The Truth
The Rodent Regime is a satirical art project by C. Clyde and Henry Miller, the creators of STEPPERS — a graphic novel about the 1928, public-domain Mickey Mouse of Steamboat Willie. Everything on this site is fiction, written and drawn by us, in character as Mickey's "biographers."
The conceit: Mickey has been in hiding since 1928, we are publishing his missives, and the cheerful mouse you know is an impersonator. It's a bit. It has always been a bit. If you found this page within ten seconds of finding the project, it's working as designed.
Questions we answer out of character
- Is any of this real?
- No. The "evidence" is invented, the "recovered documents" are props we made, and the conspiracy is a story. The real history we riff on — Steamboat Willie entering the public domain in 2024, Mickey's first spoken words arriving in 1929, the original 1930s Mickey Mouse Clubs and their million-plus members — is genuinely real, and genuinely stranger than anything we invented.
- Are you affiliated with Disney?
- No. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to The Walt Disney Company in any way. Our mouse is the 1928 public-domain mouse, and only that mouse. Our quarrel — such as it is — is satire aimed at institutions: corporate mythmaking, media consolidation, and copyright maximalism. Never at people, and never at fans.
- What is STEPPERS?
- The book this whole thing orbits: Mickey's tell-all, as told to his biographers — the true story of who he is, warts and all. This site is the fan club; the book is the testimony.Get it here.
- I'm a journalist. Who do I talk to?
- A human, out of character, gladly. Write topress@rodentregime.com — we'll explain the whole thing on the record.
Count your fingers anyway. It's good practice.