Welcome to Burden Hill - A peaceful suburb like any other with white picket fences and vibrant green grass - home to an unlikely team of paranormal investigators.

Black magic, demonic frogs, and zombie roadkill are just a few of the problems plaguing this seemingly sleepy little town. With the human residents unaware of the danger, it's up to a determined crew of dogs (and one cat) to keep their community safe.

Horror, adventure, mystery, and humor thrive on every page of Beasts of Burden , which promises to capture readers' hearts and haunt their dreams.

Award-winning comics creators Evan Dorkin ( Milk & Cheese ) and Jill Thompson ( Scary Godmother ) come together to share the lives of some unlucky heroes, first introduced in The Dark Horse Book of Hauntings , for which Dorkin and Thompson won coveted Eisner awards for Best Short Story and Best Painter. Animal Rites collects those earliest tales, along with the four-issue comic series Beasts of Burden .

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.