Emerald City Comic Con starts today, and CBLDF will be there! Located in the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, Washington, Emerald City Comic Con runs from December 2 through December 5.
Friday afternoon, from 3:45-4:45, Betsy Gomez (CBLDF coalition director) and Amy Chu (Red Sonja, Poison Ivy, Sea Sirens) will be running the panel — Prepare to Defend Your Comics/Graphic Novels/Manga and Anime. The panel will cover the new techniques book challengers are using and how to defend your work and the work of others in your community!
We hope you’ll drop by the panel and say hi! We look forward to seeing you there.
(Fun Fact: Amy Chu will be joining our board of directors in early 2022!)
Prepare to Defend Your Comics/Graphic Novels/Manga and Anime
Fri, Dec 3, 2021
3:45 PM – 4:45 PM
WSCC 3AB
Censorship and attempts at censorship can take on many forms in our education systems, libraries, bookstores and government agencies across the country. It also becomes more intensified with each new change in the political environment. So what can you do when faced with a challenge? How do you react? Maybe the better question is: How do I prepare for this? When it comes to books of any kind, whether it is graphic novels and manga, or prose of any kind, the best measures are preventative. This group of panelists represents decades of experience with a wide range of legal challenges in the publishing industry. (more info)
Amy Chu
Amy Chu is a writer for comics and TV, including the Netflix animated series DOTA: Dragon’s Blood. For DC Comics and Marvel Comics, she has written popular characters such as Wonder Woman, Poison Ivy, Deadpool, Ant-Man, Iron Man, Aero, and Sword Master. She is also known for her work on KISS, Dejah Thoris, DMC (Darryl Makes Comics), Green Hornet, Red Sonja, and Red Sonja & Vampirella Meet Betty & Veronica. For children, Amy has written the graphic novels Sea Sirens and Sky Island (A Trot & Cap’n Bill Adventure Series, Penguin Random House) and Ana and the Cosmic Race (Papercutz).
Amy teaches business and writing at the Kubert School. You can follow her on Instagram @amy_chu, Twitter @amychu, and on Facebook www.facebook.com/iwritecomics
Betsy Gomez
Betsy Gomez is the Banned Books Week Coalition coordinator and former editorial director for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to defending the First Amendment rights of the comics community. Gomez manages resources, programming, and editorial content for bannedbooksweek.org and advises CBLDF on educational and free expression matters. Gomez is the editor of CBLDF’s book about the women who changed free expression in comics, CBLDF Presents: She Changed Comics. With an extensive background in educational publishing, Gomez has worked as a content developer and editor for several companies, including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Pearson Education, among others. Gomez’s work combines her love of comics with her passion for education and the right to read.