In February, Belgian courts ruled that Tintin in the Congo should not be removed from bookstore shelves over charges that it violated Belgian laws regarding racism and inciting racial hatred. The court ruled that the book, which was serialized from 1930 to 1931 and collected in 1946 with significant revisions, was a product of its time and did not intend to incite racial hatred. This week, The Guardian reposted an analysis that Jogchum Vrielink wrote about the case and its impact on the sale of the book.

Vrielink’s analysis summarizes the details of the case:

Bienvenu Mbuto Mondondo, a Congolese national studying in Brussels, filed suit to obtain an injunction against the continued publication, distribution and sale of Hergé’s comic book Tintin in the Congo (Tintin au Congo), as well as seeking to have the book withdrawn from bookshops and libraries in Belgium. Mondondo did so on the basis of alleged violations of the Belgian anti-racism legislation. In subsidiary order he demanded that a disclaimer be printed on the comic’s cover, warning of its offensive nature, along with the inclusion of an introduction of a similar nature. Mondondo was supported in his claims by the minority organization Conseil représentatif des associations noires (Cran).

On 10 February 2012, the Brussels Court of First Instance rejected all the applicants’ claims. The Court also rejected the counterclaims by Casterman, the series’ publisher, and Moulinsart, the company which was set up to protect and promote the work of Hergé. Both had asked for 15,000 euros as compensation for ‘vexatious proceedings’.

This latest suit isn’t the first time the book has been challenged. The book has been subject to controversy throughout its history, as outlined by Vrielink:

The album has regularly been a cause for debate, particularly in the Anglophone world. Due to ongoing controversies it was not published in English until 1991. The colour edition did not even appear until 2005. When finally it was published (by Egmont Publishing), it included a cautionary wrapper indicating that it contained “bourgeois, paternalistic stereotypes of the period” that may be offensive to contemporary readers. The edition also encompassed an introduction providing additional historical contextualisation. Nevertheless, in 2007 the (former) Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) asked the bookstores Borders and Waterstones to stop selling the book, in response to a complaint it had received.

According to Vrielink, the bookstores didn’t remove the book as requested, but they did move it from the children’s section to the adult section. Several English retailers also sell the book with a label that describes the book as unsuitable for readers under the age of 16. In the United States, plans to publish the book were dropped entirely, so an American edition has never seen print. The Brooklyn Public Library keeps a copy, but it is not part of the open collection and available only by request.

Vrielink addresses the decision made by the Belgian court:

Judged by contemporary standards, Tintin in the Congo is blatantly colonial, highly paternalistic, and offensively stereotypical, to say the least. The question, however, that the Brussels Court had to answer was whether its present-day publication and distribution could be legally prohibited under the anti-racism legislation. The Court rightly rejects this possibility.

Vrielink further explains that court’s decision is based in part on the definition of harassment and what legally constitutes harassment. The court found that Mondondo and the claimants had a overly broad interpretation of harassment, which is legally defined as “unwanted conduct connected to a person’s race or ethnic origin with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, and of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.” In regard to the idea that the book incites racial hatred, the court ruled against the claimants in part because there was no evidence of actual hateful acts incited by the book.

Vrielink discussed the implications of the case, both for Mondondo and the book. Mondondo claims that his lawsuits have started a critical public discourse about the content of the book, but Vrilink points out that Mondondo is likely mistaken in this view point:

Mondondo’s view however ignores the counterproductive effects that the legal approach has for his cause. Admittedly, the complaint as well as the ruling have received significant media attention. However, the content of the coverage was predominantly of a negative, or even mocking, character. Precisely because Mondondo and the Cran opted for a legal solution, the applicants were routinely portrayed as overly sensitive, ‘politically correct’, and bent on censorship. Even the Centre for Equal Opportunities – the Belgian agency responsible for enforcing the federal discrimination legislation – warned against “over-reaction and hyper political correctness”. In other words, the legal approach has not given rise to the desired critical discussion about the comic itself.

In fact, quite the opposite is the case. Firstly, there have been unintended commercial effects, to say the least. Sales of the album rocketed, following the British discussion about a ban, by as much as 3,800 per cent (See B. Malkin, “Race row Tintin is best-seller“, Daily Telegraph, 14 July 2007). The comic temporarily even jumped to 5th place in the Amazon bestseller list. The lawsuit(s) in Belgium had similar effects, causing the French version of the album to temporarily go out of stock in September 2007. Secondly, and more fundamentally, the lawsuits shut down discussion rather than promoting it, by the aura of legitimacy that the inevitable rejection of the claims and the equally inevitable future acquittal yield. These outcomes wrongly suggest, to the general public, that there is nothing wrong with the ideas on which the work is based, while in fact these do require critical debate and analysis. However, instrumentalising the law and the court system for the purposes of this debate seems both misdirected and counterproductive.

