With the announcement at Comic-Con International of Mouse Guard: The Weasel War of 1149, Archaia gave the panel attendees an exclusive print that creator David Petersen now reveals was "technically" the first artwork he produced for the acclaimed fantasy series.

"The Weasel War of 1149 is the earliest story I had ever thought of for Mouse Guard," he explains on his blog. "In fact, at that time, the title of the project was 1149 and the Mouse Guard was simply the name of the group of heroic mice in the story. The three characters I wanted to focus on were Kenzie (leader, blue cloak, name means wise), Saxon (aggressive, red cloak, name means sword), and Rand (defensive, yellow cloak, name means shield) in the heat of an unevenly matched war against the weasels of Darkheather. [...] A lot of what I wrote down back in 1996 for that story is now junk. But the idea of it, some character interactions, and the way it resolves, are still alive and well in the mental draft I have going for the next Mouse Guard book. Plus after having three other Mouse Guard books of mine published since then, I have to incorporate what Mouse Guard has become into this forthcoming volume."

Although the prequel is forthcoming, Petersen says he doesn't have a start date or a completion date yet. "I have a few side projects I want to take some time to work on and publish before I dive into another Mouse Guard hardcover," he writes. "I'll update on all of that through Twitter and this blog, when I'm ready to share more info. And do not worry about my return to Mouse Guard, this is simply a short vacation. ... Mouse Guard will be the project I work on for the rest of my life."