Our Winter 2025 season is five beautiful books about hard truths, big lies, hidden crisis, and the dark depths of the human heart. Come join in the festival of nihilism.
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About the Project
Fieldmouse Press is a nonprofit comics publisher based in Grass Valley, California. This is our seventh Crowdfundr project, this time to support the publication of the books that are a part of our Winter 2025 season.
The goal of this project is to raise funds to offset the print costs of Soften the Blow by Bread Tarleton, The Ardent by Carl Antonowicz, Souvenir by Sara Jewell, Totality by Jeff Lok, and Ambiguous Blu by Noah Schiatti. We've carefully budgeted printing costs, design costs, and accounted for hidden variables. We've got everything ready to go, but we need your help to make these books a reality!
About The Books
Soften the Blow by Bread Tarleton - 380 pg, smyth-sewn 7.5" x 10" paperback; color throughout
Audrey Morris is a trans woman who was once a popular professional wrestler. Transphobic management and a horrible in-ring accident drove her from the sport. Sequestered in a small town, she struggles with her identity, body dysmorphia, addiction, and isolation in a series of surreal, interior vignettes. Can she find self-acceptance and community in the face of her own trauma?
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The Ardent by Carl Antonowicz - 172 pg smyth-sewn landscape hardcover; color throughout
In a medieval fantasy setting, a young monk is tasked by the
head of his order to move the jewel-encrusted skeleton of one of
their martyrs to safety. His faith is tested in a journey where the
concepts of honor, family, and piety are laid bare. This bleak but
hilarious subversion of standard fantasy quest comics will draw
comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and Julia Gfrörer.
Advance Praise
for The Ardent
"Carl Antonowicz knows that the disappointments of man are eternal, but so are their cures. The joke is always the same, but that's what makes it so funny."
— Claire Napier, author of The Magic Necklace, Wolf Story
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Souvenir by Sara Jewell- 84 pg smyth-sewn paperback, full color
In this deeply intimate collection, Sara Jewell searches for meaning in a chaotic past, embracing grief while daring to move through it. In a dizzying array of colors and styles, Jewell grapples with the desire to hold onto a moment with the knowledge that it has already passed. Souvenir embraces the possibility of metamorphosis while acknowledging the comforting haze of oblivion. For fans of Julie Delporte, Zoe Thorogood, Briana Loewinsohn, and Tommi Parrish, this debut collection will leave you breathless.
Advance Praise for Souvenir
"Intimate and enigmatic, with inventive layouts and mixed
media - Souvenir is a treasure."
— Hazel Newlevant, author of No Ivy League, Becoming Who We Are
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Totality by Jeff Lok - 124 pg smyth-sewn paperback, black & white
Jeff gets a job across the country, and throws everything into the back of a Penske. Life is looking up - a new place, new opportunities, new friends. But what does he do when it all crumbles? This is a story of the American Dream laid bare as a malignant myth. Totality is a dark, surreal, and hilarious account of a damaged person in a fractured country.
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Ambiguous Blu by Noah Schiatti - 52 page, perfect bound paperbaack, color throughout
Blu is skipping school again, and no one seems to notice. forcing the world into the confines of a computer screen, Blu’s identity keeps getting lost in the static. Their connection to others is fading. Blu is falling apart.
Advance Praise
for Ambiguous Blu
“A gut-punch of a comic, conveying adolescent anxiety with a
simple, effective color palette that left me aching and hungry for more.”
— Ned Wolfe, author of Young Men in Love
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About Fieldmouse Press
Fieldmouse Press is a nonprofit publisher of comics and literature, based in Grass Valley, California. Founded in 2019, Fieldmouse Press is committed to expanding the reach and appreciation of the comics arts.
Our goal as a publisher is to make comics that challenge and delight readers from all walks of life.
