The newest Preview catalogue is out and in it is the solicitation for "Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard" #1. This will be an anthology series with the premise that a few of the regular Mouse Guard characters will get together to swap stories, and different creators are invited to tell the different stories. The framing sequence would be handled by David Petersen, and for the first issue Jeremy Bastian, Ted Naifeh, and...Alex Sheikman will provide "legends".
My "legend", is a 9 page story called "Oleg The Wise". I wrote and drew it about a month ago and I look forward to seeing it in color and in print in the next few months. I will probably spend a few posts talking about this assignment and I wanted in the first post to tell how the my involvement with "Legends" came about.
From the Start:
I met David Petersen back in 2006 when we both got signed-up by Archaia to publish our books through their creator-owned line, I even think that Mouse Guard #1 and Robotika #1 came out the same month. We met at San Diego that year and I very much enjoyed my time talking to David and his wife Julia. We continued meeting at conventions and staying in touch through occasional e-mails.
David is a natural storyteller and a terrific artist...and just an all around nice guy who is easy to talk to. I love the fact that David is as much a fan of comics and art now, after he became a professional, as he was when he first started getting published. A lot of folks loose interest in being exposed to new art after they turn pro. It probably has to do with over saturation. When you have comics as a hobby it is kind of nice to relax and look through some new art and read a few new stories, but when you are drawing all day long, trying to workout storytelling mechanics, lots of artists look for other hobbies to occupy their after work hours. David has lots of hobbies...but he is always open to hear about a new artist or a new book with something interesting inside.
At the end of 2009, I read an article on the web in which David announced the "Legends" title and I immediately thought "Hey, that would be awesome to try to contribute to." But I was not sure if I had a story that would fit the book, so I decided that unless I was able to come-up with a good concept, I was not going to bother David about being a part of the project. Funny enough, the story materialized a few hours later and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I e-mailed David and asked if there was any possibility of my being part of "Legends". He said that they were still working on the line-up and currently there were still pages available. I promised him to do layouts to define the exact number of pages I thought the story would take and hope for the best.
Next time: "From Layouts to Pencils".
3 comments:
Excellent new Alex! I just finished Winter 1152. I love Petersen's work on Mouseguard. Winter was even more crisp that Fall. Fantastic stuff. :)
Alex,
you may have forgotten, but when you asked about Legends offering to 'try out' I told you that you were already on my list of people I wanted to have on the book!
To be a upright benign being is to have a amiable of openness to the in the seventh heaven, an cleverness to trusteeship uncertain things beyond your own pilot, that can front you to be shattered in hugely extreme circumstances pro which you were not to blame. That says something exceedingly outstanding with the get of the righteous life: that it is based on a trust in the fitful and on a willingness to be exposed; it's based on being more like a spy than like a sparkler, something kind of fragile, but whose acutely special attraction is inseparable from that fragility.
Post a Comment