Since the advent of the comics format, censors around the world have found varied and often illuminating reasons to suppress certain books or content. Whether government-sponsored or industry-directed, as with the Comics Code Authority in the United States, censorship naturally…
Author: Maren Williams
Zunar Hopes to Outsmart Police with Next Book Launch
Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar, plagued by repeated police raids and seizures of his work, has struck upon an innovative solution to censorship: at the launch of his newest book Twit-Twit, Cin Cin this week, buyers will receive only a photocopy…
City of Warsaw Revokes Comics Festival Grant After Nationalists Object
The city of Warsaw, Poland has withdrawn a three-year grant supporting an annual comics festival after nationalist groups complained about the content of a comic that was distributed during the event earlier this month. The book Polska mistrzem Polski (Polish…
Submit Your Favorite Comics for NPR’s Summer Reading List!
The book mavens at National Public Radio are compiling a summer reading list of 100 favorite comics, and they want to hear from you! Readers and listeners can submit up to five series, single issues, graphic novels, newspaper comics, and/or…
CRNI Asks European Leaders to Seek Justice for Imprisoned Turkish Journalists
Turkish cartoonist Musa Kart and several of his colleagues from Cumhuriyet newspaper have now spent over six months in prison, joining about 130 other journalists similarly detained in the media crackdown following Turkey’s attempted coup last July. In advance of…
Minnesota Principal Defends Absolutely True Diary from Challenge
Good news from Minnesota! Following receipt of a letter from National Coalition Against Censorship member organizations including CBLDF, the principal of New London-Spicer Middle School responded that she will recommend keeping Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time…
Pre-orders Open for Resist! Volume 2, in Stores for July 4
Get your pre-orders in now for the second volume of Resist! from Françoise Mouly and Nadja Spiegelman! After the smashing success of the political comics newspaper, 58,000 copies of which were handed out on Inauguration Day and at Women’s Marches…
CBLDF Joins Defense of Thirteen Reasons Why in Florida School
After a Florida elementary school pre-emptively banned students from bringing personal copies of Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why onto campus, CBLDF yesterday joined with other members of NCAC’s Kids’ Right to Read Project in urging principal Bryan Dolfi to reconsider.…
Egyptian Court Vacates Ahmed Naji Conviction, Orders Retrial
An Egyptian court yesterday ordered a retrial for novelist Ahmed Naji, who spent 10 months in prison for “violating public modesty” with an excerpt from his book Use of Life which was reprinted in the state-owned Akhbar al-Adab newspaper. Naji…
College Courses on Graphic Novels Criticized as Less ‘Intellectually Demanding’
We may be biased (we’re biased), but it is difficult to see how the increased use of comics in higher education could be a bad thing. Starting with Art Spiegelman’s Maus over thirty years ago, educators at all levels have…