Hello, MICE friends! This year we’re celebrating MICE’s 15th anniversary! So to mark this special milestone we asked a few questions to Dan Mazur, one of the founders and co-chair of MICE!
Q: What do you remember about the first MICE? How did it come together?
Dan: Shelli and I, as members of BCR, had insinuated ourselves into the organizing of the Boston Zine Fair in 2008, which had its HQ in the Democracy Center, where BCR held its meetings. But the zine fair was on its last legs, the organizers clearly experiencing burnout (we had been travelling to exhibit at shows like Mocca, APE, SPX, and I remember saying "we should put on our own show in Boston," and Shelli said, "we should just take over the zine fair." We didn't actually take it over but we jumped in and helped). So the 2008 ZIne Fair was about 50% comics I'd say, and a dry run for MICE, as it turned out.
(MICE 2012 poster, Ansis Purins)
We held it at the AIB building (Art Institute of Boston) at the end of Newbury Street. I was teaching comics with Alexander Danner at AIB at the time, and Susan Levan, chair of Illustration there, liked the idea of a zine show, and muscled it through. On the second day of the show, however, we found that the room where half the exhibitors' stuff was, had been locked, and there was no school staff around to let us in. We stood there, helpless, a bunch of cartoonists, wondering what to do, until Jay Kennedy -- also a cartoonist, but cut from a different cloth, if you know him -- climbed up and over the high partition surrounding the room we were locked out of, and unlocked the door from the inside, saving the day. That's the only anecdote I remember -- it seemed impressive at the time.
There's a great video of the Zine Fair.
The next year, the Zine Fair fell apart completely, and for some reason I don't remember, we were too busy to pick up the pieces. But in 2010 we got back to it, and decided that since all the hardcore zinesters had drifted away, to turn it into an entirely indie comics show (though zines were welcome). AIB was still on board, but we moved to their Beacon Street Building which was nicer. We set about planning the show, and trying to come up with a name, along the lines of APE (Alternative Press Expo), MOCCA (Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art), Small Press Expo (SPX), MECAF (Maine Comic Arts Fest)... I remember working very hard to come up with an acronym that would spell MASSHOLE, but finally I think it was Braden Lamb who blurted out one day: MICE!
(MICE 2016 poster, Raul the Third)
We had no budget. We had no sponsors (except AIB for hosting us, and they also let us print posters in their print lab). And it was basically just Shelli and I doing the organizing. Braden was involved too, and Rebecca Viola came in at some point. At the last minute Shelli and Braden got a job deadline, so they were out of the picture right up until the final week or so. I had to move all the furniture myself, with one AIB custodian. Not complaining, it made it that much more DIY. Anyway, Shelli and Braden were back in time for the show, and it went off well. We'd sent out probably just an email notification to all the cartoonists we knew -- it was the early years of CCS too. I have the exhibitor list somewhere..,. many of them are still around, some are who knows where.
It was one day. There were probably a few hundred attendees? We didn't count. But whatever it was we considered it an absolute success.
My idea of designing the space was to use AIB's printers to print up a bunch of 11x17 images from comics - from Love and Rockets to Crumb, Alison Bechdel, Julie Doucet -- and tape them haphazardly around the walls. When the next show rolled around Shelli - an actual designer - put an end to that and began to establish MICE's distinctive visual identity.
At the Zine Fair I think we had workshops. At the first MICE we added panel discussions, held in the very small AIB library.
(MICE 2017 poster, Micheal DeForge)
We enjoyed exhibiting at the other shows, the sense of camaraderie and community amongst independent cartoonists. We wanted to make sure that, even if no one showed up to buy comics, the exhibitors would have a good time. The one thing we could think of was to feed people, so we bought snacks and drinks (no budget, we paid for it ourselves), and started the tradition of the mini Babybel cheeses (because it's MICE, get it?) We went around handing out food. Luckily people came and did buy comics. But we've kept the snack principle. We thought of MICE as throwing a party for our cartoonist friends (and consider all cartoonists friends), and have tried to preserve that feeling as much as possible as the event has grown.
Well, the following year we moved again, still within AIB, which had been bought by Lesley. So we moved to the Lesley University Hall on Mass Ave in Cambridge. Which used to be Sears Roebuck where I bought my BVDs as a kid, so it felt very much at home for me. Anyway, we stayed there for another 9 years...expanded from one day to two, brought in special guests, new staff members and co-directors (Jason Viola, Jordan Stillman, Zach Clemente, and now a whole new generation of MICE staff), introduced the "Happiness Officers," to buttress MICE's humanist philosophy, and there was great continuity and steady growth until the pandemic hit...but that's another story, right?
(MICE 2019 poster, Hartley Lin)
Q: What would you say is the biggest difference between MICE 15 years ago and MICE today?
Dan: The main difference between then and now? Well, LOTS more people, both working on the show and attending.... A budget of tens of thousands.... a non-profit corporation that we're part of... so it's hard to choose the biggest difference, but one big difference is that pretty much everyone exhibiting in 2010 was from Massachusetts, or R.I., NH, Vermont. Now the show is truly national and even international. It's hard to list the differences without sounding a wistful note. For everything gained, something is lost, but I think MICE has managed to keep its essence.
(2021 Mini-MICE poster, Erica Henderson)
Q: Describe the last 15 years of MICE in one word.
Dan: Warmth? Vibrance? Growth? Cheese?
(MICE 2022 postcard, Sara Alfageeh)
MICE 2024 will take place on December 7th and 8th at Boston University’s Fuller Building.
(P.S. You can check out more of MICE’s past poster art in our brand new website archive page, and newly uploaded videos on our MICE Media Youtube Channel!)
(MICE 2024 poster, Mad Rupert)
Comments