You can read the entirety of Vrielink’s analysis here. CBLDF coverage of the case can be found here.

Please help support CBLDF’s important First Amendment work and reporting on issues such as this by making a donation or becoming a member of the CBLDF!

This weekend sees CBLDF events around the country and around the world: CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein is headed to Japan to talk about the challenges creative expression faces in Japan and abroad.

Japanese manga and anime have strong appeal worldwide, and as their popularity has increased, they have faced challenges in Japan and overseas, including in the United States. Japanese censors have actively called for and passed laws that regulate the sale of manga and the depiction of sexuality in manga. In the United States, a Korean manwha — the equivalent of manga — is near the top of the list of the most-challenged books in 2011, and the ownership of manga led to the prosecution of Christopher Handley and Ryan Matheson.

The conference addresses the challenges faced by manga and anime and the detrimental effect of regulation on creative expression in Japan. During the symposium, Brownstein will join local and international experts to talk about the censorship of content in manga and anime in both Japan and overseas.

The discussion takes place Friday, May 18, 2012, at 6:30 p.m., at the Hibiya Library Cultural Center Convention Hall (Hibiya Park, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo). The event is free, but capacity is limited, so reservations are recommended. The speakers include:

Charles Brownstein (CBLDF Executive Director)
Patrick W. Galbraith (The Otaku Encyclopedia)
Yu Sum Hayashi (Editor-in-Chief, Taiwanese anime magazine Frontier)
Rujirat Vinitphol, Ph.D. (Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, University of Tokyo)
Kaichiro Morikawa (Associate Professor, Meiji University)
Yukari Fujimoto (Associate Professor, Meiji University),
Takashi Yamaguchi (lawyer)

Reserve your spot here. (Please note that the reservation website is in Japanese.)

Legendary illustrator and writer Maurice Sendak passed away last week at the age of 83. His Caldecott Medal winning work Where the Wild Things Are is indelibly etched into the minds of children and adults throughout the world as a flawless portrait of childhood, incorporating both the sublime and acrimonious aspects of youth. Sendak remains the only American to win the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for illustration and is well-known for creating honest characters that are headstrong, boisterous, and even unlikable.

Sendak’s books have been frequently challenged in libraries, in particular his children’s book In the Night Kitchen, another award-winning book that features a young boy’s dream journey through a baker’s kitchen. The book upset many librarians and adults because its young protagonist, Mickey, was depicted in the nude. Many librarians censored the book by painting diapers over the boy’s genitals, and in some cases the book was even burned.

Letters of Note recently ran a letter written by Sendak’s editor, Ursula Nordstrom. Nordstrom wrote to one of the librarians who burned copies of In the Night Kitchen:

I am indeed distressed to hear that in the year 1972 you burned a copy of a book. We are truly distressed that you think it is not a book for elementary school children. I assume it is the little boy’s nudity which bothers you. But truly, it does not disturb children! Mr. Sendak is a creative artist, a true genius, and he is able to speak to children directly. For children—at least up to the age of 12 or 13—are usually tremendously creative themselves. Should not those of us who stand between the creative artist and the child be very careful not to sift our reactions to such books through our own adult prejudices and neuroses? To me as editor and publisher of books for children, that is one of my greatest and most difficult duties. Believe me, we do not take our responsibilities lightly! I think young children will always react with delight to such a book as In the Night Kitchen, and that they will react creatively and wholesomely. It is only adults who ever feel threatened by Sendak’s work.

Nordstrom further gathered hundreds of signatures in defense of the book when the School Library Journal shared a news item advocating for censorship of the book by diapering the boy using paint. In her letter to librarians, professors, publishers, authors, and artists, Nordstrom responded with the following (source: Letters of Note):

At first the thought of librarians painting diapers or pants on the naked hero of Sendak’s book might seem amusing, merely a harmless eccentricity on the part of a prim few. On reconsideration, however, this behavior should be recognized for what it is: an act of censorship by mutilation rather than by obvious suppression.

