Listen Up: Charles Brownstein Talks Comics Censorship at TCAF!

cb_bioCBLDF’s Charles Brownstein spoke about intellectual freedom and comics censorship at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, and we have recorded proof thanks to Jamie Coville!

During the panel, “Protecting Comics: Graphic Novel Challenges in Today’s Libraries,” which was part of TCAF’s Librarian and Educator Day, Brownstein discussed why comics are challenged, how to fight challenges, how CBLDF can help, and more. Coville provides the following description of the panel:

Presented by Charles Brownstein of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Charles starts off with a small history of how comics became thought of as being only for children. He then gave some statistics of Challenged and Banned Graphic Novels in both Canada and the US. He explained the path to censorship, why people try to ban comics, a list of top challenged books in both countries, the book challenges they are dealing with right now (This One Summer, Palomar, The Graveyard Book, Bone, Fun Home & Persepolis), how libraries can cope with challengers, managing the challenges and the resources available. They did a Q & A with the audience and addressed issues with cultural differences, particularly with European views on nudity books marked for children, older books with offensive depictions of race and how to respond to that.

Listen to the panel here. Many thanks to Coville for recording the panel!

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