Kevin Sutton
Mar 6, 2008, 09:20 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/ind/3cover.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/covers/ind/mouseguard3.jpg" hspace=10 align=left alt="Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 #3"></a>Reviewer: Kevin Sutton, kevinsutton@cheerful.com
The Black Axe’s story may not be for real… but if James Frey has nothing on him. If he did he'd be chopped into a million little pieces.
Story Title: Winter 1152: Part Three of Six
Script: David Peterson
Illustrations: David Peterson
Managing Editor: Mark Smylie and Aki Liao
Publisher: Archaia Studio Press
Published by: Archaia Studio Press (http://www.archaiasp.com/)
Sometimes this book, for all its unique style and progression, can sometimes come off as a little light. This storyline for example, has somewhat eschewed the dramatic pace and movement of more epic or more adventurous fare, relying on elements that are more difficult to highlight when your characters are all mice with few physical human qualities or contemporary concerns. The Mouse Guard are on a journey with the Black Axe to retrieve medicines, while those back in Lockhaven try to uncover more treachery within their ranks. The former is a journey story where the characters learn more about each other while encountering multiple obstacles and dangers.
This issue properly encapsulates the balance between intense action and wizened conversation that gives this book its' mature feel, and probably is the best issue to date of this series. Peterson has paced this instalment very well, providing for a combination of different story threads --Saxon's encounter with bats in the abandoned Weasel lair, and Lieam's parley with the Black Axe. This issue is better developed in story pace the previous issues, while successfully harvesting Peterson's contrasting subtle and chaotic episodes. I appreciated that a great deal, especially since both of these alternating styles provide, in this issue, similar encounters in some ways.
Deep under the earth, (well, not that deep) Saxon and his compatriots are forced to enter an abandoned Weasel lair which is now inhabited by bats. The bats have a creepy penchant for echoing speech or finishing each other’s sentences; an affectation which starts first as a dangerous whisper and then elevates to the level of war chanting. (Think of the Predator’s taunts… but with more than one) The bats are challenged by Saxon, (as is his way) which rouses them to obvious hostility towards the intruders. Rejected in their mythological “long, long ago” by the birds and the ground critters, the bats simply want to be left alone. But Saxon isn't one to leave anyone alone, so he heroically guarantees a brutal falling out which is well depicted as fast, chaotic, and ends on a somewhat terrifying note.
Meanwhile Lieam and Black Axe are taking the medicine back to Lockhaven when they are beset by a more natural obstacle. Freezing rain coats the mice in ‘mice-sicles’ which makes them look totally alien. This artistic representation brought the danger of this weather to the mice into sharp focus. They seek shelter under the snow and get to talking while waiting out the weather. Black Axe seems to have taken a shining to Lieam and presses Lieam to define himself. He also is drawn into explaining himself and his own legend, and a curious and brazen Lieam is not above questioning the veracity of the living legend to his face. The mice go back and forth on politics and truth in a scene that utilizes the subtle moods that Peterson has used previously to define characters. Nobody gets excited or expository; people just are naturally relating to each other as strangers, compatriots, or as teacher or student would. This layered conversation helps add depth to the story, which has on occasion seemed thin. Thin, because its' concerns were mundane instead of cliché, subtle and not fantastic. Sometimes that's a flaw, but this time, (and at other times) these qualities shone through to make the script more touching and relatable. Of course, there wouldn't be a proper ending to the issue if this friendly chat didn't close on a foreboding note --with a very arresting image of one of the many omnipresent dangers of the woods. Just when you thought things couldn't possibly get any worse…
Both sequences are done in different styles and have very different color schemes due to the obvious differences in locale, yet both have similar elements. A sense of being trapped, weighty conversations, broken possessions, large threatening cliff-hangers… it is very artfully designed even if by accident. Of course, it's also a credit to the author that there was even more to this issue. (The above mentioned treachery and murder attempt) The diverging plotlines tail the diverging pairings of the Mouse Guards, as Kenzie becomes more his own mouse, he is drawn by chance or interest to the Black Axe more than his two compatriots who've led him before. It's sort of a coming of age element, in a story where the character doesn't look or act like a child. (It's hard to underestimate the effect of the depiction of anamorphic characters can have on our perception of them --the less cartoon style Peterson prefers is part of this book's unique strength and weakness)
As mentioned a few times in this review, the art is raised to a greater height in this issue. Peterson doesn't just provide details or well choreographed action; he also provides artistic and dramatic cues with the colors and design, all without compromising the down to earth look of the series. Images that are specifically memorable, (Beyond being simply good) can be difficult to achieve when you confine your work to realism, (Of a sort) but this time Peterson was not limited by that.
I daresay this may be the best constructed issue I've read of the Mouse Guard, (Although some of the earlier issues are a blur to me now) and if the story continues to be such an engine of subtle depth and genuine excitement, this will become a book not just worth appreciating, but one well worth anticipating.
