Indie Edge August 2015: David Peterson

This month’s featured creator is David Peterson.

Please tell us a bit about yourself!

My name is David Petersen, and I was born in 1977 and raised in Flint Michigan, where I attended Mott Community College, and later Eastern Michigan University, where I earned a BFA in Printmaking. My series Mouse Guard combines my love of the natural world, animal stories, and the adventure and camaraderie of a Role Playing Game. Mouse Guard celebrates its tenth anniversary this year from when the first issue was self-published and released at the 2005 Motor City Comic Con. I’m a three-time Eisner Award-winner and recipient of a Harvey Award for my continued work on the Mouse Guard series. My wife Julia and I continue to reside in Michigan along with our dogs Autumn and Bronwyn.

What are your favorite projects you’ve contributed to over the past decade?

Mouse Guard, of course, is what I'm most proud of, but I've really enjoyed my time doing covers for IDW's Ninja Turtles and The Muppets comics. As a Windsor McKay fan, the one-page story I did for the Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream anthology was pretty special to me as well.

New and Classic Titles by David Petersen:

• Mouse Guard Vol. 3: The Black Axe HC (DEC138299)
• Mouse Guard: Baldwin the Brave & Other Tales HC (SEP141157)
• The Art of Mouse Guard: 2005-2015 HC (MAY151087)

What are you currently working on?

I just wrapped up work on the hardcover extras for the Mouse Guard anthology book Legends of the Guard Volume 3. Thanks to the talents of folks like Mark Buckingham, Skottie Young, Ryan Lang, and more, it's another wonderful collection of Mouse fables and folklore! Now I'm working on illustrating an edition of The Wind in the Willows. I can't really say any more about who it's coming from or when, but I'll definitely put it out there on social media as soon as I can! Then it will be back to Mouse Guard with a new series: The Weasel War of 1149.

What fun titles are you reading?

Hellboy in Hell (Vol. 1—JAN140125) by Mike Mignola & Dave Stewart: I've been a Hellboy fan since the beginning, and these stories set in a Mignola-created-Hell could easily be the best Hellboy stories in the 20 year run. In past stories it was fun to see how the people of the world never thought anything of the giant red demon man with horn stumps and an arm like a sledgehammer and called him to shoo away their monsters and ghosts; but in Hellboy in Hell, we now see the title character in the place he belongs, or at-least where he was meant to fit. Dreamlike storytelling, beautiful visuals of a Hell you've never seen, and more myth and folklore than you can shake the right hand of doom at!

Locke & Key (Vol. 1 Master Ed.—DEC140577) by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez: Joe and Gabe have crafted a meaningful story that plays on your fears with its horror, while also tugging on your heartstrings with its tenderness. A house full of magic keys, ghosts, time-traveling, living shadows, teleportation, seeing inside minds — what hasn't this book got? I also love that they ended it. It ends. They "stuck the landing" with something fulfilling after the five previous volumes. And Gabe's handling of Keyhouse's architecture... he so thoroughly introduces it to you visually as a character, that you feel like you've been there and you know your way around.

Louise Brooks: Detective (HC—MAR151423): Rick Geary is one of those unsung heroes in comics. His true crime books have been a staple on my shelf since I discovered them over a decade ago. They are also my go-to example of what comics can offer that most people don't even think of: non-fiction. Well, Louise Brooks is Rick taking his knowledge of true crime and putting a fictionalized spin on it. Louise was an actress in the 1920's, but here Rick has imagined her returning from France to her home of Wichita Kansas, only to get involved in a murder mystery!