"...the dreams of gods are but memories to shatter when I wake!"
— Karic, The Mice Templar, Volume 4.1, No. 5.
I highly recommend to fans of fantasy the comic book series The Mice Templar. Created by Bryan J. L. Glass and Michael Avon Oeming in 2007. It is now into the second half of its fourth volume. Beginning with Volume 2, Victor Santos took over as main artist.
The principle characters include the young warrior mouse Karic.
The strong and character-abundant narrative unfolds within an impressive and interesting mythos set in a medieval-esque world of mice, rats, owls, and other animals. Only a few species are anthropomorphic. Why some are and most aren't is tied into the metaphysics of the rich imaginary world that Glass and Oeming have created. How much of that metaphysics is, within the fictional world, reality and how much of it is reality as perceived and understood by various sets of the characters is open to interpretation. That ambiguity is a concept at play in the series along with destiny, loyalty, religion, tyranny, self-doubt, moral agency, and myriad others.
As the series' Wikipedia page summarizes, the series has been published in four story arcs; Volume 1 consisted of six issues; 2, eight issues; 3, nine issues; and the final volume, 16 issues of which some are still forthcoming, expected in November 2014.
I have purchased and read the series' issues using the Comixology app (styled "comiXology") on my Apple iPhone and Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7". Here's The Mice Templar No. 1.
You can also read Comixology purchases using their browser-based reader, too. Click on the screen capture above.
Comixology's app (and web-based reader, too) offers optional use of its proprietary Guided View reading technology that glides the reader along—zooming in and out from each illustration panel on the page. It's perfect functionality for consuming comics on a touch screen but works well in your browser, too, via your desktop machine, if you prefer. I highly recommend the app and Comixology as a service. In fact, so keen was I to use Comixology after having used it for years on my iPhone that I made certain the app existed for the Kindle Fire, too, before commiting to buy my Kindle Fire HDX in 2013. (Granted, I also made certain of the availability for the Kindle Fire of the Evernote and Pocket apps, too.) Little did I know that Amazon would end up purchasing Comixology in the spring of 2014.
As great as the Comixology app is, I've found it easier to shop Comixology's available titles using the Comixology website on my desktop PC.
At this time, The Mice Templar's first and second volumes are also available as bound paperbacks on Amazon.com and Goodreads.com.
Images:
Top: Cropped screen capture of the cover of The Mice Templar, Volume 3: A Midwinter Night's Dream, No. 5, viewed in the Comixology reader in Chrome. Click to enlarge the screen capture.
Bottom: Screen capture from The Mice Templar, Volume 4.1: Legend, No. 5, viewed in the Comixology reader in Chrome. Click to enlarge the screen capture. (Volume 4.1 consists of issues No. 1–8, Legend. Volume 4.2 consists of issues No. 9 on, entitled Legend Part 2, the current series of issues.)
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