Book of Doom: The Mice Templar #1: The Podcast (transcript)
[SFX: Podcast of Doom theme music]
DOOM DELUISE: Hello, everybody. Welcome to a very special Book of Doom installment. This week, I foolishly forgot to post a preview for this weekend’s Book of Doom, so hopefully you had a chance to pick up the topic of this week’s dicussion, “The Mice Templar #1.” Joining me for this special first ever Book of Doom podcast is my fellow co-host, Jim Doom.
[applause]
JIM DOOM: Thank you. I’m somewhat happy to be here.
[SFX: Music fades out]
DD: Well, don’t get too excited. You bought the issue, correct?
JD: That’s correct. What did you think?
DD: I think that “The Mice Templar #1” is a fantastic start to what could be a really amazing series. It sets the groundwork for the universe we’re dealing with, and it centers around an all-out brawl between the mice village and the incoming rats. It has exceptional art and is a truly immersing first issue. If only we could get comics like this that had people as the characters instead of mice. What’d you think?
[audience laughter]
JD: I really enjoyed it too. I thought it was a little slow at first, but once it got into it and once I got a hang of who all the characters were, I really dug it. When I knew I was paying $3.99, I was thinking, “This had better be worth it.” And it really was. Not only was the story great, but it was 52 pages!
DD: With no ads!
JD: Not like how Marvel and DC lately have been jacking up the price to $3.99 if it’s like 10 pages longer.
[audience laughter]
DD: And those have those g-ddamn Mad Magazine fold-out ads so you think they’re way thicker than they actually are.
[audience boos]
JD: I was a little hesitant about this book when I first saw the solicits. I groaned a little, because I was like, “Great, that Mouse Guard series is popular, so now everyone’s going to have their own battling mice series.” I wonder if that had anything to do with the authors’ notes in the back promising that this was originally conceived in 1998…
DD: Wouldn’t be surprised. I was just really impressed by how it set out to establish an epic story. Not very many serieseses from the Big Two have that much ambition, you know what I mean?
JD: Right. They seem very afraid to try to chart something new, especially now. Retreading the past is very popular. No new heroes, no new villains, no new concepts. But obviously a creator-owned project from an independent publisher kind of has the advantage of not having any built-in continuity. But I like that right away, we get a sense of how big the future story will be in its scope.
DD: Yeah, for sure. We don’t even really know what the big threat here is yet. We just know that this little mouse is going to stand up to it.
JD: Do you know if all the issues will be this big, in this kind of chapter-by-chapter format? Or will it convert to a more standard monthly issue way of telling the story?
DD: I really have no idea.
JD: Some host you are.
[audience laughter]
DD: Hey, now. Think about it, though. If every issue were 3.99, with this size and quality, I wouldn’t hesitate to throw down for it.
JD: Absolutely. Was there anything you didn’t like?
DD: Well, yeah, I didn’t like that the main characters are mice. Seems odd that I enjoyed the issue so much, but I think it could’ve been so much cooler if it had just been humans or some other type of animal. I mean, yeah, Mouse Guard just got heaps of praise on it. Why not choose to make this based around dogs or something? Just seems like an odd choice. It would’ve been nice if it had something to set it apart.
JD: Yeah. It reminded me of the Secret of Nimh too.
DD: Huh?
[audience laughter]
JD: One criticism I have is that, because they were mice, I had a pretty tough time telling characters apart. Much tougher than I would if it were all people. But I guess mice probably think all people look the same.
[mild audience laughter]
DD: Definitely. Telling them apart was based more on what they were wearing, and the fact that the blacksmith had a gash in his left ear.
JD: An advantage of using mice over people is that Oeming’s style allows for a lot of abstraction and expression with the characters, so by anthropomorphizing the mice, he had a little more freedom of expression than he might with people. That’s something that Peterson didn’t take advantage of at all with Mouse Guard, which I didn’t much care for, because I had so much trouble telling his characters apart, but they were all drawn very realistically.
DD: All in all, I thought it was an enjoyable read that I wouldn’t mind getting once a month. I picked it because I have gotten sick and tired with my usual stack I pick up, so I decided on something completely out of the ordinary. I was rather pleasantly surprised. I’ll be back for the next issue.
JD: I just checked the issue again, and next issue (November) is 32 pages. And, I’m not too crazy about waiting 3 months between issues.
DD: Well, that’s because you have the memory of a fly.
[audience laughter]
JD: What’d you say?
[audience laughter]
DD: Well, that’s all we have time for today. Seems we both enjoyed issue number one of “The Mice Templar.” Thanks for listening!
JD: No, seriously, I forgot what you said already…
[SFX: music fade out]
DD, you’ve never heard of the Secret of Nimh? That was an integral part of my childhood. Actually, Jim refers to the film adaptation of the book “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh,” an excellent read. I may still have a copy, which I’d be more than happy to loan you. I’m pretty sure that’s how I learned the word “leeward,” which has served me very well in adulthood.
When I think of mice in graphic story format, I think of Maus. I can’t believe neither of you guys mentioned that. Maybe the podcast format throws you off your game a little, in that you have to keep the dead air from choking the life out of your interaction by doing the blah blah blah until you’re on a different subject. Maus would’ve been a good illustration (hah) of why maybe choosing a different animal would be more novel (hah).
I just finally read it, if only to compare it to Mouse Guard. Jim, I’m really surprised you couldn’t tell the characters apart in MG. For one, each of the main ones had a different colored cloak and a different weapon. Also, they were different colors themselves. I greatly enjoyed that series, but anyway…
I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. Like one of the blurbs said, Oeming’s art sort of mutated into something new and it’s really great. It has that high-contrast, sharp line feel of Mignola (the fish gods seemed straight out of Hellboy) but it doesn’t feel derivative at all. I liked his character designs on the mice and rats as well.
It was pretty dang hard for me to tell anyone apart, though, which made the action scene more than a little confusing. I hope that they find a way to improve on that in the future issues, because it turned a fun book into a difficult read.
Still, I’ll try to remember to come back for more. Now, what was it called again?