"Kickstarting" the Revolution
Communist Mickey Mouse comic, STEPPERS, now LIVE on Kickstarter
A little over a year ago, I took a little detour from Processing to start working on something that started almost as a joke, but is now far too deep into production to be anything less than a genuine comic book.
Enlisting the assistance of Henry as my cowriter, we embarked on our journey through societal ills that normally would be reserved for long conversations on the couch until 2 in the morning and instead channeled that frustration through the lens of a newly minted public domain character.
This wasn’t just any character, though.
Mickey Mouse was this perfect storm of brand, connecting creativity and performative corporate agenda. Perhaps it was always Walt Disney’s intention for Mickey Mouse to be the product that he is today1 but to see the overwhelming control Disney has of the modern media environment, it is hard not to associate the mouse as a symbol of greed. Add on top of that the very public impact that Disney’s legal team has had on intellectual property over the years, it was a source of inspiration we couldn’t leave on the cutting room table.
Yesterday evening, we launched our Kickstarter, collecting the first 6 chapters of STEPPERS in print format. We’d like to build a reserve of print books for distribution, and have a number of cool rewards that we could only really do through the Kickstarter ecosystem. One of these is pet portraits, some fun little commentary on the struggle of the modern artist to maintain creative freedom. But truly, who doesn’t want to have their pet added into a comic book alongside Mickey and Oswald?
For some of our readers, this may be of interest to you, as we finish up our first volume and wrap up our scripts for the second. If the support is there, we’ve got a lot we’d like to say with it. I loathe to talk about how relevant it is to our current political climate, but these are the times that we live in.
If you can make a pledge and are interested in the book!), click this button to visit our Kickstarter page, and give this a share if you know someone who might like it:
Here’s some quick info about the book, for any new subscribers or followers:
After spending decades behind bars, Mickey has been released from prison. In a twisted turn of events, he must reckon with a public persona he does not recognize that poses an existential threat to all that he stands for.
STEPPERS is a neo-noir tale exploring themes of violence, civil unrest and personhood which weaves together classic characters from the public domain with gritty realism. STEPPERS ponders about what political resistance even looks like in the modern age.
So far, we are nearly at 50% of our goal and haven’t even hit the first 24 hours. The early support has been very encouraging, and I thank everyone for the warm reception to our launch. I’m going to wrap this up because I’ve got a launch party to get to at Mutiny Comics in Denver. Excited to see some new faces (and maybe a few familiar ones!) to talk comics. That event is from 12-4pm for anyone that can make it in the Denver area.
Mickey was created by Walt Disney because Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was owned by Universal Pictures, so clearly he was seen as a product from his inception.
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