GRAPHIC-NOVEL COLUMN: GNG does a twofer
By Dan Brown SPOILER WARNING: This column contains plot details from two graphic novels. If you value surprise, stop reading now! You’ve been warned. The L.A. Mood Graphic-Novel Group met Saturday, June13. Because our May meeting had been cancelled, we covered the assigned books for both May and June in our most recent sitting. The books: Mouse Guard: Dawn of the Black Axe, plus the graphic-novel adaptation of The Iliad. Dawn of the Black Axe Here’s the headline: All five members of GNG who were present gave this book a thumbs up. We loved it. Carol Vandenberg, L.A. Mood’s co-owner, has always been enchanted by the world-building David Petersen does on his Mouse Guard books. Petersen has created in his imagination an entire culture of medieval mice who live in a far-flung setting, which requires the Guard – whose members are forest rangers – to keep routes between the different communities open. Petersen’s mouse world has the same level of detail as Seth’s mythical city of Dominion. The Black Axe is kind of like Batman, operating outside the rules governing how Guard members behave. And yes, he carries a honking big black axe. His quest: To rid mousekind of the giant snakes that plague them. The new thing in Dawn of the Black Axe is how Petersen, who usually illustrates each book, recruited Gabriel Rodriguez to handle art duties. I thought the story might suffer with Petersen focusing on writing alone, but the group really appreciated what Rodriquez brings to table. Part of the discussion also centred on the Black Axe’s spirit guide. Is the ethereal elk real, is he a ghost, is he a projection from the axe bearer’s mind? I like how Rodriquez sometimes draws the elk as solid, but in other panels he appears to be from another plane of existence. GNG member Amanda pointed out there’s not a lot of joy in the book, no respite from the gloom. But that’s not what interests Petersen. This is a book about the cost of doing your duty and the sacrifices and compromises that follow. The Iliad We weren’t so effusive with our praise for this Gareth Hinds book. We read his comic version of this epic tale in part because its sequel, The Odyssey, is coming to the big screen this summer in a Christopher Nolan adaptation. Overall, we gave The Iliad not a thumb up or down, but a thumb sideways. It's fine. Carol thought it didn’t work on its own, but would make a good adjunct to studying the written version of the epic work. GNG member Matt noted how making it into a comic required Hinds to disrupt the rhyming of the original. I found it to be Biblical in the sense there are many, many lists of the participants in the battle to overthrow Troy, which came across to me as similar to the long verses in the Bible indicating who begat whom. They go on and on. I also stumbled because the names listed in The Iliad aren’t familiar to me. I have a hard time dealing with the notion of gods and mortals who share many of the same feelings and motivations. In The Iliad, gods have children with mortals, they feel human emotions, they change their minds – it’s a mix that makes me uneasy as a reader as I’m not used to thinking of immortals with Earthly traits. Looming in the background of our discussion was a larger question: How can an artist adapt an ancient work of art so that it still speaks to readers in 2026? If you make too many changes, it may be more relatable, yet you’ll anger the purists. The bottom line: This Iliad would be a fine textbook or companion piece to the original. L.A. Mood’s Graphic-Novel Group meets the second Saturday of every month. Next month’s selection is Jeff Lemire’s autobiography, 10,000 Ink Stains. Lemire hails from Southwestern Ontario and if you’ve ever wanted to get a glimpse into his artistic process, check this one out! We’re set to meet July 11 at the gaming tables in the store at 11 a.m. All are welcome to join the discussion! Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group book club.
Dawn of the Black Axe is Amazing
Dawn of the Black Axe is amazing By Dan Brown David Petersen’s Mouse Guard: Dawn of the Black Axe is a superlative series that will make for a must-read graphic novel come January. The three-issue title debuted and wrapped from March to June this year. The collected version lands on store shelves January 20. Do yourself a favour and pre-order your copy now. Although I initially felt trepidation that another comic creator – Gabriel Rodriguez – handled art duties, instead of Petersen, my skepticism soon melted away when I got a closer look at the individual issues, which are gorgeous. As Mouse Guard fans know, Petersen is the Michigan writer/artist who originated the idea of a medieval mouse society protected by the members of the Guard, forest rangers who serve to keep the far-flung mouse communities safe. Petersen’s art in the main title is amazing, which is what I’m used to. But Rodriguez’s lines are just as expressive, in their own way. There are fantasy/sorcery elements to the story – mostly in the form of a ghostly elk, who guides Bardick, the first-ever bearer of the black axe, in his quest to kill five giant snakes who are tightening their grip on mouse territory by raiding villages and breeding more young. The blade itself was fashioned by the blacksmith Farrer, whose own wife and children were slain by one of the serpents. “I’ll take all the pain forged in this weapon and protect mouse kind,” Bardick vows, perhaps not realizing he will be in the forest for many a season before he can rest. I was able to enjoy Rodriguez’s art on its own terms. He can do action just as well as he can render scenes in which the characters are static. He is also so good at evoking a sense of time – the reader sees Bardick grow weary as his adventures drag on over years. And that mysterious ghost elk is ethereal, except when he’s material, in one panel helping Bardick ford a stream. Each image rewards repeated attention, as the reader absorbs more detail and is drawn deeper into the Mouse Guard world. Nor is it a foregone conclusion that the slithering death threatening mouse communities will be vanquished. Bardick lives to see some of the mice thrive, but Petersen has a twist up his sleeve that will force readers to re-think what they thought they knew about the enemies of the mice, who have a “seething fury . . . boiling in their collective cold hearts.” What I know for sure about Mouse Guard is how Petersen is not interested in telling the same old stories. In a previous adventure, some mice rebelled against the mouse matriarch – but instead of taking the side of the rebels, a tale we’re all familiar with, he told it from the vantage of those trying to keep order. Another way of saying it is, Mouse Guard comics remind me of the spirit of the 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as well as the Lord of the Rings books and the best Star Wars movies/TV shows. I’m already excited for 2026. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