A private individual who owns a book is free, of course, to do with it as he pleases; he may destroy his property, or cherish it, even paint clothes on any naked figures that appear in it. But it is an altogether different matter when a librarian disfigures a book purchased with public funds—thereby editing the work of the author—and then presents this distortion to the library’s patrons.

The mutilation of Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen by certain librarians must not be allowed to have an intimidating effect on creators and publishers of books for children. We, as writers, illustrators, publishers, critics, and librarians, deeply concerned with preserving First Amendment freedoms for everyone involved in the process of communicating ideas, vigorously protest this exercise of censorship.

You can read more about the censorship of In the Night Kitchen and Nordstrom’s advocacy on behalf of the book here.

Stephen Colbert interviewed Sendak earlier this year, asking Sendak about writing for children and his books, including In the Night Kitchen. Colbert put his own spin on the censorship that the book has experienced. You can view the interview here and here.

For more about Sendak’s life and work, visit The New York Times and Publishers Weekly.

Betsy Gomez is the Web Editor for CBLDF.

Today, the American Library Association announced the addition of ALA GraphiCon, a new mini-conference occurring within the ALA Annual Conference, which takes place June 21 – 26, 2012, in Anaheim, California. GraphiCon will provide programming that supports the inclusion of graphic novels and comic books in library collections.

ALA describes GraphiCon in their official press release:

LA GraphiCon is an innovation for 2012 ALA Annual Conference, offering a wide range of programs, events and exhibits specially for graphic novel and comic fans and anyone wanting to learn more about their role in the library. GraphiCon 2012 @ Annual includes the following programs, with details in the Conference Scheduler:

• Animated Tales: Storytelling in comics and animation and everything in between;
• (Re)telling Stories: Fanart, authorship and how stories are shared, reconstructed and retold;
• Graphic Novels & Comic in Libraries MIG Meeting; Conversation Starters: Convincing the Naysayers – Why Graphic Novels Deserve a Legitimate Place on Your Library Shelves;
• Ignite Session: Graphic Nonfiction – a 21st century way to present information; Ignite Session: The Freakiest Comic Moments of Osamu Tezuka.

Artist Alley is a new space in the exhibits hall, next to the Graphic Novel/Gaming Pavilion. Attendees can meet the artists and illustrators who create or illustrate comics, games, graphic novels and books, including: Chris Giarrusso, Matt Dembicki, Faith Erin Hicks, Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman, Chris Schweizer, Gene Luen Yang, Derek Kirk Kim and Thien Pham, Jerzy Drozd, Mark Siegel, Alexis E. Fajardo, Darren J. Gendron, Lark Pien  and Jen Wang, Anthony Del Col / Kill Shakespeare, Dan Santat, Tom Kaczynski and Gabrielle Bell and Jacob Chabot. Artist Alley artists are each donating an original piece of work for the silent auction for ALA’s scholarship fund, so don’t forget to bid!

Attendees can hear from authors, illustrators and creators of the hottest graphic novels at the Graphic Novel Stage in the exhibits—including open discussions, making comics come alive, manga previews, women in comics, the new visual literacy, imagining the fantastic and much more.

The Graphic Novel Pavilion offers the usual wide range of new and favorite materials on display from a wide range of specialist publishers, and ALA Play on Friday night is a fun event not to miss.

GraphiCon supporters can identify themselves by wearing specially designed items—get t-shirts and buttons in time to bring them to the conference! Special thanks to artist Dave Roman who drew and donated the exclusive GraphiCon logo.

Use the Conference Scheduler to plan your time, create your calendar and find out about many other Annual Conference highlights as they’re added—speakers, events, networking opportunities and more. Visit the 2012 ALA Annual Conference website for general information about the conference. Don’t miss out—register now!

CBLDF President Larry Marder and Executive Director Charles Brownstein will attend ALA’s annual conference. Like ALA, CBLDF is an official sponsor of Banned Books Week, which takes place September 30 – October 6, 2012. Banned Books Week is dedicated to “celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.” CBLDF is creating tools that retailers and librarians can use during this year’s 30th Anniversary Banned Books Week Celebration to raise awareness of challenged and banned comics and graphic novels. To get a headstart on the festivities, please check out the CBLDF Rewards Zone, where we have items such as our “I Read Banned Comics” t-shirt available to help raise money for this important program. If you have a First Amendment emergency, call 1-800-99-CBLDF!

