Happy holidays from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund!
As 2024 draws to a close, all of us at the CBLDF want to take a moment to thank you for your commitment to safeguarding the future of the medium we love. Yes, the surge in challenges to comics has continued – with signs of even more on the way in 2025 – but with your help we’re certain that the battle will be won.
A lot has happened since our convention updates and recent interviews, and I’ll be discussing these developments in more detail in our next newsletter. In the new year we’ll also be using our newsletters and social media to answer your questions about protecting legal rights in comics, so for now, in this season of giving, I want to focus on what is perhaps the most frequently asked question we receive at conventions nationwide: what specifically can the comics community do to help?
Here are a few thoughts on how you can make a real difference in the fight for free expression through the comic arts!
- What first comes to mind whenever I think about this question is the importance of helping creators continue to make comics for the world to enjoy. A common misconception about book bans is that they spark an automatic increase in sales, but the reality is far more complex.
A clear way to counter the less fortunate effects of book bans on the comics market is to help more comics get sold. Put comics for yourself and others on your holiday gift list. Contribute to crowdfunding projects. Recommend graphic novels for the classrooms and libraries at your schools. These simple acts have a huge impact – each comic you buy or encourage others to purchase is a contribution to a better future.
Likewise, do not underestimate the value of borrowing graphic novels and manga from your local library. One of the tactics we’ve seen critics use to justify removing comics from the shelves is claiming that the books are not being checked out enough. Every time you borrow a comic, it’s a vote for the library to keep that book and to get some more. - Equally important: support your local retailers. As we’ve encountered in courts, classrooms, and libraries across the country, there’s a growing effort to revive the great comics scare of the 1950s, this time for graphic novels and manga. In fact, in Texas we brought a court challenge – successful thus far, but still ongoing – to a new law that would impose mandatory ratings system for certain books, a 21st-century government version of the Comics Code.
At a time when well-funded activists are trying to make people believe that the “graphic” in graphic novel means something it does not, it’s vital not just to keep local stores in business by purchasing their books, but to help people understand how comic shops and bookstores are a force for social good. - This brings us to a strategy for personal involvement that has proven to be an effective means of overcoming and even preventing book challenges: building support for comics in your community. Those of you with a talent for public speaking have done stellar work opposing comic bans at school board and town council meetings, but that is not the only way to counter comic bans – to the contrary, some of our most memorable battles in recent months were won by interactions outside the public square.
Personal conversations with everyone from pastors to plumbers – and even government officials – about comics you like and why comics matter. Including graphic novels and manga in book clubs. Articles about comics in local media. Guest talks in schools and community groups on the importance of comics to contemporary literacy and successful communication. Organizing or attending comic conventions that highlight local creators, publishers, comic shops, cosplayers, educators, librarians – indeed, anyone interested in sharing their love of comics in panels or on the show floor. These are all effective ways to inoculate against the comics-are-bad mind virus, and they’re something all of us can do. - Of course, as the moderator of a recent panel reminded me when I was answering this question there, another way that everyone can help defend comics is to join the CBLDF! As a nonprofit organization we are truly grateful for the generous financial support we receive from our members, donors, sponsors, and purchasers of the merchandise we sell – your contributions make all our work possible, from free legal assistance and defending comics in court to educational outreach and legal guides.
And so we return to where we began, with a heartfelt thanks for the previous year and best wishes for the year to come. If you have any additional questions you’d like us to address, please do let us know. 2025 will bring new challenges, new initiatives, and new opportunities to join us in protecting free expression and the legal rights of the comics community, so look forward to more updates soon!
–Jeff
Jeff Trexler
Interim Director