Now Presenting the latest, greatest mini-comics
Each year the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo enthusiastically supports self-published comics by awarding MICE Mini-Grants to independent creators. We are thrilled to be back in person and to celebrate the hard work and talents of our exhibitors with MICE Mini-Grants. MICE Mini-Grants offer funding to help creators print their work, provide focused marketing and promotional support, and a top-notch distribution channel for their comics thanks to our partner Radiator Comics.
about our grants
In 2022, the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo will award 15 MICE Mini-Grants of $100 each! In addition, a Special Guest Judge will select one of these winners to receive a Grand Prize: a total grant of $500. MICE 2022 exhibitors are encouraged to submit new self-published print mini-comics for consideration through September 19, 2022.
our partners
The Mini-Grant program is made possible thanks to a matching financial contribution from PrintNinja. We are also excited to announce our continued partnership with Radiator Comics, which offers winning entries an open opportunity for retail and online distribution.
Want to support MICE Mini-Grants?
When you give a donation to the Boston Comic Arts Foundation 501(c)(3), you can specify that you’d like your tax-deductible gift to go toward MICE Mini-Grants. Whether it’s large or small, 100% of MICE Mini-Grant donations go directly to creators and support the best in new, local comics, year after year.
MINI-GRANT 2022 Showcase
Congratulations to all of our MICE Mini-Grant winners of 2022! Please find their award-winning mini-comics at their exhibitor tables at MICE on October 22 - 23, 2022.
Monsters: Behind the Scenes
Alan Jennings - 8B
A look at the private lives of movie monsters. Featuring the perils of a mid life crisis including: balding, group therapy, retreats and more.
All-ages
Body Issues #1
Babs - 8A
Body Issues #1 collects nine stories about body image, submitted by nine different people and drawn by art model/cartoonist Babs New.
Teens and up
CAT
Brandon Berry - 16A
CAT is an intergalactic thief being chased down by a blood hound detective...
All-ages
Grasping At Straws
Catalina Rufin - 79B
Focusing around the unexpected friendship at a mental health recovery center between a 34-year-old ex-prisoner and a depressed teenager, Grasping At Straws is the story of life after rock bottom.
Teens and up
Jerome
D. De Maglie - 56A
Jerome is a bio non-fiction mini comic about the AIDS crisis in 1980s NYC, the activist movements that organized against the Regan admin's neglect, and my uncle's experience contracting the disease up until his death.
Mourning Doves Are People, Too
Demi Naito - 45A
Can mourning doves be our neighbors? I say YES! with conviction. But I couldn’t say this before we moved to an urban area in Los Angeles. Around the beginning of the pandemic a mourning dove started to visit our courtyard. This dove trained me to feed her what she wanted and this is how our relationship started. During the pandemic I stayed inside the house all day, and a mourning dove family hung out in our courtyard, too. When you are with someone for a while, you learn something about them and the world that they are in. As a result, our world opens up.
All-ages
Memories
Desmond Reed - 5B
The tragic backstory of a party boy.
Teens and up
Ghost Year
Desolina Fletcher - 24B
After his mother vanishes, Kenny, lonely and anxious, begins meeting for escalating nighttime dares with his crush, Eva, a budding sociopath. Soon he discovers the most frightening thing he has to face is himself.
Teens and up
The Rockford High Mystery Society #1
Joe Bortner - 72B
In a stunt to get herself expelled from her new high school, myopic honors student Dani McCallister teams up with Rachel Hoffman-Stewart: Salem, MA's last teen detective. Together, the two uncover a side to the city that might change their lives – forever.
All-ages
Koreans Sing in English
Juniper Kim - 82
Koreans Sing in English is a comic about consuming anglophone music as a Korean person. A triptych juxtaposing personal, intergenerational, and historical narratives, it discusses topics including race, postcoloniality, queerness, and substance use. This project was created as my mini-thesis (first-year final project) at The Center for Cartoon Studies. It was also nominated for a 2022 Ignatz Award in the “Promising New Talent” category.
Teens and up
The House Was Vile
King Ray - 82
Written during the ongoing pandemic, The House Was Vile explores the houses that acclaimed horror writer Shirley Jackson lived in and wrote about, and connects them—sometimes in startling ways—to this moment.
Combining atmospheric ink washes, text references, and haunting photographs, The House Was Vile considers Jackson's legacy and probes the marks we leave on the houses we occupy.
Teens and up
The Fortunates Undone
Nicholas Offerman - 41A
Past and present converge as Phil Hutton must introduce his estranged father, Charlie, to his girlfriend, Anne, while attempting to finish a comic he's been working on since high school.
Teens and up
The Last Time I Saw Ryan
Nicholas Tofani - 56B
An autobiographical comic revolving around a deeply traumatic series of events and their effect on a young man and his family in the town of Weymouth, Massachusetts.
Mature Readers
Physics
Pip Caplan - 44
Lion takes Lizard on an adventure through the jungle to better understand the power of friendship.
Teens and up
Finding Hope:
Part I
Sarah Shaw - 57B
As a teenager in small town Maine, Sarah Shaw discovered a WWII-era memoir written by a distant relative named Hope. Over the years, she returned to Hope's story for inspiration and guidance, and eventually traveled to the Philippines, where their stories converge. Finding Hope: Part I is the beginning of a nonfiction graphic narrative about connecting with an ancestor.
Teens and up