mice with weapons week « Ideology of Madness

This news will make a lot of our readers very happy.

Announced officially at the Diamond Retailers Summit (and talked about previously in our interview with writer/creator/artist Dave Petersen), Archaia’s Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard is a four-issue anthology mini-series coming from Archaia in which creators handpicked by Petersen are given a chance to explore the world of Mouse Guard.

The four-issue mini will debut in Spring of 2010, and allow Petersen to begin work and get ahead of deadlines for The Black Axe, the prequel to the current Mouse Guard continuity (you really should know all this already from our awesome interview). Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard will alternately ship with issues of the main six-issue The Black Axe. While not all stories in Legends will be canon, they will surely all kick butt.

You know what this sounds like to me? A reason to do MICE WITH WEAPONS WEEK II!

Written on October 13th, 2009 , Comics, Independent Tags: mice with weapons week, mouse guard

Mice With Weapons Week AFTERMATH: Interview with Missle Mouse Creator Jake Parker!

Art from Flight Explorer

I’m going to avoid trying to cuss in this article, since we’re talking with Jake Parker, creator of the all ages title Missile Mouse. Still, Missile Mouse kicks butt. If you haven’t picked up Flight Explorer, why not? You’re missing out on new tales of Jellaby and Missile Mouse, and other all-ages appropriate tales by some of the most talented folks working in comics today!

Missile Mouse‘s first official appearance (well, the one you can get your hands on anyway) is in the Flight Explorer book, where he crash lands on an alien planet and has to liberate an alien race from a giant creature, as only Missile Mouse can! (lots of shooting)

I know that when we typically hear “all ages,” we think “kid stuff,” but, really, it just means that a story can be enjoyed by both children and adults. Like Star Wars and Star Trek, Missile Mouse is an all ages appropriate tale of a Han Solo/Buck Rogers-esque hero who manages to always find himself in over his head.

With the recent announcement of Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher coming out in January 2010, I thought we’d try to get a hold of creator Jake Parker to ask him what’s in store for us. The original plan was to have this out in time for our “Mice with Weapons” week, but, coincidentally enough, that happened to coincide with the deadline for the book itself! So, after a little delay, after the jump is our AWESOME interview with Missile Mouse creator Jake Parker!

Click here for our awesome interview with Missile Mouse creator Jake Parker!

Read the rest of this entry »

Written on May 7th, 2009 , Comics, Independent Tags: jake parker, mice with weapons week, missile mouse

Mice Have Swords on the Redwall, Too

Buy this. Stop asking questions or going to wikipedia to read about it. Just go buy it.

Brian Jacques, a British born author went a different way. Showing propensity as a writer at the age of ten with a story even his teachers didn’t believe he could have written, he created a world set in medieval times of a mouse named Matthias and his quest for a sword.

Redwall was published in 1986, and was born from stories Jacques would spin for children at Royal Wavertree School for the Blind when doing milk deliveries. Each species of animal has different accents, which when read gives distinction of the characters. Hares (don’t call them rabbits) have a militaristic British accent, hedgehogs sound Scottish and Mole Australian. It can make for difficult reading at first, but once you get into the swing of things, the characters roll around your head easily. Read the rest of this entry »

Written on April 24th, 2009 , Books, Burning Wheel, Games, Role Playing Games Tags: mice with weapons week, RPG

Your Morning Head (PM Edition): Role Playing Animals with/without Weapons, pt 1

Anybody else disturbed by the fact that he chose to wear a shirt, but no pants?

The great thing about Fear the Boot is that I often disagree with them, which gives me stuff to write about here. And when I say ‘often,’ I mean ‘all-the-time.’ So no shortage of content here at IoM.

In last week’s curiously well-timed episode that dropped Friday instead of its usual Wednesday and that I didn’t listen to until today (deep gulp of air), the guys talk about role playing animals. Not animals that role play, but people playing animals as characters in a role playing game. Just thought that needed clarification.

They take the subject from two angles.

They examine animals, not anthropomorphized animals such as Mickey Mouse, but animals absent thumbs. And… well… pants (looks uncomfortably to the left). Read the rest of this entry »

Written on April 21st, 2009 , Columns, Games, Podcasts, Role Playing Games, Your Morning Head Tags: mice with weapons week

Interview with Mouse Guard’s David Petersen, Part Two!

So, if you read part one of our MASSIVE Mouse Guard interview, then you know that there was plenty of awesome news about what’s coming up for our favorite mice. And that was just the beginning!

After the jump, read the second part of our interview with creator David Petersen, where we talk about spin-offs, merchandising…and Muppet Robin Hood?

Click the mice below to check out the interview!

Click here to read part two of our interview with David Petersen!

Read the rest of this entry »

Written on April 21st, 2009 , Comics, Independent Tags: davied, mice with weapons week, mouse guard

Your Morning Head: One of my Top 10 All Time Reads – Maus

p45 There are books in my life that I return to, over and over again. Books such as Watership Down, Dune, and Watchmen call to me requiring that I once again make my pilgrimage through those hallowed pages. Each sojourn there amongst these brings a new insight, yields a new layer of experience. The best books are like that, layered, complex. There’s so much going on that you can’t absorb it all in one reading. They are books that demand to be read.

And re-read.

Art Spiegelman’s Maus is one of these books. Read the rest of this entry »

Written on April 21st, 2009 , Columns, Comics, Independent, Your Morning Head Tags: Comics, mice with weapons week

Interview with Mouse Guard’s David Petersen, Part One!

Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 #6

It’s winter of the year 1152. The season has been a tough one, and the town of Lockhaven is running dangerously short on food and supplies. A small team of elite soldiers serving as diplomats (Saxon, Kenzie, Lieam, and Sadie, led by Celanawe) make their way through the snow blanketed territories to improve relations between cities and the Guard, and to try to find food and supplies. This is a winter not every Guard may survive.

Mouse Guard is an Eisner-Award winning tale of a mouse-filled world of intrigue, war, tragedy, and friendship. From the official site,

The mice struggle to live safely and prosper among all of the world’s harsh conditions and predators. Thus the Mouse Guard was formed. After persevering against a weasel warlord in the winter war of 1149, the territories are no longer as troubled. True, the day to day dangers exist, but no longer are the Guard soldiers, instead they are escorts, pathfinders, weather watchers, scouts and body guards for the mice who live among the territories. Many skills are necessary for the guard to keep the borders safe. They must find new safeways and paths from village to village, lead shipments of goods from one town to another and, in case of attack, guard against all evil and harm to their territories.

‘Hail all those who are able, any mouse can, any mouse will, but the Guard prevail’

Mouse Guard is written and illustrated by David Petersen and, with the final issue of the second Mouse Guard miniseries, Winter 1152, hitting stands soon, we had a sit-down to see what else was in store for the Guard! Check out part one of our awesome two part interview after the jump!