UPDATE: You’ll find CBLDF at booth #603 throughout the show!

With Executive Director Charles Brownstein in Japan for a symposium on manga and censorship; Deputy Director Alex Cox in Portland, Maine, for the Maine Comics Arts Festival; and a charity auction and a booth headed up by volunteer Diana Green at St. Paul, Minnesota’s SpringCon, CBLDF is all over the world this weekend. Lest the West Coast feel left out, I’ll be on hand at the Big Wow! ComicFest in San Jose, California!

Big Wow takes place May 19 – 20 in downtown San Jose at the San Jose Convention Center, Hall 2. You’ll find CBLDF at booth #110 #603, and we’ll will join throngs of fans for two days of comics creators, media guests, and exciting programming. We’ll be on hand with an exclusive assortment of signed premiums, including what may well be the last of our hugely popular CBLDF Grab Bags.

This show is sure to slake the thirst of any Bay Area fanboy or fangirl who didn’t get their WonderCon fix this year. I know I’m excited about the extensive guest list, which includes the likes of Jim Lee, Tim Sale, Bernie Wrightson, Kevin Nowlan, and Juanjo Guarnido — and that’s just the beginning! Come hang out with me and show your support for Free Speech and the CBLDF at Big Wow this weekend!

Betsy Gomez is the Web Editor for CBLDF.

I will be at the Maine Comics Arts Festival in Portland, Maine, all weekend. On Saturday, May 19,  I will be presenting the CBLDF’s “History of Censorship in Comics” — a slideshow walk through oppression and small-mindedness from the 1930s to today! The presentation happens at the Portland Public Library Main Branch in the Rines Auditorium (5 Monument Square).

On Sunday, May 20, from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., you’ll find me at the Ocean Gateway with a booth full of info about the Fund and awesome donation premiums like our hugely popular I READ BANNED COMICS tees and the (now-defunct) COMICS CODE AUTHORITY stamp tee-shirt!

The Maine Comics Arts Festival is a much-loved regional show and very much a community event. Created and sponsored by Casablanca Comics, this year’s show features a great guest list, including Kate Beaton, Rick Parker, Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, and Kazu Kibuishi. Admission is only $5, and everyone in New England should be there!

Alex Cox is the Deputy Director of CBLDF.

“Year after year, Nick Postiglione with Source Comics and Games and the MCBA are some of the most generous contributors to the CBLDF,” says CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein. “They’re a terrific organization that is a model of local effort to support creativity and fandom in the immediate community.  Likewise, their support of CBLDF makes an important difference on our work. This year’s support will help us contribute to the legal bills of their Minneapolis-St. Paul resident Ryan Matheson, who courageously fought Canada Customs when they wrongly accused him of criminal behavior for the comics he carried.  We’re grateful to the terrific community in the Twin Cities and to the MCBA for their continued support of our important work.”

The MCBA website has all the details on the auction:

One of the premiere events at SpringCon! Our 24th annual charity auction takes place on Sunday May 20 at 2:30PM in the Guest Creator Panel Room! This is a live auction that is basically fun, extremely exciting and easy to participate in! 100% of all proceeds will be split between the Minnesota Lupus Foundation – www.lupusmn.org and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund – www.cbldf.org – Special items this year include a huge selection of original art, sketches, original posters and a wide variety of other unusual & esoteric comic book & related collectible & items. This event is FREE and everyone is welcome to participate! On behalf of the charities we accept cash, checks and all credit cards! Don’t miss this one!

If you’re in the area, be sure to check out SpringCon and the MCBA Charity Art & Collectibles Auction, this weekend in St. Paul, Minnesota! Please support CBLDF’s important First Amendment work by bidding generously!

Wow! The response to the Threadless Comics-On Tees vol. 6 design challenge has been phenomenal, with 73 artists having a go at designing the first in a series of four shirts featuring Neil Gaiman’s “The Day the Saucers Came.” The challenge isn’t over yet — the Threadless community of 1.8 million users is voting on their favorite design, and you can join their ranks! Voting ends in three days, so head over to the Threadless Atrium to pick your favorite now!

