The Black Axe

With only a few days left before Christmas you might still be scrambling to find that perfect gift. Maybe you have that one family member or friend who is just impossible to shop for. Maybe you want to give the writer of your favorite blog something really cool that he will appreciate forever. You should totally buy me, I mean that person we were talking about earlier, a replica Black Axe.

If you’ve been reading Mouse Guard the Black Axe is already familiar to you. First mentioned in Fall 1152 the Black Axe was a weapon wielded by a legendary Guard Mouse who eventually became known as the Black Axe. I’m not going to give anything away about who the Axe belonged to or who eventually was chosen to carry it, because you really should be reading all of that for yourself. Let’s just agree that the Black Axe is awesome.

Skeleton Crew Studio is now making licensed replicas of the Black Axe. 30 dollars gets you your very own axe packed in a brown leather pouch. The axe is actual size, so it is around 4.25 inches long. To get the proper look it has been cast in dull black nickel-plated pewter. The axe won’t ship until January but I think it is worth waiting for.

Tales from the Brain Jar, #6

Tales from Brain Jar returns! Last week was the fantastic Goon piece from Dragon Con. This week my sketch book traveled all the way to Detroit and the Motor City Comic Con. While I have been to the aforementioned convention I wasn’t there when this sketch was done. Brandon had actually gone up to Detroit and was kind enough to get me two sketches while he was there; the first of which we’ll see today and the next one possibly next week. All this thinking of Detroit makes me miss it…and National Coney Island, but lets move on before this turns into a blog about chili cheese dogs.

It is David Petersen’s Mouse Guard! Well, they aren’t wearing cloaks, so I doubt the little guys in this sketch are members of the guard. They sure are cute though. And it captures the universal rule of moving heavy objects; one person does all the work while the other gives all the orders.

In my other Brain Jar posts I go into character history and such, but I’ve already gone into detail about how awesome Mouse Guard is in an earlier post, here. So I won’t repeat myself here. Sadly the Mouse Guard RPG game I got invited to is on a break, but if it ever starts back up I’ll make sure to share my thoughts on it.

It matters not what you fight, but what you fight for.

Despite what it may look like on the blog, my comic budget has shrunk considerably in the past year. I’ve moved mostly to trades except for two titles. It shouldn’t be surprising that one of those is the Flash, but the other is Mouse Guard. It is one of those books I’ll happily pick up the individual issues and then spring for the hardcover when that is released too.

So what’s so great about mice? Check out after the jump.