Mouse Guard Volume One: Fall 1152

(image source: Goodreads)

Hurray for the development of the graphic novel! Again, I don’t know that I think Graphic Novel is the best term. But is all I have, so it is what I will use. And such a broad term has allowed for the development of a wide variety of different and amazing creations.

Sometimes a good story needs to be told both visually and verbally (well, not out loud. Linguistically?). Anyway – in words and in pictures. Together. Sometimes I am looking for a comic. So I buy comics. Sometimes I want a book-book, so I get one of those. But frankly sometimes what I am looking for is a story. I think that there are some stories that just need both formats to tell their tale properly. Mouse Guard Volume One: Fall 1152 by David Petersen is one of those stories.

Let’s start with the art. Amazingly, this book is color throughout, not just on the cover. And the drawing style itself was lovely. The depth of the color, the design of the layout and perspectives, even the type and width of the outlines are all carefully crafted to create a woodsy, earthy mood from the outset. Petersen has mastered the technique of creating images that “tell” the way words do in a typical prose novel.

What pushes his book beyond others is that he also can use words just as effectively. The narration and dialog simply combine with the images, rather than just being used to fill in missing information, the way so many other GN seem to do. And the real center of this story, the characters themselves, were each terrific medieval anthropomorphisms in mouse form. Their personalities and back stories fit neatly within the texture of the art.

The characters, the plotline, and each panel were so thoroughly thought out and seamlessly combined that I was utterly absorbed into the story. I felt like I was reading a retelling of an Arthurian-type legend. David Petersen is a story teller that has found his medium.