The winner of the contest will have his or her design debuted this summer at Comic-Con International San Diego. The artist will join Ben Templesmith (Fell, 30 Days of Night), Brandon Graham (Prophet, King City), and John Cassaday (Captain America, Planetary) in the four-shirt series that features Neil Gaiman’s story of zombies, aliens, and giants! CBLDF will receive 25% of the proceeds from the sale of the t-shirts to support its ever-important First Amendment work.

For more information on the Comics-On Tees design challenge and to vote for your favorite, head over to the Threadless website.

“There is no time like the present to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund,” said comiXology co-founder and CEO David Steinberger. “With freedom of speech being encroached upon at every corner, especially as new digital content platforms arise, comiXology is happy to show our commitment to free speech and the comics industry with this donation. If you have yet to become a member and are a comic book fan, please do so today.”

“We’re grateful that comiXology is taking this leadership position in supporting the CBLDF’s important work,” says CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein. “We have already seen prosecutions resulting from comics delivered in the digital realm, and those prosecutions are still on the rise. The CBLDF maintains an active program of fighting back when those cases occur, and works hard to challenge unconstitutional laws that would restrict the rights of comics in this new environment. We’re gratified that comiXology recognizes the importance of our work in this area and are putting their financial support behind us.”

Recently, the CBLDF helped fund and guide the successful defense in R. v. Matheson, a case that involved a comic book fan who faced criminal charges in Canada relating to comic books on his computer. The total legal costs of this case exceeded $75,000. After taking the case last summer, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund contributed $20,000 to the defense and also participated in shaping the defense, including recruiting expert testimony for the trial. The CBLDF is currently seeking funds to help pay off the $45,000 debt the defendant incurred as a result of his case, and to create new tools to prevent future cases.

To make a contribution to these important efforts, please visit www.cbldf.org.

About Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the First Amendment rights of the comics art form and its community of retailers, creators, publishers, librarians, and readers. The CBLDF provides legal referrals, representation, advice, assistance, and education in furtherance of these goals.

About comiXology
Founded in 2007 with the mission of bringing comics to people everywhere, comiXology — in just five short years — has revolutionized the comic book and graphic novel world. From creating the industry leading platform for digital comics to tools and services for brick and mortar retailers, comiXology has lead the charge in exposing new audiences to the rich history and culture of comic books. With the development of the Comics by comiXology digital comics platform — available across iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire and the Web — comiXology provides the easiest way worldwide for people to enjoy comics at just the click of a button! Regularly ranking as the top grossing iPad app in the entire iTunes App Store, Comics by comiXology was recently selected as a preloaded app on Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Providing digital comics across multiple platforms, comiXology will not stop until everyone on the face of the earth has been turned into a comic book fan.

# # #

Free Comic Book Day 2012 is this Saturday, May 5, and folks are ready to head to their favorite local comic shop to pick up a spectacular assortment of free comics! Among the offerings for this year’s FCBD: CBLDF and BOOM! Town’s The Censored Howard Cruse, a sneak peek of The Other Sides of Howard Cruse. ComicBooked.com is running a preview of this year’s books and took a moment to describe The Censored Howard Cruse:

Published in conjunction with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), this book focuses on Howard Cruse, one of the more fearless creators in comics history. Being the first openly gay cartoonist, he was also the first editor of the anthology series Gay Comix. This book takes a humorous look at the man’s work as told in a world where the CBLDF didn’t exist and comics are censored for ‘our own good.’ Fortunately, and even though this censorship is funny on it’s own, this is merely a preview of the upcoming release The Other Side Of Howard Cruse from BOOM! Town (BOOM! Town is BOOM! Studios’ indie comics imprint). Naturally, this book isn’t for everyone, so if it isn’t for you then just don’t pick it up. There are references to homosexuality, politics and drugs. If these things offend you, then check out any of the other many books available on FCBD. Just don’t be one of those people who throws a fit and tries to make a federal case out of it because you happen to not get why this book is important. In all seriousness, however, this is a great preview for the upcoming release and we all know that the CBLDF does some great work in protecting not only readers rights but the rights and freedoms of creators around the country. They deserve our support.

