‘Mouse Guard’ Anthology Returns with Willingham, Canete, Geary, Sakai and More

Good news from Archaia. The publisher of David Petersen's multi-award winning Mouse Guard has announced the second volume of Legends of the Guard, an anthology project that invites some of comics' most talented creators to tell stories set throughout Petersen's endlessly charming, frequently funny and always harrowing mediaval world of mice. Launching in May, the new Legends of the Guard includes contributions from such fan favorites as Eric Canete (TRON: Uprising, Rocketeer Adventures) Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo), Rick Geary (The Adventures of Blanche) and Bill Willingham (Fables).Written and lavishly illustrated by Petersen, Mouse Guard follows the adventures of an elite association of mice sworn to protect a kind of mouse kingdom from threats both foreign -- like weasels, snakes, and other predators -- and domestic -- like traitors. Petersen's main story, which is published in the form of miniseries later collected in hardcovers, has won numerous awards. To sate readers' appetites between volumes, Petersen and Archaia created Legends of the Guard, the first series of which won the Eisner Award for Best Anthology.

Launching in May, the second volume sounds just as good. "It's been amazing to have people I admire write and draw stories for Mouse Guard," said David Petersen in a press release. "Getting the behind-the-scenes view of their process is a treat for me. These contributors are putting together some great stories and I'm anxious for the fans to get to see what I've been watching come together!"

Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard #1 (V2) includes work by Petersen, Stan Sakai, Ben Caldwell (The Dare Detectives!), Nick Tapalansky and Alex Eckman-Lawn (Awakening). Subsequent issues will spotlight Christian Slade (Korgi), Rick Geary, Jemma Salume (Unicorn Life Cycle), Jackson Sze (concept art on films like The Avengers and Iron Man 3), Cory Godbey (Fraggle Rock, the upcoming Jim Henson's Labyrinth), Eric Canete, C.P. Wilson III (The Stuff of Legend), Bill Willingham, and fantasy illustrator Justin Gerard.

Naturally, Archaia will release the hardcover collection of the anthology later this year. David Petersen's latest volume of the main narrative, Mouse Guard: Black Axe will also be available in a collected edition shortly.