This is my 6th time writing about MICE, but I still have a lot more to say. That’s because the annual Massachusetts Independent Comic Expo, a free, two-day convention held in the (formerly) historic Cadillac showroom on the (now) Boston University campus, is liquid. It will fill in the space you put. It was snowing early Saturday afternoon, but it was outside. In the large room, MICE took the form of a vessel. It was hot all over. I’m sweating. I’m glad it became a masked event for a variety of reasons. The closeness of the rooms was the reason I felt.
The venue is getting bigger and bigger, and the audience is increasing at the same pace.
But beyond reaching maximum capacity for a Scott MacLeod event, what does it mean to fill a space? MacLeod is both a guest and a signifier. MICE is about teaching. Expo is not only a marketplace for independent work, a library of the future of comics, and a map to explore the full potential of comics as a medium, but MICE is also a panel and workshop aimed at educating, sharing knowledge and experiences, and connecting communities and media. MICE is about providing tools to understand comics. MICE fills the space with you in the container of an independent manga. Manga is born from everyone.
This year’s guest exhibitors include McCloud, ND Stevenson, Jesse Lonergan, Keezy Young, Lee Lai, Ben Passmore, B Mure, Huda Fahmy, Desmond Reed, and more. Kathy G. Johnson is this year’s recipient of the Underground Visionary Award. Johnson is an educator, cartoonist, and practicing printmaker who created some of your favorite concert posters. Jesse Lonergan continues to stir the hearts of the market with his instant cult-favorite graphic novel, Drome. But Lai, Mouret, Young, and even Stevenson and MacLeod are widely known for their work, which is admired in bookseller and librarian circles. Spider-Man and Wonder Woman don’t actually appear at MICE, but we did get a nice bootleg sticker of Garfield and multiple zines that mentioned Kate Bush. Fan art is definitely ubiquitous, but it’s not the type traditionally associated with comic book conventions. MICE represents a mix of influences that corresponds to the genre classification of bookstore and library archives, rather than the cultural and commercial divisions between publishers that stratify comic shops.
Above all, we focus on art as personal expression.
There are two rooms with exhibitors: an old showroom with floor-to-ceiling glass overlooking the Green Line trains and the Charles River, and a second room across the hall with whiteboards on all four walls. By the end of the weekend, the view that the wall will unfold will be equally fascinating and completely unique. The hallways that connect them are lined with more tables for raffles, a help desk, and coat check, as well as tables for the Boston Comic Arts Foundation (BCAF), which hosts MICE, and the Graphic Medicine International Collective.
There are two floors of physical auditoriums and meeting rooms that will host panel exhibitions, workshops, and other scheduled events. There is also a spacious, open lounge area with a quirky design. It may be sweaty, but university buildings provide a (metaphorical) atmosphere that convention centers lack. PAX East was beautiful, but MICE is magic.
I spent half the day walking around the circuit looking for things, and the other half helping out at the aforementioned graphic medicine table. As the name suggests, GMIC is an organization dedicated to promoting the intersection of health and comics. Different approaches to defining health are an umbrella that treats health first as a lived experience and second as a textbook subject. Everything on the table was a free printable resource, from downloadable reading lists to bookmarks promoting individual titles. I sent everyone who would listen to Kesey Young. I have to promote my favorite Food School to people who are interested in medical memoirs. Another fusion of education and community surrounding the exclusivity of institutions that I felt throughout MICE.
Speaking of things that are exciting.
5 things about MICE!
1. AT Platt’s pop-up comics. This New York adventure is (somehow?) two pages, countless cuts and folds, nine staples, three different pop-up foldouts, and four-color RISO printing. Climb the pop-up Empire State Building with King Kong! A lyrical little excursion is made even more special by a gorgeous and creative presentation. I’ve published many Mad magazines in the past, but I’ve never published a comic like this.
2. Erin Rosebery’s UV reaction comics were also good, but I had never seen them until the MICE moment. It came with a small UV light keychain so you could read all the secret parts. Like Pratt, this man has a dedication to the process of architecture so deep that it comes back to influence the art he is building.
bonus! Scriptrix Roseberry Illuminated RISO Guide Palette Print. You’ll be simply fascinated by the collision of practicality and style on display here, and the connections drawn between tweaking a printer’s color settings and mixing different parts of a compound to create a pigmented paint.
3. Something that shines. Every year I end up buying a ton of stickers, and 2025 is even more exciting. Boxerbun prints them on holographic foil with a faceted texture. I picked up a print of the same finish from the Black Indie Comic Club booth (while picking up a copy of the horror anthology Black and Bloody). One of the Ansis Puriņš comics I got also had some instead of spot gloss. Ahead of his time? Because comics are reaching the next glorious level, and I’m here for it. Karina Taylor knows what I mean.
4. “Looky Here” text by William Morris. “Until very recently, everything touched by human hands was more or less beautiful. So in those days, everyone who made something was shared in art, and everyone who used something so made was shared in art.” Morris’s 1880 speech, “The Beauty of Life (The Hopes and Fears of Art),” is set in type created by the author and printed in prints inspired by his wallpaper designs.
5. Bread. Or even what you know may surprise you. Pubs like Bulgilhan, Peow2, Fieldmouse Press and Avery Hill were all there and I already have most of their books. People won’t hesitate if they are offered something like “horror vampire yuri in a gorgeous hardcover”. Most of the time I’m looking for a book on the table that I know nothing about. A field mouse book, “Soften the Blow” by Bred Tarleton, seemed promising. Although I couldn’t really understand what was going on as I flicked through the pages, I did get a sense of the story becoming more and more bizarre as it progressed, and I was able to get a general idea of the book’s aesthetics, atmosphere, and appearance. The next day, I looked up Tarleton and learned that they were named my favorite semi-finalist in this year’s Manga Artists Cooperative Mini Comic Awards. Horse 2. Incredibly weird and hilariously absurd. I’m excited to see how they apply their storytelling to longer (literally and figuratively) heavier formats. You never know what will happen with your browsing.
MICE hall photo is back!
Traditionally, I would wrap this up as a warning to all the zine makers out there that they need to charge more. This year, I tried to give a little more to put my money where my mouth is. 2025 has been a tough year, but no one in MICE is feeling it. Some had small card readers, but many exhibitors had not yet done that level of merchandising and had QR codes for money transfer apps. This made it much easier to overpay cautiously. The tone says, “Would you like to round it up?” It was pretty fun at the Peow2 table though.
For more information on BCAF’s upcoming plans, please visit the BCAF website.
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