The Virgin Read: It's Always Nice When People Agree That Mice Versus Owl Is Totes Awesome

Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 # 5
By David Petersen
Published by Archaia Studios Press

Mouse Guard is 100% unlike any other usual weekly/monthly/quarterly (?) comic I’ve read. The art is what caught my eye at first. I don’t have much of an art vernacular to describe it with, but here's my best attempt: The art was a purely visceral experience for me. The cover was smooth, calm and fierce all at once.  Something about the little mouse in a torn cloak fighting a bloody-eyed owl in the snow says “epic story.”  I looked at that cover, and I made a snap judgment on the comic:  i wanted to read it immediately.

It turns out I was right--this is clearly an "epic" tale.  Although this is issue # 5 and I’ve not read any of the preceding issues, I could feel the scope of it – and this issue was just too short!  Just as I got the hang of it, just as I really grasped what was going on in both story lines and felt some attachment, some twinge of heartbreak and pain, it was over.

I have to go back to try and talk about the art, because in this case, the art IS the comic.  The last comic I reviewed, and another one back in January had me commenting that the creators didn’t seem to understand how to use the pictures, the art to tell the story.  That these comics are picture books with words, they aren't books with cursory illustration.  And here – look, I just went back and went through the entire comic without reading the words to see if it made sense.  And Mouse Guard totally does.  As a matter of fact, both sections of the actual fight with the owl are completely without words.  The story is told by the art alone, with the words serving merely as the player's introduction.  The other part of the story--the battle itself, the fearsome strength of the owl--that's all delivered in the art.  In the remaining portions of the comic, where the mice struggle to find their way out and towards home,  the only dialog used is necessary, leaving the pages uncluttered with words.  Here we have (finally!) words and pictures telling story in harmony.

If I had picked up a comic book like this when I was 10 or 11 years old, god, I'd have been hooked.  It’s just outside of the realm of reality (because it’s personifying animals,) but has all the stuff great stories are made of: love, bravery, sacrifice, adventure, mystery, friendship, adversity, etc.

And I know all of that from reading just one issue.

When I was in second grade, there was this book I repetitively checked out of the library.  I can’t remember the name, in fact I think that the actual story in it was pretty boring.  But it was a book about spring, and I remember loving it because of the way that looking at it made me feel.  The colors of the whole thing – the cover, inside and out, the pages, the weight and thickness of it, the pastels contrasted with sharp lines.  I loved to turn the pages of that book because I loved the way it made me feel, and that’s how I am responding to Mouse Guard.  I just keep carrying it around the apartment with me and flipping through it.  It’s beautiful, and somehow seems to raise me up.

Can it get any better than that?

-Nina Stone, 2009

Comments

[10FootBongz]

I just traded a bunch of comics for the hardcover of the first series, and I have to agree, this is a really good book. Even my kid likes it, and he only likes Captain Underpants.

[Tucker Stone]

Yeah, Nina already heard me say it too, but this comic took me by surprise. The owl sequence is really impressive cartooning. Anybody know if the rest is like this?

[Chris Jones]

I read the first one and I think it's sort of overrated.

It's like...you could just as easily read "Redwall" and get pretty much the exact same thing for a lot less money, minus all the pretty pictures.

Not saying it's not good, basically saying it's just a graphic adaptation of "Redwall".

[Matthew J. Brady]

Oh, man, I love Mouse Guard. The artwork rocks, and it's full of cool action, with little badass mice fighting things like snakes, crabs, and bats. I really dig it. I need to read this issue; it's probably waiting for me at the comic shop.

[Kenny]

The first trade is every bit as good! Mouse Guard is all sorts of awesome! I can see the Redwall comparison, but the art in Mouse Guard is just all sorts of crazy awesome, and it's the art that sets it apart.

Mice Templar from Image is also good, but it may be a guilty pleasure. The art certainly isn't as just out and out pretty as Mouse Guard.

[LurkerWithout]

Both the current Winter: 1152 series and the previous Fall: 1152 series would probably rank in my personal Top 20 Best Books list if I did one...

I reviewed the trade of the first series [url=http://lurkerwithout.livejournal.com/tag/mouse+guard]here[/url]

[LurkerWithout]

Ok, that code doesn't work.

http://lurkerwithout.livejournal.com/tag/mouse+guard

[plok]

Oh shit, the crabs! I forgot about them, somehow...that's when my brain just flipped, and said "yes" to the whole thing.

Must go out and get some...

Archaia's a weird outfit: all the books are just slightly "I've seen this before, only a bit better", but then damn if you don't get thoroughly addicted to them. I do believe it's the art.