4 Color Fantasies in Rancho Cucamonga, California (7172 Archibald Avenue), is upping the ante with their Fanboys vs. Zombies dunk tank! For $1 a throw, fanboys can have a go at dunking zombies, with proceeds benefiting CBLDF’s important First Amendment work. Store manager Chris Brady tells us that fanboys will get to make their throws using Thor’s hammer (a foam version, that is)! Brady expects 2,500 comics fans for a plethora of signings and events to celebrate FCBD. You can get all the details here.

Celebrate comics this Saturday, May 5, with CBLDF and fans everywhere. Happy Free Comic Book Day, everyone!

This weekend, I’m heading off to Portland, Oregon, to represent the CBLDF at the Stumptown Comics Festival, where we’ll have signings with Craig Thompson, Dan Piraro, and Ron Randall, as well as a huge array of signed comics and graphic novels that you can get for making a donation in support of our important work! Stumptown is one of the great American independent comics festivals. In addition to the action on the convention floor, the entire Portland comics community goes all out, hosting a wide variety of parties, art exhibits, and special events that showcase the city’s unique comics culture.

CBLDF will be set up at booth 114, where we’ll be hosting the following signings:

Saturday
1:00 – 2:00 p.m.: Craig Thompson  (Free for card-carrying CBLDF Members, $10 donation for non-members)
4:00 – 5:00 p.m.: Dan Piraro (Free for card-carrying CBLDF Members, $5 donation for non-members)

Sunday
3:00 – 4:00 p.m.: Ron Randall (Free for card-carrying CBLDF Members, $5 donation for non-members)

In addition to the happenings on the show floor, there’s a vibrant schedule of off-site parties occurring throughout the weekend:

DRINK AND DRAW
Date: Friday, April 27, 2012
Time: 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Location: Bridge City Comics, 3725 N Mississippi Ave., Portland, OR 97227
Admission: Free
Facebook event

In celebration of the release of Peter Bagge‘s newest comics series, RESET, Dark Horse Comics and Bridge City Comics present the 2012 Stumptown Comics Festival kickoff event — a Friday night Drink and Draw for visiting and local artists, publishers, and all festival-goers!

Bagge will be in attendance as the guest of honor with copies of RESET #1 to sign, and party guests will be provided with complementary art supplies to draw to their hearts’ content. This Drink and Draw event is a fun, casual way for festival participants to get the weekend off to a friendly and inspired start. Snacks and drinks will also be served, compliments of Bridge City, Dark Horse, and Ninkasi Brewing.

CHARITY BENEFIT RAFFLE
Dates: Saturday, April 28, 2012, 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. & Sunday, April 29, 2012, noon – 5:00 p.m.
Location: Stumptown Comics Festival, Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Blvd., Portland, OR 97232

As part of this year’s festival, Stumptown Comics is raffling off cool prizes to benefit our educational mission as well as two of our favorite nonprofits, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the IPRC’s Dylan Williams Scholarship Fund.

Stop by Booth A6 at the Stumptown Comics Festival, April 28-29, to buy raffle tickets for our special “Golden Ticket” prizes:

• A Wacom Intuos 5 graphics tablet
• A cameo appearance in an upcoming issue of iZombie or Madman, drawn by Mike Allred

Or any of the following prizes:

• Original sketches from Friday’s Drink and Draw event at Bridge City Comics (featuring Peter Bagge and other festival guests)
• DIY publishing basket, including a one-year membership to the Independent Publishing Resource Center and various art supplies
• Steampunk gift basket, including passes to GEAR Con, autographed books, T-shirts, and art prints
• Local publishers library, featuring books from Oni Press and Top Shelf Productions

Many thanks to our raffle sponsors: Wacom, Mike Allred, Muse Art and Design, the Independent Publishing Resource Center, Oni Press, Top Shelf Productions, Things from Another World, Anina Bennett and Paul Guinan, GEAR Con, and Rose City Steampunks.

