CBLDF is committed to supporting the comics community. Fill out our form to request assistance or report censorship today!
CBLDF is committed to supporting the comics community. Fill out our form to request assistance or report censorship today!
Hey there, Friends if Liberty!
Here I am again with the tenth episode of behind the scenes at CBLDF Liberty Trading cards.
You know the story by now, don’t you? CBLDF and Cryptozoic Entertainment’s have teamed up to produce a 72 card set showing the incredible history of comic book censorship through words and pictures. The illustrations for the base cards are stacking up and I’ll be showing some more of those next week.
Hello again!
Today’s super-duper sneaky-peak is of a quartet of one-of-a-kind artist sketch cards of characters from Jeff Smith’s masterwork, Bone. 2011 marks Bone’s 20th anniversary of publication as a comic book. There will be all sorts of celebrations surrounding this important date as the year rolls on.
It’s a case that calls to mind the 1950s-era attacks on comic books and the censorship of the Comics Code. Does the First Amendment allow limits on the violent content in popular entertainment — in this case video games — sold to minors? Brown v. EMA (formerly Schwarzenegger v. EMA) may soon answer that question, with a final decision from the Supreme Court expected soon.
Last week, a bevy of CBLDF volunteers descended on the Pirates Press warehouse to pack up and ship Transmetropolitan: All Around the World, the hotly anticipated art book celebrating Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson’s dystopian masterpiece. Those of you who’ve already gotten your copies know just how gorgeous the book is!
CBLDF would like to thank the volunteers who helped us with shipping: Project Manager Susan Augér, Bryan Burnett, Greg Burnett, Sonia Harris, Alexis Nomm, Ted C. Roland, Seamus Tuohy, and Terry Taplin. Additional thanks go to the entire crew at Pirates Press, including Sam Harris, who designed the book and coordinated shipping, and project manager Chunk Kelly.
Finally, CBLDF thanks Ellis, Robertson, Augér, and all of the contributors for assembling a knockout volume!
If you haven’t received your copy, it should arrive soon! For those of you who still need to order a copy, a limited number are available in the CBLDF store.
Yesterday, a coalition including CBLDF, booksellers, media companies, artists, and the ACLU of Utah asked the federal district court in Salt Lake City to permanently bar enforcement of a Utah statute that restricts constitutionally-protected speech on the Internet. Although passed in 2005, the statute has not been in effect because Utah consented to a temporary injunction barring its enforcement.
Utah’s law seeks to regulate all Internet speech that some might consider “harmful to minors,” including works of visual art, photography, graphic novels, and information about sexual health and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth.
Hi, Friends of Liberty!
I spent the afternoon at the Crytpozoic Entertainment offices yesterday. Saw a whole lotta cards that have come in over the last week. Incredibly diverse stuff. Artists featuring their own characters. Artists taking a shot at favorite characters and rendering them in their own unique style. A great example of that is showcased in these sneak-peek of a few Savage Dragon cards below…
For the past two years, Things From Another World (TFAW) and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) have teamed up with comics professionals, such as Jim Lee, Charlie Adlard, Philip Tan and more, to help raise more than $60,000 for the annual CBLDF auction at San Diego Comic-Con. Now, TFAW and CBLDF are proud to announce their Third Annual SDCC Autograph Card/CBLDF Auction event!
As in years past, TFAW is asking artists to create original sketches to donate to the CBLDF auction at San Diego Comic-Con. However, this year, Marvel and DC Comics have generously agreed to allow artists to use their proprietary characters in these CBLDF sketches!
Things are really heating up for CBLDF Liberty Trading Cards on my end of things. All sorts of cards are starting to arrive at the Cryptozoic Entertainment offices, and every time I get over there I see something new.
Today, let’s take a look-see at the front of our CBLDF creator autograph cards. All over the realm of comics, writer and artist champions of liberty are signing their names to their pictures to help CBLDF raise the funds necessary to defend everyone’s constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of speech under the First Amendment.
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision on Cohen v. California — a decision that still shapes how the First Amendment is interpreted and protected today.
The First Amendment Center took a moment to remember the case, which centered on one man’s First Amendment right to protest the Vietnam War by wearing a jacket bearing profane language. In 1968, Paul Robert Cohen was arrested in California for disturbing the peace by offensive conduct. Cohen’s conviction was ultimately overturned by a majority decision in the Supreme Court.
Over the years, CBLDF has been blessed with a varied and devoted cadre of volunteers. Some volunteers have been with us for years, and some, including recent addition Maggie Roll, are just joining the bandwagon.
The CBLDF wouldn’t be what it is without its volunteers, and Roll is no exception. She comes from a family firmly rooted in volunteerism, and she’s always eager to help at the booth, with a ready smile and a joke or two in hand. As a long-time fan of Dr. Who and irreverent comedic scifi by folks like John Scalzi, Roll knows a thing or two about being a nerd.
For this installment of The Good Fighters, we asked Roll about why she became a CBLDF volunteer and her experience as a volunteer.
Today finds your plucky CBLDF crew headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, for Heroes Convention 2011! For all three days — June 3-5 — you’ll find CBLDF at booth 130/132 with a cornucopia of signed premiums and amazing artists!
Executive Director Charles Brownstein and Development Manager Alex Cox will be on hand with the East Coast premiere of CBLDF’s new “I Read Banned Comics” t-shirt and the CBLDF-exclusive Frank Quitely print and postcard sets (signed, of course!).
You can also expect to find amazing artists hanging out in the CBLDF booth, making art for your donations. So far, we have Becky Cloonan (Demo, American Virgin), Brian Stelfreeze (Domino, Wednesday Comics, Gun Candy), Rebekah Isaacs (Angel & Faith, DV8, Hack/Slash), and Dean Trippe (Project: Rooftop) on deck to sketch. We’re still lining folks up, so be sure to watch this space or run by CBLDF booth 130/132 to get the latest schedule!
Don’t miss CBLDF, at booth 130/132 this weekend at HeroesCon, June 3-5, 2011, at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina!
It’s a Tyched-out Thursday here at CBLDF.
We’re getting all sorts of multiple card tableaus .In the world of high-brow art these multi-paneled works are called diptychs, triptychs. quadriptychs and so on.
As I’ve said before, I’m well aware of that these connecting subsets of one-of-a-kind sketch cards might drive fans downright batty. But I also know hardcore collectors will be relentless hunters of the individual cards that feature their favorite artists and characters. Hey, the chase of elusive prey is a key part of collecting. We at CBLDF and Cryptozoic Entertainment are just doing our part to keep collecting as challenging and fun as it’s supposed to be.
Memorial Day has come and gone, and with it, the eleventh iteration of the Phoenix Comicon. Jason Gonzalez, the creator of the lucha libre magnum opus La Mano del Destino, was on hand with his trusty CBLDF donation jar. Every fan who donated got a gorgeous sketch from Gonzalez, who sent us some pics to share.
To paraphrase what the late Hunter S. Thompson used to write about Rolling Stone magazine deadlines and his portable telex machine: the CBLDF home office mojo wire is starting to hum. I’m late with my diary!
We’re rushing towards all sorts of deadlines.
No.
Let me rephrase that.
The deadlines are hurtling towards us!
On a day when we pause to remember and thank the men and women who have helped protect the United States and our rights as citizens, there’s an unfortunate reminder that those rights are not as safe as they should be.
With the re-authorization of USA Patriot Act last week, the safeguards protecting the privacy of bookstore and library records were not restored, a chilling reminder that reader privacy is a risk. Under the current provisions of USA Patriot Act, the government has nearly unlimited power to search bookstore and library records, including those of innocent people.