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Picture Credit: Norah Clous @ SPX 2024 |
| Since 2021, Fieldmouse Press has
published 10 new comics from indie and alt comics legends like
Ariel Bordeaux and MariNaomi, as well as new and upcoming
artists like Phoebe Mol and Noëlle Kröger. |
Backing the Project
Backing a Crowdfundr campaign is a little different than other
crowdfunding platforms you might be used to. Click the perk you're
interested on the right hand side of the page, and add it to your
cart. You'll check out after selecting the perks you want, and money
will be collected immediately. You can add multiple perks to your cart
before checkout, so if you want multiple books but not the whole
season, (or if you want multiple copies of the same book), you can do
that before checkout. Shipping and fulfillment costs are
applied during check-out when you support the project.
One of our goals when publishing comics is to make sure our artists are treated equitably, so we've already paid our artists advances on royalties and offer an artist-centered royalty for all of our books.
Funding Goal
Our funding goal is $7500 USD. These funds will be used to directly pay for printing and transportation of the books back to our warehouse, as well as for processing fees and additional unforeseen expenses. These funds will help us keep our publishing program moving forward as we plan for 2025.
We're offering a variety of packages to help fund this print run, including recently printed books, but we need your help to make this season a reality.
Risks
Fieldmouse Press has successfully funded and fulfilled multiple
campaigns through Kickstarter and Crowdfundr, so we have the
experience of crowdfunding under our belts. We are working with the
amazing folks at
White Squirrel
Distribution to help make sure that packages get out
quickly and efficiently. We were able to complete our campaign for our
previous season on time and with no damaged items on returns. We have
done all the pre-work to make sure that this campaign with be successful.
We expect to be able to start shipping books in May 2025 but have given ourselves until June 2025 to completely fulfill this campaign. We promise to keep our supporters up to date with any news, including delays and uncertainties, as we work through the campaign process.
Special Items in the Campaign
Stay tuned as we add special items to the campaign, including zines and original art!
Perks
Bookshelves full to overflowing, but still want to support the campaign? Get digital editions of all five books at a discount!
You get a digital copy of SOFTEN THE BLOW by Bread Tarleton at a discount!
You get a digital copy of Carl Antonowicz's THE ARDENT at a discount!
You get a digital copy of Sara Jewell's SOUVENIR at a discount!
You get a digital copy of Noah Schiatti's AMBIGUOUS BLU at a discount!
For bookstores and retailers - get 5 copies of Bread Tarleton's SOFTEN THE BLOW. We cover the shipping!
For bookstores and retailers - get 5 copies of Carl Antonowicz's THE ARDENT . We cover the shipping!
For bookstores and retailers - get 5 copies of Sara Jewell's SOUVENIR at 50% off MSRP. We cover the shipping!
For bookstores and retailers - get 5 copies of Jeff Lok's TOTALITY at 50% off MSRP. We cover the shipping!
For bookstores and retailers - get 5 copies of Noah Schiatti's AMBIGUOUS BLU at 50% off MSRP. We cover the shipping!
Highlights
See all activity146
Bookshelves full to overflowing, but still want to support the campaign? Get digital editions of all five books at a discount!
You get a digital copy of SOFTEN THE BLOW by Bread Tarleton at a discount!
You get a digital copy of Carl Antonowicz's THE ARDENT at a discount!
You get a digital copy of Sara Jewell's SOUVENIR at a discount!
You get a digital copy of Noah Schiatti's AMBIGUOUS BLU at a discount!
For bookstores and retailers - get 5 copies of Bread Tarleton's SOFTEN THE BLOW. We cover the shipping!
For bookstores and retailers - get 5 copies of Carl Antonowicz's THE ARDENT . We cover the shipping!
For bookstores and retailers - get 5 copies of Sara Jewell's SOUVENIR at 50% off MSRP. We cover the shipping!
For bookstores and retailers - get 5 copies of Jeff Lok's TOTALITY at 50% off MSRP. We cover the shipping!
For bookstores and retailers - get 5 copies of Noah Schiatti's AMBIGUOUS BLU at 50% off MSRP. We cover the shipping!
