David Petersen (born July 4, 1977) is an American comic book creator best known for the series Mouse Guard.

Early life

David Petersen was influenced by animated television series such as The Transformers. He declared: Petersen originally attended Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan, and then transferred to Eastern Michigan University, where he earned his degree in Fine Arts.

Career

The first Mouse Guard mini-series established the Guard's origin. Future series were intended to feature more character development, and greater exposition of the book's setting and history. The story and characters of 1149, which was to be later known as Mouse Guard, originally involved several different types of animals, but during college Petersen reexamined his story and transformed it from the culture of the several other species into the story of life as mice living a sheltered civilization that only walked the open wild if a specialized mouse group escorted them: the Mouse Guard. After establishing the culture of these mice, Petersen felt that the rest of the animal cultures were only distractions for what he felt the real heart of the story would be: "the mice overcoming the obstacles of being in a world too big for them".

Children's books

None of these books were published for mass release, though Petersen did make bound editions of several of them for presents (mainly for his wife, Julia). All these books have been placed on the web by David Petersen.

Comic books

Illustrated novels