Wow! I can’t believe that it’s already been ten years since Mouse Guard started!! Mouse Guard creator, David Petersen, introduced us to a wonderful adventure of three lovable and courageous mice.  This year, to celebrate the property’s tenth anniversary, BOOM! is releasing the third volume of their hit Mouse Guard mini-series “Legends of the Guard."  For those of you new to Legends of the Guard, the story takes place in a local tavern where the shop owner is calling out his clients’ debts.  They can either pay their debt or participate in a competition where the mouse who can tell the best story is relieved from their debt. The quality of the stories told by the mice brings out the essence of the era in Mouse Guard through an art that is rich and full of charm, we find a combination of beautiful art and great story telling that has the right formula for success.  With David Petersen’s introduction to the book and the remaining stories and art from a creative team of experts including Mark Buckingham of Fables. Hannah Christenson and Skottie Young of Rocket Raccoon, and Oz Fame from Marvel Comics, the team creates some of the most charming and beautiful looking comic book stories I have seen in quite some time.

Buckingham, Young, and Christenson all add their style to the book but on each one you can tell that their heart is put into this book.While all the artwork and stories are fantastic, I really enjoyed the most was the Skottie Young story.  The whole father-son interaction and the son asking the father questions about how something is made was heartwarming and powerful. It made me think back of my relationship with my father.

Overall, Legends of the Guard's third volume is another fantastic offering from BOOM!/Archaia and their creators.  The crazy part about this is that it was only one issue of this volume. The bar has already been set very high for the other creators. I can’t wait to see what the other comic book creators have come up with in their issue.  This issue is a great one to start celebrating the name that the Mouse Guard series has created for themselves!

Score: 5/5

Writer: Various Artist: Various Publisher: BOOM!/Archaia Entertainment Price: $3.99 Release Date: 3/11/15 Format: Hardcover