RATING:
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BUY this issue at X-WORLD and SAVE! (http://www.x-worldcomics.com)
The Black Axe’s story may not be for real… but if James Frey has nothing on him. If he did he'd be chopped into a million little pieces.
Story Title: Winter 1152: Part Three of Six
Script: David Peterson
Illustrations: David Peterson
Managing Editor: Mark Smylie and Aki Liao
Publisher: Archaia Studio Press
Published by: Archaia Studio Press (http://www.archaiasp.com/)
Sometimes this book, for all its unique style and progression, can sometimes come off as a little light. This storyline for example, has somewhat eschewed the dramatic pace and movement of more epic or more adventurous fare, relying on elements that are more difficult to highlight when your characters are all mice with few physical human qualities or contemporary concerns. The Mouse Guard are on a journey with the Black Axe to retrieve medicines, while those back in Lockhaven try to uncover more treachery within their ranks. The former is a journey story where the characters learn more about each other while encountering multiple obstacles and dangers.
This issue properly encapsulates the balance between intense action and wizened conversation that gives this book its' mature feel, and probably is the best issue to date of this series. Peterson has paced this instalment very well, providing for a combination of different story threads --Saxon's encounter with bats in the abandoned Weasel lair, and Lieam's parley with the Black Axe. This issue is better developed in story pace the previous issues, while successfully harvesting Peterson's contrasting subtle and chaotic episodes. I appreciated that a great deal, especially since both of these alternating styles provide, in this issue, similar encounters in some ways.
Deep under the earth, (well, not that deep) Saxon and his compatriots are forced to enter an abandoned Weasel lair which is now inhabited by bats. The bats have a creepy penchant for echoing speech or finishing each other’s sentences; an affectation which starts first as a dangerous whisper and then elevates to the level of war chanting. (Think of the Predator’s taunts… but with more than one) The bats are challenged by Saxon, (as is his way) which rouses them to obvious hostility towards the intruders. Rejected in their mythological “long, long ago” by the birds and the ground critters, the bats simply want to be left alone. But Saxon isn't one to leave anyone alone, so he heroically guarantees a brutal falling out which is well depicted as fast, chaotic, and ends on a somewhat terrifying note.
Meanwhile Lieam and Black Axe are taking the medicine back to Lockhaven when they are beset by a more natural obstacle. Freezing rain coats the mice in ‘mice-sicles’ which makes them look totally alien. This artistic representation brought the danger of this weather to the mice into sharp focus. They seek shelter under the snow and get to talking while waiting out the weather. Black Axe seems to have taken a shining to Lieam and presses Lieam to define himself. He also is drawn into explaining himself and his own legend, and a curious and brazen Lieam is not above questioning the veracity of the living legend to his face. The mice go back and forth on politics and truth in a scene that utilizes the subtle moods that Peterson has used previously to define characters. Nobody gets excited or expository; people just are naturally relating to each other as strangers, compatriots, or as teacher or student would. This layered conversation helps add depth to the story, which has on occasion seemed thin. Thin, because its' concerns were mundane instead of cliché, subtle and not fantastic. Sometimes that's a flaw, but this time, (and at other times) these qualities shone through to make the script more touching and relatable. Of course, there wouldn't be a proper ending to the issue if this friendly chat didn't close on a foreboding note --with a very arresting image of one of the many omnipresent dangers of the woods. Just when you thought things couldn't possibly get any worse…
Both sequences are done in different styles and have very different color schemes due to the obvious differences in locale, yet both have similar elements. A sense of being trapped, weighty conversations, broken possessions, large threatening cliff-hangers… it is very artfully designed even if by accident. Of course, it's also a credit to the author that there was even more to this issue. (The above mentioned treachery and murder attempt) The diverging plotlines tail the diverging pairings of the Mouse Guards, as Kenzie becomes more his own mouse, he is drawn by chance or interest to the Black Axe more than his two compatriots who've led him before. It's sort of a coming of age element, in a story where the character doesn't look or act like a child. (It's hard to underestimate the effect of the depiction of anamorphic characters can have on our perception of them --the less cartoon style Peterson prefers is part of this book's unique strength and weakness)
As mentioned a few times in this review, the art is raised to a greater height in this issue. Peterson doesn't just provide details or well choreographed action; he also provides artistic and dramatic cues with the colors and design, all without compromising the down to earth look of the series. Images that are specifically memorable, (Beyond being simply good) can be difficult to achieve when you confine your work to realism, (Of a sort) but this time Peterson was not limited by that.
I daresay this may be the best constructed issue I've read of the Mouse Guard, (Although some of the earlier issues are a blur to me now) and if the story continues to be such an engine of subtle depth and genuine excitement, this will become a book not just worth appreciating, but one well worth anticipating.
RATING:
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BUY this issue at X-WORLD and SAVE! (http://www.x-worldcomics.com)