By Benita Story
Mouse Guard – Winter:1152 by David Petersen
According to Scott, David Petersen’s Mouse Guard is a highly regarded series and David is well-known and respected in the independent comic book scene. For me, whose comic reading has been limited to the web, mostly, it’s new.
Again, what caught my attention while wandering among the tables in Artist Alley at Wizard World Chicago was the cover art. A warrior mouse in medieval garb, trudging through the snow and smoking a pipe – Yup! Interesting!
So, I spoke with David, he explained the series to me, and I bought one issue. I wish I had bought them all! I will not be waiting for next year’s convention to gather more of his work – I will be contacting him this next week and see what he can send to me. I hope I’m not too late for the rest of the storyline I have started.
The art is absolutely fantastic, the coloring rich, and the story-telling compelling and spell-binding. This is the fourth book in my series of Indy Friday reviews, but it is my favorite, so far, and I really loved Vögelein. Okay, I love medieval stories, and I have never gotten over my love of animals as characters. Even in my days of playing D&D, I’ve rarely played pure humans, preferring to play Maldretch (A wolf-like humanoid), Half-Ogres, gnomes and elves.
The mice in this story are not the fearful, cowering mice like the rats in the NIMH books, but are trained warriors, medicine makers, merchants, everything that is needed in their society. In the book I have, which is the first book in the Winter: 1152 series, I even see them facing down an owl on the hunt for supper, and coming off the best for it.
If I were to give stars, this one would get all five of them - one for story-telling, two for the art, three for the coloring, four for the characterization, and five for the believable setting. This isn’t just another cute, fuzzy animal story. These mice mean business!