ANNUAL PARTY
Date: Saturday, April 28, 2012
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.
Location: Jupiter Hotel, 800 E. Burnside Street, Portland, OR 97214
Admission: Free for all attendees and guests with badges; $5 without a badge
Facebook event

Oni Press and Stumptown Comics invite you to join us for the annual Stumptown Comics Festival party on Saturday, April 28, at 7:00 p.m. at the Jupiter Hotel! Hosted by Bobby Roberts of the Cort and Fatboy Show, it’s a full night of music, art, beer, and fun inspired by comics and the awesome people who love and make them.

The party will feature a live musical performance by Stumptown special guest Mike Allred and his band The Gear, the Stumptown Comic Arts Awards, and the annual Stumptown Cartoon Art Battle hosted by Paul Guinan! Plus beer by Ninkasi Brewing! This is THE social event of the festival weekend, so don’t miss your chance to party down Stumptown style.

Proceeds benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Independent Publishing Resource Center’s Dylan Williams Memorial Scholarship Fund, and Stumptown Comics.

Special thanks to our party sponsors: Oni Press, Ninkasi Brewing, ThinkAV, Galaxy Sailor Productions, and the Jupiter Hotel.

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Stumptown Comics, Inc. is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to fostering a wider appreciation of the artistic, cultural, and educational value of the comics art form, through public events, educational workshops, and philanthropic activities.

Please come out to the Stumptown Comics Festival this weekend to support the Fund and take in all the great comics that Portland has to offer!

This Saturday and Sunday, the 10th annual MoCCA Fest takes place in New York City, raising funds to benefit the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. MoCCA functions to “promote the understanding and appreciation of comic and cartoon art as well as to detail and discuss the artistic, cultural, and historical impact of what is the world’s most popular art form,” and MoCCA Fest brings together an exciting array of creator guests, publishers, exhibitors, and fans of comics.

CBLDF Deputy Director Alex Cox will be on hand on Saturday, April 28, to present “A History of Comics Censorship,” a guided tour through censorship in comics, from Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent to today. The panel takes place in Room A at 12:15 p.m.

Photographer Seth Kushner and writer Christopher Irving, the creators behind Leaping Tall Buildings: The Origins of American Comics, will also be at MoCCA Fest 2012. You can find both of them at the powerHouse Books table, B6, on Saturday (11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. and 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.) and Sunday (1:00 – 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 – 6:00 p.m).

Kushner and Irving will be signing books and selling exclusive Leaping Tall Buildings prints by Peter Kuper, Becky Cloonan, and Dean Haspiel. The sale of these prints benefits CBLDF’s First Amendment work. As an added bonus, Haspiel will be joining Kushner and Irving on Saturday from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m., and Peter Kuper will be signing all weekend at his table, I1. You can get more details on the signings here.

Please join CBLDF Deputy Director Alex Cox and creator supporters Seth Kushner, Christopher Irving, Dean Haspiel, and Peter Kuper this weekend for MoCCA Fest 2012 at the Lexington Avenue Armory (68 Lexington Ave, between 25th and 26th Streets)!

Over the weekend, I had the great pleasure of representing the CBLDF at the LA Times Festival of Books, which was held on the campus of the University of Southern California. It was a gorgeous, breezy weekend, and the crowds were out, raising $3,000 in two short days.

The LAT FoB is a massive affair, taking over the campus of USC like kudzu. The CBLDF was situated in the “Hero Complex” section, alongside folks like Hi De Ho Comics and our friends at ONI Press. The Hero Complex is the realm of journalist Geoff Boucher, and he has built it into a terrific resource for anyone interested in comics and pop culture. The representative tents and panels at the LAT FoB were an extension of that, with programs featuring Jim Lee, Dan Didio, Robert Kirkman, and Ed Brubaker, among others. The quality of panels and speakers rivaled a lot of full-sized comic cons, and when you add the overall programming (Judy Blume, Susan Orlean, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), you can see how the Festival of Books is an amazing event for book lovers in Southern California.

