Author: Maren Williams

Apple Goes on Censorship Spree

Once again, European attitudes towards nudity and sex have clashed with an American business behemoth. Last time, it was Facebook and Paris’ Jeu de Paume museum; this time, it’s Apple and a French distributor of e-comics. Izneo is a digital…

Students, Teachers, Iranian-born Artist React to PERSEPOLIS Ban

Two weeks after the news broke that Chicago Public Schools officials had removed Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel memoir Persepolis from 7th grade classrooms and placed it “under review” for use in 8th-10th grades, reactions continue to pour in from various…

Vancouver Mom Offended by Museum’s “Whale Bone Porn”

Here’s a new twist on the sadly familiar refrain of one person demanding that a cultural institution remove images she considers inappropriate: A mother from Vancouver, British Columbia says that a local museum is displaying “whale bone porn,” which has…

The Beginning of the End for Australian Comics Censorship

Regular CBLDF readers probably recall Joe Sergi’s post from last year about the birth of official comics censorship in Australia, where the gruesome crimes of Lone Avenger creator Len Lawson cast a pall over the entire industry for decades. Now…

Former FBI Profiler Says Video Games Don’t Cause Violence

Chalk up another win for video games: a former FBI profiler has added her voice to the chorus of researchers, psychiatrists, and other experts who have stated that video games do not cause violent behavior, though they may exacerbate underlying…

Georgia Bill Possible Threat to Parody, Protected Speech

For the second year in a row, there is a bill in the Georgia legislature that proposes to outlaw using Photoshop or other digital imaging software to make someone appear to be nude or engaged in sexual activity. The Democratic-sponsored…

Researcher Proves Wertham Fabricated Evidence Against Comics

If you’ve been reading the CBLDF blog for a while, you are undoubtedly familiar with Fredric Wertham, the child psychologist whose 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent claimed that comics transformed innocent children into depraved juvenile delinquents, making Wertham almost…

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi Defends Video Games

As you may have noticed, we’ve been closely following the debate in Congress and the media over violent video games. Too often, elected officials such as Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-KY) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) have made fallacious claims linking…

YALSA Announces Great Graphic Novels for 2013

The Young Adult Library Services Association’s latest annual list of Great Graphic Novels is out! Books are nominated for inclusion on the list by members of YALSA, a division of the American Library Association, and then voted on by a…