On Wednesday, May 23, CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein will be part of a continuing legal education program discussing the PROTECT Act, the federal law under which Christopher Handley was prosecuted for the possession of child pornography. Authorities alleged that Handley’s manga collection contained obscene depictions of children in sexual situations. Several other individuals have been prosecuted and convicted under the law, which legislates that non-photographic images depicting minors in sexual situations is child pornography. Certain parts of the law have been struck down as unconstitutional, but some still stand. Brownstein will join NYU School of Law professor Amy Adler and Michael Delohery, the chief of Westchester County DA’s Office’s High Technology Crime Bureau, for a discussion about the law and the concerns of creators, publishers, and collectors of various forms of entertainment, including comics.

The program takes place at Sotheby’s Institute of Art (570 Lexington Avenue, 6th Floor, New York) on May 23, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. and it open to the public. For more details and to register for the program, visit the New York State Bar Association’s website here.

Iranian political cartoonist Mahmoud Shokraye has been sentenced to 25 lashed for his depiction of conservative Member of Parliament Ahmad Lotfi Ashtiani. Ashtiani was among a group of Iranian politicians who had been criticized for interfering with the country’s sports. In his cartoon, Shokraye depicted Ashtiani dressed as a soccer player. Ashtiani sued Shokraye, claiming he was insulted by the cartoon. The resulting sentence of 25 lashes is an unprecedented punishment.

The Guardian covered the story, discussing the fallout for Iranian cartoonists:

[Shokraye's] sentence has triggered outcry among Iran‘s online community with many calling on cartoonists to draw new caricatures of the MP. Many have expressed their anger on Twitter and Facebook.

Speaking to the Guardian, Nikahang Kowsar, a prominent Iranian cartoonist who fell foul of the Iranian regime after famously caricaturing a prominent cleric like a crocodile in a series of cartoons, said: “This verdict is a direct threat to each and every cartoonist working inside Iran. From now on, if this sentence is not set aside, any public official could sue the cartoonists for portraying him/her in a cartoon.”

Kowsar, a member of the board of Cartoonists Rights Network International, has also participated in the campaign of drawing Ashtiani’s cartoon. “In the past, cartoonists were prohibited from drawing clerics, but from now on, non-clerics have joined the league of the ‘sacred cow’,” he said.

“Right now, a number of Iranian cartoonists have had to leave the country in fear of imprisonment, and the rest have either quit the business, or are censoring themselves to avoid persecution and imprisonment.” Kowsar currently lived in the United States. Another Iranian cartoonist, Mana Neyestani, who was also the victim of state’s aggression towards cartoonists in Iran, has also drawn a cartoon of Ashtiani.

For more on the story, visit The Guardian here.

Please help support CBLDF’s important First Amendment work and reporting on issues such as this by making a donation or becoming a member of the CBLDF!

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.

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After a delayed trial, a panel of five judges convicted Nabil Karoui, the director of Tunisia’s Nessma television channel, of “disturbing public order” and “threatening public morals” for airing Persepolis, the animated film version of Marjane Satrapi’s acclaimed graphic novel. The film has a brief depiction of God, which is considered offensive by many Muslims. Karoui has been fined the equivalent of $1,600 and two members of his staff, who played a role in the airing of the film, were each fined $800.

Lawyers for several Islamist groups had called for tougher penalties, ranging from a 5-year prison term to the death penalty. The airing of the film led to violent demonstrations, several of which attempted to shut down the television station, and the verdict was greeted by protestors on both sides. Marc Fisher with The Washington Post covered the verdict, and wrote about the implications for Free Speech in Tunisia:

One of Karoui’s attorneys, Abada Kefi, said he had “hoped that today would be a celebration of freedom of expression and media here in Tunisia, but this is rather an occasion for mourning. This decision is a strike against creativity and freedom of expression.” He said Karoui would appeal Chief Judge Faouzi Jebali’s ruling to a higher court.

The U.S. ambassador to Tunisia, Gordon Gray, issued a statement condemning the decision. “I am concerned and disappointed by this conviction for Nessma television’s broadcast of an animated film previously approved for distribution by the Tunisian government,” Gray said. “His conviction raises serious concerns about tolerance and freedom of expression in the new Tunisia.”

You can read the rest of Fisher’s story here.

Please help support CBLDF’s important First Amendment work and reporting on issues such as this by making a donation or becoming a member of the CBLDF!

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!