This was my first trip to Los Angeles, so I took a short detour when I got off the plane, acclimating my brain to freeways rather than subways. My first stop was The Secret Headquarters in Silverlake, a store owned by The Two Daves, gentlemen I have been friends with for some time. Dave Pifer and David Ritchie are card-carrying CBLDF members, and were happy to receive and store several packages for us, so I got a quick tour of their store, as well as their newest venture, right next door, Vacation Vinyl.

The synthesis of Secret Headquarters and Vacation Vinyl is a classic combo. Comics and music have always been linked in my brain; the store that I loved most as a younger man was a combination of comics and vintage records, split by a small ramp between two rooms, one with walls covered in band posters, and the other plastered with mylar-bagged back issues. The similarities between record and comic collecting are deep, with an obsessive love for an art form making them both easy traps for the pop culture minded. Both comics and records are physical objects that can become unavailable and hard-to-find, and they are both mass market pieces of entertainment that transcend the object itself in the hearts of fans. Milk-crate album bins and cardboard back-issue boxes are part and parcel of the same impulse.

Both stores are beautifully curated, and I was glad they were the first piece of the LA landscape I spent time in.

My next stop was the Hollywood offices of Archaia Entertainment, publishers of now-classics like MOUSE GUARD, ARTESIA, and the newly Eisner-nominated TALE OF SAND. Marketing Manager Mel Caylo was there to greet me, despite suffering from the famous “con crud”; that mysterious illness that lives in convention centers, countless handshakes, and back-issue bins, thriving at comic shows across the country. Archaia has been incredibly generous in their support of the CBLDF, and there will be a few fundraising surprises in the coming months that they were awesome enough to donate.

Saturday morning, the festival began in full swing, at 10 AM sharp, with crowds ready to go as soon as the gates opened. ULTIMATES and OUR LOVE IS REAL author Sam Humphries stopped by to sign copies of his books, and spent some time waxing nostalgic with FRAGGLE ROCK fans, who were happy to have him sign the graphic novel collection he participated in. Sam is one of the CBLDF’s more vocal supporter-creators, and we were happy to host him.

Author Lev Grossman signed in the CBLDF booth on Sunday, giving up a precious stretch between speaking on a panel and heading to the airport, and we definitely appreciate him spending that time with us. Lev has not only written a great deal about comics for TIME Magazine over the years, but his novel THE MAGICIANS is one of the best books I’ve read in the past decade or so. Before he left, he signed a stack of copies of his latest book, THE MAGICIAN KING, which will be put to fundraising use over the next few weeks. (I’m still in the middle of reading it, but so far, it is easily as good as THE MAGICIANS.)

All told, it was an awesome weekend full of comic fans, bibliophiles, and a welcome and surprising number of CBLDF members who came by the booth to say hello. Expect to see many more people wandering through Los Angeles county wearing “I READ BANNED COMICS” shirts after last weekend.

Big thanks to everyone who helped make my life easier over the weekend, of which there are too many to name. But a special shout-out goes to Jim and Terri from the Comic Art Professional Society, who made sure I got a sandwich when the blood sugar was running low. My next stop for the CBLDF is MoCCA in New York City, where I’ll be presenting the CBLDF’s history of comics censorship. Please come by and say hello!

Alex Cox is the Deputy Director for CBLDF.

Threadless and CBLDF announced the Comics-On Tees vol. 6 Design Challenge at C2E2, and submissions have started rolling in! Artists are creating their vision of Neil Gaiman’s original script, The Day the Saucers Came, and the winner of the contest will have their work printed on the first of four Comics-On Tees shirts, alongside Ben Templesmith (Fell, 30 Days of Night), Brandon Graham (Prophet, King City), and John Cassaday (Captain America, Planetary).

Threadless’s community of 1.8 million members will pick the final design, and the chosen shirt will be revealed at Comic-Con International in San Diego. Submissions are open until May 4, 2012, and fans can follow the submissions here. When the four-part series is released, 25% of the proceeds will benefit CBLDF’s important First Amendment work.

Artists: the challenge ends soon, so get to work on your submissions! For more details on the contest, visit the Threadless Atrium here. For more from CBLDF about the contest, check out this article.

Please help support CBLDF’s important First Amendment work by making a donation or becoming a member of the CBLDF!