Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

Banned Books Week takes place September 24 through October 1. In celebration of Banned Books Week, book lovers around the country are encouraged to make a YouTube video of themselves reading a banned book. From the School Library Journal:

Librarians, bookstores, and others celebrating the freedom to read from September 21 to October 1 are encouraged to take part in this year’s Virtual Read-Out on YouTube. The criteria are simple: create a video that’s less than two minutes long of anyone reading a book that’s been banned. If you choose to talk about a personal experience battling censorship, then feel free to extend the video to three minutes.

Comic books are often challenged in libraries, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a sponsor of Banned Books Week. Imagine your library without graphic novels such as Craig Thompson’s Blankets, Jeff Smith’s Bone, or Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home — CBLDF helped protect these books and more when they were challenged. Now, you can film yourself reading these books to celebrate Banned Books Week!

Find out more about the Virtual Read-Out and Banned Books Week here.

Celebrate your right to read and support CBLDF’s defense of free speech by making a donation or becoming a member today!

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Bleeding Cool has posted audio and video for several panels from Comic-Con International. Among them is a recording of CBLDF: 25 Years of Protecting Creativity, which took place on Saturday, July 23, from 3:00 – 4:00 pm in Room 9. The panel description:

When the CBLDF was established in 1986 it was to defend a retailer who faced jail time for selling mature comics to an adult reader, because the common belief was that comics were for kids. Today, comics are a widely respected literary form, and they got there in part thanks to the Fund’s 25 years of protecting the industry’s creativity in court. Come learn how the CBLDF has stood up for comics in this informative presentation of their history, and look ahead towards the issues facing readers today.

Moderated by CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein, the panel offered a comprehensive history of comic book censorship and CBLDF’s work to prevent it. You can listen to the entire panel here.

Support CBLDF’s defense of free speech by making a donation or becoming a member today!

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John Hogan with Graphic Novel Reporter recently took time to speak to CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein about CBLDF and how it’s mission has evolved over the last 25 years.

In addition to getting the latest details on CBLDF’s Canada Customs Case, Hogan asked about the specific challenges comics face. Brownstein succinctly described how the focus of CBLDF’s efforts has changed from protecting small retailers to protecting collectors themselves:

The challenges are always changing. When the CBLDF started, our work was most urgently needed to protect small comic book stores from prosecutions by local authorities because of mature readers comics they sold to adults. In the ’90s, our work shifted to help artists who were being prosecuted by authorities. In the late ’90s and early 2000s, the pendulum shifted back to helping retailers, and at the same time fighting against laws that targeted the internet and that would have made it impossible for retailers to display “harmful to minors” material—work protected for adults, but nebulously illegal for minors because of nudity and sexual content. Now we are seeing an increasing surge of prosecutorial efforts directed at readers for the comics they own and on their digital devices.

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