Today, BOOM! Studios announced that David Petersen will be returning to his Eisner and Harvey Award-winning series with Mouse Guard: The Owlhen Caregiver, and you can get your first look TODAY, right here at The Beat!

The Owlhen Caregiver
Mouse Guard: The Owlhen Caregiver arrives at your local comic shop in July 2021.

Within the world of Mouse Guard, between harsh natural conditions in the Mouse Territories and plenty of predators, regular mice face dangers at every turn. In response, the Mouse Guard was formed, a cadre of noble Guardmice who guide mice in their journeys through the dangerous wilderness.

The Mouse Guard: The Owlhen Caregiver one-shot, which arrives in July 2021, includes three stories, including Piper the Listener, The Wild Wolf, and the eponymous tale, The Owlhen Caregiver. According to Peterson, the short story format is ideal for conveying stories that focus on themes of hope and compassion.

The one-shot will be published under the Archaia imprint at BOOM! Studios, which has been home to the Mouse Guard series since 2003.

Archaia is looking forward to a busy rest of 2021, with plenty of upcoming comic releases in addition to Mouse Guard: The Owlhen Caregiver on the way throughout the remainder of the year.

You can take a look at the official press release from BOOM! Studios beneath the preview pages if you’re interested in learning some additional details on Mouse Guard: The Owlhen Caregiver.

Be sure to follow Mouse Guard on Twitter to keep up with all of the latest updates, and give a shout out to The Beat @comicbeat and let us know if you’ll be picking up Mouse Guard: The Owlhen Caregiver when it arrives at your local comic shop in July 2021.

David Petersen Returns to the World of MOUSE GUARD in THE OWLHEN CAREGIVER From BOOM! Studios  

Discover a Brand New Special Issue from the Creator of the Award-Winning Bestselling Series in July 2021

LOS ANGELES, CA (April 16, 2021) – BOOM! Studios today announced MOUSE GUARD: THE OWLHEN CAREGIVER, a special issue that collects three poignant tales that mark creator David Petersen’s return to his beloved Eisner and Harvey Award-winning, New York Times bestselling series in this self-contained special, available in July 2021.

Which of life’s biggest lessons can be learned from the smallest amongst us? A young mouse learns that compassion and kindness are the great virtues in The Owlhen Caregiver. Meanwhile, Piper the Listener finds a brave mouse venturing into wild country to learn the tongues of other beasts. And finally, a grizzled oldfur shares the lesson of putting a whisker out too far in The Wild Wolf.

“I’m so pleased that readers get to walk back into the Mouse Territories, be accompanied by familiar Guardmice, and encounter snakes, owls, wolves, rams, otters, toads, and foxes again. Short stories are magical things. Despite their size, they are exactly the right shape to hold large messages of morality and virtue,” said Petersen. “The common themes in these stories are ones of hope and of compassion, of service and the wellbeing of others. And every world could use more of that.”

Mouse Guard is a New York Times Bestselling, Eisner & Harvey Award winning comic book series written and illustrated by David Petersen. Digging into his love of animal stories and medieval role playing games, David created a fantasy adventure world of cloaked, sword wielding mice who protect the common mouse against threats of predator, weather, & wilderness. The stories are released as a series of miniseries available as individual comic issues first, and then collected into hardcover volumes.

“It’s very exciting to return to the world of MOUSE GUARD and engage with the characters and stories that David has beautifully created and continues to expand upon,” said Bryce Carlson, Editor, BOOM! Studios. “David has an incredible talent for writing and illustrating stories that bring the reader into the richly detailed world drawn from his imagination and it’s simply a joy to spend time in this world and allow David to guide the journey.”

MOUSE GUARD is the latest release from BOOM! Studios’ ambitious Archaia imprint, home to graphic novels such as Bolivar by Sean Rubin; Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Ryan North, and Albert Monteys; The Sacrifice of Darkness by Roxane Gay, Tracy Lynne-Oliver, and Rebecca Kirby; Big Black: Stand at Attica by Frank “Big Black” Smith, Jared Reinmuth, and Améziane, We Served the People by Emei Burell, and licensed series including Lev Grossman’s The Magicians by Lilah Sturges and Pius Bak, as well as Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation.

Print copies of MOUSE GUARD: THE OWLHEN CAREGIVER, featuring cover art by Petersen, will be available for sale in July 2021 exclusively at local comic book shops (use comicshoplocator.com to find the nearest one) or at the BOOM! Studios webstore. Digital copies can be purchased from content providers, including comiXology, iBooks, Google Play, and Madefire.

For continuing news on MOUSE GUARD and more from BOOM!, stay tuned to www.boom-studios.com and follow @boomstudios on Twitter.

About BOOM! Studios

BOOM! Studios was founded by Ross Richie in 2005 with the singular focus of creating world-class comic book and graphic novel storytelling for all audiences. Through the development of four distinct imprints—BOOM! Studios, BOOM! Box, KaBOOM!, and Archaia—BOOM! has produced award-winning original work, including Lumberjanes, Once & Future, Something is Killing The Children, Giant Days, and Mouse Guard, while also breaking new ground with established licenses such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly, WWE, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Cartoon Network, and The Jim Henson Company properties. BOOM! will also bring their original series to life through unique first-look relationships with 20th Century for film and with Netflix for TV. Please visit www.boom-studios.com for more information.