Hill seems to be a normal, peaceful suburb like any other. There are yards full of green grass fenced in with white picket. House pets roaming all about. However, something dark and dangerous keeps stirring in the nearby woods. Haunted dog-houses, Black Sabbaths and zombie roadkill are among the horrors. As things continue to grow darker, one group of dogs must learn to become Wise Dogs (and one cat) to protect their homes and families.

This volume cheaply priced at 20 bucks for a hardback collects the various short stories from theDark House Book of… anthologies as well as the 4-issue Beasts of Burden mini-series. They give you eight stories by Dorkin and Thompson of heroic housepets battling the supernatural that are both wonderfully adorable and terribly horrifying at the same time.