SPX Contributes $10,000 To CBLDF, Raising A Total of $25,000 For Free Speech!

The CBLDF is honored to acknowledge the contribution of $10,000 from the Small Press Expo, a non-profit organization that hosts the iconic art comics festival every September.  The SPX contribution, coupled with the $15,000 the CBLDF was able to raise at this year’s event brings the total fundraising generated by the convention to $25,000 placing the show second only to Comic-Con International in San Diego as the Fund’s most meaningful fundraising event of the year.

SPX Executive Director Warren Bernard says, “With censorship in many forms affecting the comics community, the strength of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is more important then ever. The CBLDF is one of the main bulwarks against those who see a non-existing evil in the works of comic creators and is a champion of the great cause of the right of  free speech the First Amendment of the Constitution grants to all of us. SPX is committed to supporting the CBLDF and looks forward to doing so in the years to come.”

The Small Press Expo (SPX) is a registered 501(c)(3) that was created in 1994 to promote artists and publishers who produce independent comics. SPX hosts an annual festival that provides a forum for artists, writers and publishers of comic art in its various forms to present to the public comic art not normally accessible through normal commercial channels. SPX sponsors a number of events and charitable initiatives, including the CBLDF contribution, a vibrant library gift program, and a collection within the Library of Congress, in addition to hosting the annual expo and the Ignatz Awards.

CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein says, “SPX is an essential institution that has done enormous work to advance cartoonists and comics.  We’re grateful for this generous contribution to help us protect those artists and their work.  As a long-standing member of the SPX community, I’m also personally grateful to Warren Bernard’s work to advance the organization’s efforts by creating the library gift program and the SPX Collection at Library of Congress.  Alongside the CBLDF contribution, these activities make SPX one of the key institutions promoting comics in the United States.  We’re grateful for their support and proud to be a part of it.”

SPX 2013 will occur on September 14 and 15.  Please visit the SPX website for the most up to date information about the event.