archaia

Sad news; the third volume of Boom Studios/Archaia's Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard comes to an end next week with the fourth of its collections of short stories by some of the most talented artists in the industry, spinning their own mousey tails tales within the world of David Petersen's Mouse Guard. But good news! The series is going out just as strong as it came in, with new stories illustrated by True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys' Becky Cloonan, Big Hero 6 animator Ryan Lang, and Sabertooth Swordsman's Aaron Conley in stories of ghosts, monsters, and a drunken journey into the belly of the beast. And best news, we have a two-page preview of each story for you to enjoy.

Iscariot is the story of Carson, a young woman taught magic by a rebellious old magician in order to save her from cancer, and of her struggles to adapt to what her life becomes. It promises to be a powerful tale, beautifully told by author S.M. Vidaurri --- and readers who want an advance preview can see a few pages right here, or pick up the Boom/Archaia Free Comic Book Day comic this weekend. You may know Vidaurri's work from his contributions to Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Witches, or from his exquisite and affecting previous book, Iron, Or The War After, a tale of post-war reconciliation and resistance told with anthropomorphic animals. ComicsAlliance spoke to Vidaurri to find out what inspired this new tale, how he chose the visual language, and why cardinals play a recurring role in his comics!

Asaf Hanuka is an Israeli illustrator and cartoonist whose award-winning webcomic The Realist began as an account of his adventures in house-hunting, but quickly transformed into a much more ambitious and inspirational exploration of his life as an artist, husband, and father as he tries to make sense of politics, technology, and his daily anxieties. Combining visual flourish, moments of fantasy, and startling use of color, Hanuka is brilliantly effective at putting his inner thoughts and fears on the page. Archaia has collected Hanuka's strips in English for the first time, including some that have never been collected before. We spoke to Hanuka to find out why he started cataloging his life in this way, how fatherhood and technology have shaped him, and what inspires him to make such effective use of color.

One of the highlights of last weekend's Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle for me was a secluded spot in the basement of the convention center that was absolutely packed with Lego. Not just people selling Lego, but some extraordinary structural works built entirely out of Lego, including giant superhero heads and an entire city overrun with heroes and villains. But the standout, spread across several tables, was a Lego tribute to David Petersen's Mouse Guard, with little custom mouse minifigs going on quests, setting off to sea, and sneaking around a terrifying giant owl. It's easy to see how David Petersen's wonderful world of tiny epic adventures could inspire such a vast undertaking. Petersen's work is gorgeous, and the wonder that infuses it carries through into the work being done by other authors in Archaia's Legends of the Guard stories. We have a preview of the second issue, featuring contributions from Kyla Vanderklugt, Dustin Nguyen, C.M. Galdre, and Nicole Gustafsson. These are stories that can delight young minds just as easily as a room full of Lego!

Archaia tells ComicsAlliance that the publisher of David Petersen’s multi-award winning Mouse Guard is working on a third volume of Legends of the Guard. The anthology project 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 March 2015, the book celebrates the tenth anniversary of Mouse Guard with new work by Petersen and such talents as Skottie Young (Rocket Raccoon), Ramón K. Pérez (Tale Of Sand), Dustin Nguyen (Li'l Gotham), Becky Cloonan (Gotham Academy), Mark Buckingham (Fables), Hannah Christenson (Jim Henson's The Storyteller) and Humberto Ramos (Amazing Spider-Man), with more yet to be announced.

One of the lesser explored stanchions of the Western genre is the fairly consistent notion of the dominant invading culture moving into indigenous lands and, over time, brutally removing said peoples from that land. Usually our focus is so narrow within the genre that we rarely realize that this is exactly what is happening. The dreaded “Indian raids” of many a John Ford classic are lensed so thoroughly through the perspective of the white-faced hero or anti-hero that an audience can’t help but miss the absurdity of maligning sovereign nations responding to mass invasions by another sovereign nation. Go try and start a mass migration into Putin’s Russia and see how that goes for you. I bring this up because Sergio Toppi’s The Collector is acutely focused on this precise issue. The collection of stories which make up this stunning tome from Archaia all occur on the knife’s edge of colonialism and western expansion -- and almost without fail, Toppi’s Collector sides with the invaded side rather than with colonizers the way his forebears -- and, really, antecedents -- might.

In the overwhelmingly male comic book industry, it has been a challenge for some editors and readers to see the ever growing number of talented women currently trying to make a name for themselves. With that in mind, ComicsAlliance offers Hire This Woman, a recurring feature designed for comics readers as well as editors and other professionals, where we shine the spotlight on a female comics pro on the ascendance. Some of these women will be at the very beginning of their careers, while others will be more experienced but not yet “household names.” Heidi Arnhold is a comic book artist (pencils, inks and colors) and illustrator whose work has included contributions to Archaia's Fraggle Rock comics and Tokyopop's Legends of the Dark Crystal and Star Trek: The Manga. A student of Savannah College of Art and Design's prestigious comic book training program, Arnhold's next work is an original graphic novel from First Second.

Now that this whole vampire trend that's been dominating media has finally started to cool down, it's time for us to predict what's going to be next. Werewolves have been done and mummies seem pretty unlikely, so if I had to guess, I'd say that the next big thing is going to be bird people. Just folks covered in feathers everywhere 2K15, you mark my words. Or at least, that's the impression that I'm getting from the announcement of Archaia's newest comic, Jorge Corona's Feathers, which launches in January with a six-issue miniseries. Corona will tell the story of a feather-covered boy named Rin who makes a friend for the first time in his life, and attempts to guide her home through a world of twisted back alleys and smoky chimneys, and it looks amazing.

The subgenre of woman-led spy comics seems to be making a healthy surge right now, and Archaia is adding another title to the mix. Butterfly, a new, four-issue series written by Marguerite Bennett (Angela: Asgard's Assassin) and Arash Amel (Grace of Monaco), and drawn by Antonio Fuso (G.I. Joe: Cobra), will start up Sept. 24 with a Phil Noto cover. It'll follow a deep cover agent who is a complete ghost--no birth certificate, no Social Security number--meeting her long-lost dad after being set up for murder. Turns out her dad was a spy, too.

We've written about the Humble Bundle before here at ComicsAlliance, but let's be real here: It's kind of the perfect idea. Being able to pay what you want to grab a whole cartload of comics while also supporting a charity is a setup that has literally no downside, and it's almost impossible to take advantage of -- especially when it's something like the new Boom! Studios bundle. For the next two weeks, you'll be able to pay what you want for a massive amount of downloadable comics while also supporting the good work of the Comic Book Legal defense Fund. And, if you pay at least $15, you'll get ComicsAlliance favorites like Lumberjanes, The Midas Flesh and Bee and Puppycat thrown in for good measure. The interesting thing about this particular bundle is that it includes some very recent comics. Books like Lumberjanes #4 and Midas Flesh #8 were only released this month, and RoboCop #2 actually came out in stores today. Being able to get them here digitally is a pretty big deal.