Nirvana Comics Knoxville: Project Maus Updates

This has been an exciting time at Nirvana Comics and we wanted to share this mind blowing journey about Project Maus with you! We never expected this project to be this big, but we strive to make a difference and we’re extremely thankful to everyone who helped make this possible.
Our original goal when we heard the news was to start a loaning program with the few copies of Maus we originally ordered. Then the big bag! That’s literally what it felt like! People were calling the shop and messaging us asking how they could help, so we had to switch gears. We started a GoFundMe and y'all showed up! Yes you! We made our goal and then some. We were able to use the donations to go even further. We were able to expand our radius to offer a free copy of Maus to any student who requests it. We had parents and students from all over request a copy of Maus for their kids, students, nieces, nephews, etc… We have officially sent a copy of Maus to all students that were on our reserve list. We also were able to receive a few extra copies to ship to students on our overflow list after Free Comic Book Day (May 7th).
This has been a blessing for us, but this has also been very challenging as a small business. We’re a brick and mortar store and most of our traffic is walk-ins. We also ship throughout the week. Shipping more than a 1000 copies of Maus is about five months worth of shipping for us and we got it done in about 2/2 ½ months. We are extremely proud of our team and volunteers who helped us ship copies of Maus around the world. Shout out to Scruffy City Sisters of Knoxville!
All funds donated have helped us with operation costs and shipping/supplies. With all remaining funds we’re continuing our mission of childhood education by starting graphic novel libraries and donating to local Knoxville nonprofits with our same vision. We will continue to post updates on our website and social media platforms.