Q&A with David Peterson, creator of Mouse Guard

If you’ve read the site much, you know how much of a fan I am of Mouse Guard, last year’s surprise hit miniseries from Archaia Studios Press. Mouse Guard creator David Petersen was kind enough to answer several questions for our readers, sharing lots of insights on his background in art and writing, the creation of Mouse Guard, upcoming projects and even his old D&D habit.

For those who foolishly haven’t read this series yet, Mouse Guard follows a society of mice who’ve created a group of soldier mice, the Guard, to protect themselves from larger animals. In the first mini, three members of the Guard face an attack from within. The first Mouse Guard series, Fall 1152, will soon be available in collected form and Petersen is currently working on a sequel, Winter 1152.

Jean-Claude Van Doom: First, I’m curious about your background, getting into comics. I saw on your Web site that you’ve done some pin-ups of stock superheroes (Superman, Batman, Hulk, etc.). Was that the kind of stuff that you grew up reading? Did you want to try to break into writing or illustrating those mainstream books? Is that something you still see as a goal?

David Petersen: I am a fine arts graduate of Eastern Michigan University and have been interested in drawing characters and telling stories since I was a little kid. I grew up reading mainly X-men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but had a little bit of everything. There was a point where drawing the X-Men was the goal, but I was 13. I love iconic characters so doing pin-ups is something I really enjoy, but I don’t know that telling their stories is for me. I have my own set of tales that I need to tell and it only makes sense to do that with my own characters.

JCVD: When and how did you decide that comics was what you wanted to pursue?

DP: Until I was in college I thought comics would be a good home for me, but I looked at my stuff and I looked at what was in comics and the two didn’t gel. I thought I would take a shot at children’s book illustration and started work on a portfolio to do so. It was then that I set up at the Motor City comic con. I had never given up a love of comics or the desire to do them and I thought I’d set up selling paintings and illustrations of both comic characters and fantasy illustrations. There was some interest in my Mouse Guard images, so I made a promise to myself to do the story as a comic.

JCVD: Have you always been a fantasy fan? And would you categorize Mouse Guard as fantasy?

DP: Yeah, I always loved fantasy stuff. I had Dark Crystal and Disney’s Robin Hood on betamax and I watched them until the tape was bad. My friends and I played our share of Dungeons and Dragons as well. And I am still a fan and love the Lord of the Rings films, Pan’s Labyrinth, Fritz’ Leiber’s Fafhrd & Grey Mouser stories, all that stuff. I would definitely consider Mouse Guard a fantasy. There isn’t any magic or supernatural creatures, but the setting and fact that the mice are bipedal and swinging swords and axes keeps me in the club.

JCVD: What is it about mice, to you, that makes them so personable and such interesting characters? Also, in the character design, how did you decide on the approach you ended up taking (which seems to me as extremely far removed from typical illustrated mice)?

DP: The original concept for the story was more of a world-view with lots of species involved. I thought a brown bear would be the largest animal I would use and a mouse would be the smallest. So I needed a way to protect the mice in the story. How can I have mice as main characters without them having a cultural method of survival. In the wild mice thrive because they reproduce, which wasn’t the angle I wanted to use. I figured if mice hid their cities inside nearly-impenetrable places (rocks, tree trunks, etc) and had many cities spread apart, they could survive mass slaughter even if one location was breached. This left them prisoners of their own homes though, so the Mouse Guard became the hero characters I could use for the story. After I did that I felt the rest of the world didn’t hold as much interest for me. The were weak in the world, but determined not to be so. It’s the idea of them being so low on the food chain and overcoming that with tactics that appealed to me. Classic David/Goliath stuff.

I love classic children’s book illustration and wanted my book to have some of that feel. I wanted the mice not to be “Disnefied” because I wanted them to be more believable. If they looked too cartooney, the audience would think they could squash and stretch their way out of anything. If they looked to real, it would be hard for them to emote feelings.

JCVD: I consider Mouse Guard to be the true standout book of 2006, something that surprised everyone and achieved universal acclaim. What is it about the story that makes it not only accessible to such a wide audience, but also makes it so memorable?

DP: Thank you! I tried to make sure it was something a kid could read, but not write down to them and to keep it interesting for adults, something I would have appreciated as a kid. I kept the ideas of heroism and epic tales that Joseph Campbell listed in ‘Hero with a Thousand Faces’ in mind to make sure I was hitting the major points needed to tell a classic mythology.

JCVD: As far as storytelling goes, where do you draw inspiration from? Do you subscribe to any particular “school” of storytelling?

DP: To make sure the images tell the story is really important, and to pace a story with pauses and silent moments to intensify the scene. I really admire the storytelling of Mike Mignola and film makers M. Night Shalaman and Alfred Hitchcock.

JCVD: The first thing that drew me to the book was the art. Particularly, there’s an impressive level of detail to the inking that blew me away. (I think my favorite scene was the army crossing the river atop pine cones.) How long does it take for you to ink a page, on average? Is there anything about inking (or any other aspect of the art) that you think sets you apart from most others?

DP: My inking is a direct result of my background in printmaking. I use a lot of stippling, basket-hatching, and other textures in Mouse Guard that I would use when doing an etching. I can ink a page in a day’s work. Sometimes it takes longer sometimes shorter.

JCVD: With the next Mouse Guard book being set in winter, will we be seeing lots of snowy scenes? I’m interested to see how you might tackle that sort of a landscape.

DP: Yes, lots of snow. I’m taking advantage of a Michigan winter right now to collect some cool photo reference of snowy drifts and barren trees. I’ll do more with the snow in color than in ink, but the adventure won’t all take place in a frozen landscape, and I will use a lot of that ink I saved on snow pages for the other location of the story.

JCVD: From what I’ve read of the upcoming book, and from some moments in Fall, Mouse Guard definitely contains some very dramatic moments including violence. Where do you see your work falling in regards to the line between “adult” and “child” fiction?

DP: It dances on that line. I know that ASP and I set an age suggestion of 10 for the book, but I think there are kids younger who can handle it and perhaps kid older who couldn’t. I know that kids are capable of handling events we feel are very ‘adult’. When I was a kid I remember an episode of Voltron where Sven died and in Robotech when Roy died, and in Star Wars when Obi-Wan died, they were all meaningful events in the story. I can’t have these mice seem threatened if they can’t shed blood or be immortal. I’m never a gore-for-gore’s-sake guy. I’ll never show unnecessary amounts of death and blood and guts. That’s not going to serve the story, but I won’t take shortcuts to make it 4 year old friendly if it’s taking away from the story.

JCVD: And, are there any other projects looming? I noticed the Hellboy pin-ups. Any chance you’ll tackle a Hellboy story?

DP: Ha Ha! No, no Hellboy for me, while I’d love to do something with him, it would be too much pressure knowing what Mignola has done with the character. I do have another creator owned project on the back burner.

Right now I’m all about Mouse Guard.