by Nick Dowell
My
only plan was to go for the Rocket Raccoon comic so I had no idea what to get.
Thankfully, one of the people working the event went out of his way to suggest Mouse Guard: Labyrinth and Other Stories,
which came in a beautiful hard back cover. The book itself is actually a brief anthology of series from
Archaia. Each story was only a few pages long, but each was unique and gave me
some form of interest in their home publications.
The first story was Mouse
Guard: The Tale of the Axe Trio, a cute fable about a young mouse trying to
decide his apprenticeship. To help, his father tells him a story of three mice,
the daughters of a great knight who passed before his time. Together they
worked together using a legendary axe and their own trust with each other to slay
beasts. It was a cute story with a clear cut moral and was one of my favorites
in the book.
The second story was Rust:
Day 23. Honestly, having no idea what the series was about normally, I didn’t
know what to expect out of the story. It was about a kid who had some sort of
rocket boots. It was beautifully drawn and was the most intriguing story just
because I really wanted to know more about the series.
Next up was Labyrinth:
Rock Solid Friendship. This story was both endearing and really funny. It
featured a monster being chased by a local town. As he’s backed against a wall,
he’s sucked into the brick and thrown into the labyrinth, where his only real
task is to solve a riddle told by some entertaining characters.
Fourth, we had Bolivar:
The Golden Door. The premise of this tale was a young boy talking to a
young dinosaur whose parents had immigrated to Ellis Island. Basically the two
talked about how his family got into the city, despite their being dinosaurs. This
one too, had a fun moral at the end of it.
The penultimate story was Will O’ the Wisp: Missy’s Night Out. In a nutshell, the story was
about a young girl’s pet raccoon as it went on a night adventure. It was short;
it was cute. That’s really all there was to it.
The last story was Farscape:
Backyard Barbeque. Not having any real interest in the Farscape franchise, I didn’t care much for this story. It had it’s
humorous moments, but after reading a book of mostly fables I had no interest
in some sci-fi romp.
If you can, pick up this anthology just for the first five
stories. If you like Farscape, then
there’s even more reason. The stories are the perfect length. They tell me a
genuine story while also making me want to read more in the series.
+ Really interesting fables
+ Perfectly lengthed tales
+ Beautiful art and hard cover
+ Perfectly lengthed tales
+ Beautiful art and hard cover
- The Farscape
story seemed out of place
Rating: 9/10
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Image: Multiverse Magazine
