Mouse
Guard
From
the University library, I selected the graphic novel Mouse Guard Vol. 2: Winter
1152 (the hardcover collected edition). What first attracted me to this book
was the graphic image on the cover. The art is outstanding in this comic. The
cover features a bird’s eye view of Celanawe and Lieam, two members of the
mouse guard, trekking through the snow. The comic is a fantasy adventure and
even though the comic is for young readers and adolescents, it is a comic that
can be enjoyed by all ages. Petersen’s art involves an escape into an intense,
dangerous and exciting world with a vision that is very different from our own.
The
mouse guard are soldiers who provide safety and prosperity to their village of
Lockhaven. They provide protection against intruders and set out on dangerous
missions to help their village. In the Mouse Guard Winter 1152 collection the
village is running low on food and medicine for the winter. The guard have been
sent forth by Lady Gwendolyn who is the overseer of the village. The guard
members sent forth are Celanawe, Sadie, Saxon, Kenzie and Lieam. Petersen uses
a bold and extensive colour pallet in his art work. Almost every page in the
book has a piece of artwork on it. The inside cover and first page show a map of
the mouse territories, so the reader can reference where the mice are on their
adventure and where they have been and how far they have travelled.
The
above picture is a good example of what I love about Petersen’s art. The angle
is a bird’s eye view but I love all the attention to detail. The glow of light
from the lantern, the shadows of the tree branches on the snow as dusk sets in,
the footprints in the snow and the depth that the picture has to relate height
from the view point high up in the trees. This is a very sensory diegetic image
because the reader can experience the image through visual perception, as the
reader can imagine the cold temperature of the snow and hear the crunching of
the snow beneath the paws of the mice as they walk. Petersen uses cartoon mice
to depict representations of people, as this method is easier for readers to
identify with than realistic drawings. Considering the age group attracted to
mouse guard this choice makes sense. Cartoon character mice also make it easier
for readers to imagine themselves in the fantasy world when the characters are
contrasted with realistic looking surroundings.
Petersen
has really done a good job of personifying the mice characters. Their snowshoes
are upturned acorn caps and the shoulder guard that Celanawe wears is half of
shell of a nut. Celanawe smoking a pipe adds a human activity to the mice
further personifying their lifestyle as civil then animalistic. I think it
requires a lot of creativity to personify an animal without losing the
character as an animal. I feel that Petersen has mastered this in his
characters.
The
home of the mouse guard is the castle of Lockhaven.
The
surrounding villages that the mouse guard travel to are all different with each
village having distinguishing features that separate them from each other. One
of the mouse territories that the mouse guard visit is Sprucetuck, a village
inside a giant spruce tree. The Sprucetuck residents are scientists and
apothecaries, which is where the mouse guard obtain the medicine they need for
their village. Petersen’s imagination is really present within the interior
design of Sprucetuck. The reader can imagine what a room looks like by piecing
together the images that Petersen provides.
The
mice are always kept in proportion to the wide gigantic world around them.
Petersen uses a lot of long, tall narrow panels to bring the tiny stature of
the mice into perspective, as seen in the first panel above. The mice can only
be seen as the glow of their lantern before the massive tall spruce tree. As
already seen above the artist also uses bird eye view illustrations to show the
mice’s tiny size in relation to the world around them.
Petersen
also provides the mouse world to the reader by the creative and imaginative
interior and exterior shots of the mice villages. Even though these mice lead civilized
lives, they still have not forgotten how to be animals. When Celanawe and Lieam
are caught in a freezing rain storm, they dig beneath the snow to take shelter
and wait out the storm. Petersen provides the reader with a cross-section view
of the mice beneath the snow, which I find highly imaginative and interesting.
I appreciate the artist’s talent in depicting water frozen on the mice clothes
and fur because it provides a sensory diegetic experience for the reader.
One
of the most outstanding artistic feats in this book is the battle with the owl.
Petersen remains consistent with the ratio of mouse to owl. This is such a
heroic shot to take in, with the huge down draft that the mouse would have to
push through as the owl descended. The owl is armed with size, strength, and
sharp beak and talons and Celanawe armed with the legendary black battle ax.
There are no speech balloons or caption boxes to provide the reader. The reader
must use the integrated perceptual experience the image provides to understand
what is taking place. This image presents a non-sensory diegetic experience for
the reader because the reader has to participate in acting out what Celanawe is
thinking as he charges the owl. The reader creates the emotions and sensations
that Celanawe feels, in other words the reader provides Celanawe’s
psychological state based on their imagination and experience.
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