Whew! Boy! Holy shit! If you were waiting for Stray Dogs to go full serial killer, then this is the issue. Comic books don’t get that sort of surge of emotions out of a person unless they really, really, really nail the pacing and through that the elevation of intensity, and, well, no one wants to see anything bad happen to dogs.

More than anything else, this is what we want: catharsis.

You go online, you read about people being horrible to animals, you see animals that have been hurt and need rehabilitation, and you (or at least I) want to see something happen to the people that would hurt animals. There is no catharsis. This series is like the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood of animal abuse. I want the final issue to happen so badly. I want to see this psychopath meet the unmuzzled mouth of a very pissed-off dog.

Reading Stray Dogs has been a slow burn as the good doggos that are trapped in the house of a serial killer slowly become aware that the person giving them treats may not be a very good owner after all. Each revelation has put the dogs in a situation that has become more precarious, and now that tension is about to explode.

This review has been a little all over the place, and I apologize for that, but my excitement for this story is cascading this way and that. The art… to capture such emotions on an animals’ face. Where is issue 5 already?!

Creative Team: Tony Fleecs (writer), Trish Forstner (artist), Brad Simpson (colorist), Tone Rodriguez (layouts)
Publisher: Image Comics
Click here to purchase.