Tuesday, August 25, 2009

3rd week on NYTimes Bestsellers!
Winter 1152 has stayed on the NYTimes Bestsellers list for Hardcover Graphic Novels for its 3rd week! After last week of it getting to 8 of 10 (while still thrilled I was ON the list at all) I figured it was the end. But thanks to fans suggesting it to new-yet-to-be-fans, it has hung on! We will see what next week brings!

Indie RPG awards:
Mouse Guard won 3 of the Indie RPG awards handed out at Gen Con: Game of the Year, Best Support, and Best Production. I'm thrilled Mouse Guard won these! Thanks to Luke Crane & his crew for such a great game. You can read more about the Indie Award results & comments on why we won here


Mouse Guard Playlist:
A fan was commenting on Twitter about what kind of music would be good for his Mouse Guard RPG adventure. It got me thinking that while Ballad of the Ivory Lass is available on the MG site (and the ballad from issue #6 is coming soon), I could round out the list with music I use while I'm working on Mouse Guard to evoke the mood I'm after in the storytelling. So here is a list:
(and I'm interested in your suggestions as well, feel free to post them as a comment in this post)


-Howard Shore: Lord of the Rings: Fellowship, Two Towers, & Return of the King:
Pretty much everything on these soundtracks is appropriate and was listened to heavily while I worked on Mouse Guard Fall & Winter. Highlights are Concerning Hobbits (for any town/mouse settlement/mouse culture pages) The Hornburg, & The Grey Havens.


-Trevor Jones & Randy Edelman: Last of the Mohicans:
Again, this whole album is great and most of it fits with scenes in Mouse Guard thematically. The Main Title, Ambush, & The Kiss are my favorites though.


-Simon and Garfunkel: Monday Morning 3AM:
Odd choice, I know...but one of their takes on a traditional ballad is right in line with Mouse guard and was something I listened to before trying my hand at writing one: Peggy-O


-Natalie Merchant: Ophelia:
Same reason as Simon & Garfunkel, only this time it's her take on the traditional When The Ring the Golden Bells that served as inspiration.

Winter Black and White:
I don't know if I have been given a full green light on a Winter version of the Black and White limited ed. hardcover we did for Fall, but I was asked to mock-up the cover for it...which is a good sign! I wanted to share it here. I'll let everyone know more, when I know more (including pre-order info etc.)


Convention Sketches:
I like sharing these from time to time. Some of these I finished just today, some of these I found saved on my camera's memory stick and I never posted them. For those new to the blog/Mouse Guard, I do commissions at shows that are 7" x 7" on 12" x 12" bristol. I do not have an open list and do not take names outside of conventions. Some of these are requests of the person getting the piece, others are my own ideas (though this time they all seem to be requests).


Translvania TV:
Gordon Smuder, who has been a supporter of Mouse Guard, is one of the minds behind Transylvania TV, an adult-humor puppet show with online webisodes. Gordon is the performer for Furry J. Ackermonster, an albino Yeti. I love the design of the character and I think he's my favorite on the show, so I did this fan-art for them. Right now the show is running a contest to get your own handmade puppet into one of their episodes! (I have my entry already photographed and ready to send in!)


Fan Art:
Issac Thayer, is a great kid whom I have met before at the Chicago Comic-Con. He and his Dad were at this year's show again and Issac was cool enough to give me a bunch of Mouse Guard fan art! I picked this one out of the batch because I liked the use of shading using tone rather than line. Keep up the good work Issac!

Upcoming Appearances:
Dragon Con: Sep. 4-7
Windy City Con: Sept. 19
Detroit Comics' Book Club: Sept. 25
Long Beach Comic Con: Oct. 2-4
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct. 10-11
Mouse Guard Live Readings in the Michigan Area: TBA

19 comments:

Mayhem said...

Bwa hah... love how my piece has turned out David :)

Hopefully you got my email about certain matters; the fact that Titan publish Mouse Guard in the UK might also have something to do with it!

Anonymous said...

I can't listen the track in Mousegurd site :(

DPetersen said...

Mayhem: Glad you like the piece! It took a while to fit the characters all in so that they could all be seen. I also put in some subtle signs as to which mouse is which turtle...but you can e-mail me if you need me to tell you the order.

Christian: Hmmm., that's odd. I'm listening to it now through the link on the site. You can click on the link or right click and save it (PC only). Are you Mac or PC and which browser are you using?

Mayhem said...

At an observation I'd say Kenzie is Leo, Saxon is Raph, Lieam is Mike and Sadie is Don :)

Oh and expect another email from me shortly regarding you-know-what, I've had something back...

DPetersen said...

Mayhem: 2 out of 2. Sax=Raph, Lieam=Mike. I went with Kenzie keeping his staff instead of the going with the 'leader' thing (plus Don is the real life Kenzie's fave.)

Bo said...

Yeah, I didn't remember Leonardo having a sling... Cool artwork David.

Brandon said...

Haha, best blog post ever! Just the mockup and possibility of the Winter B&W Ltd. Ed. makes me giddy with excitement!

And the con sketches are wonderful as always... I just love seeing these. Mice as TMNT and mice with Totoro? It just doesn't get better than that! Of course I also love the Ewok & mouse (the speared teddy bear is an awesome touch!) and the mouse fight by the river/chapel!

Red said...

Hello, I'm a great follower of your work, from Spain. First off thanks for your art. Anyway I want to say that Joel Mcneelie isn't the composer of THe Last of the Mohicans, this ost is composed by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman and is one of more incredibles ost in the history of cinema music. In my opinion the better choice for listenig while reading Mouse Guard is Willow ost by James Horner or Princess Mononoke ost by Joe Hisaishi. Perhaps Lady in the Water ost by James Newton Howard.

Tom P said...

Love the sparring in the field con sketch.

As far as mood music for gaming, I tend to shy away from music that has lyrics, but I have found these useful (haven't run Mouse Guard, but looking at the system now)

A few music items I might suggest are Vangelis (Portraits): specifically "Conquest of Paradise", "Antarctica", "Chariots of Fire" and "I'll Find My Way Home".

Ian Rushton (Spring Will Come Again), specifically "Spring Will Come Again", "Erin's Theme", "Aotearoa", "Simply Divine" and "From Dusk Until Dawn"

...plus a single song, John Adotney's "In Bloom" (from Waiting for the Moon)

Brandon said...

Agree with Red's recommendations! Joe Hisaishi's Spirited Away score is also amazing. I love James Newton Howard's Shyamalan soundtracks, especially The Village. My other fav soundtracks for listening to while working include The Piano (Michael Nyman), Gladiator (Hans Zimmer), Pirates 3 At World's End (Hans Zimmer) with one movement in particular that repeats throughout the film but only gets one short incarnation on the soundtrack, The Hours (Philip Glass), Firefly (Greg Edmonson), Serenity (David Newman) and Twilight (Carter Burwell), among a ton of others I don't have on my iPod at the moment. Way too much great movie music out there, often individual pieces. For example, I don't know if there's a soundtrack for Hancock, and I wouldn't necessarily care for a soundtrack of that film, but there was one moment in the film with a gorgeous piece of music.

DPetersen said...

Red & Tom, Thanks for the suggestions!!

ps:I fixed the info on Last of the Mohicans

DPetersen said...

And thanks to you Brandon for your suggestions as well!

Anonymous said...

Is the Mouse Guard movie still a go or is it being put on the back burner??



Mr X

morgen said...

I've just got an email from Amazon.co.uk

"Dear Customer, Greetings from Amazon.co.uk. We regret to report that the release of the following item has been cancelled: David Petersen "Mouse Guard: Winter 1152" We are no longer able to offer this item for sale. Our supplier has informed us that this item has been discontinued and is no longer available."

It's still up on their site for pre-order so I don't know what's going on.

I may do some Sunday trudging around my LCS's to see if I can sniff out an import copy.

Alex Kain said...

Hi David! Congrats on the third week on the NYT Bestseller's List! And that Legend of Zelda artwork is awesome!

As for playlist suggestions, in that video I put together I used John Debney's score for "Lair". It's like a cross between Lord of the Rings and Star Wars which I think you'd like ;-) I'd also recommend Steve Henefin's score for "Too Human", which has an epic Norse-mythology feel. Both of those are on iTunes, I believe. I could recommend a ton of 'em (I listen to these and more when I'm doing my own stuff), but those two are solid scores.

Good luck with all your projects - Rachel and I are both looking forward to showing you some of our new work as it comes up!

BlackAxe1 said...

I recently saw a promo that you did for Henson and was wondering if your going to be doing any more work for them???

morgen said...

Problem solved!

"Dear Customer We are writing in relation to your order which contained the following item: Mouse Guard: Winter 1152. You may have already received an e-mail informing you that we cannot source this item from our suppliers and that the item was cancelled. This message was sent in error and we have restored this item to your order."

DPetersen said...

Thanks everyone for continuing to post your soundtracks for RPGs and creative endevors!

Mr. X: I just talked to the attached producer last week to go over what is the best way to move forward.

Morgen: Glad that was sorted out. It sure had me scratching my head.

BlackAxe1: Creative teams for the books have not been finalized. I'd love to be included if I can. (and in a way that doesn't disrupt Mouse Guard production)

Kyle said...

love the winter cover mock-up. any chance of you posting a black and white sketch like you did for the fall edition?

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