Manga is changing the world, with an expanding culture of fandom across the globe. While growing in popularity, the medium is also one of the most misunderstood, leading to criminal prosecutions in the United States, Canada, Japan, and elsewhere. On…
Category: Education
Be Counted: Help CBLDF Stand Up For The Freedom to Read!
Earlier today, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund sent a letter of support to Bill Ptacek, a library director in Seattle, commending the library for standing up for the intellectual freedom of its patrons in the face of an attack in…
CBLDF Expresses Support for Seattle Area Library’s Response to Manga Challenge
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and Kids’ Right to Read Project partners National Coalition Against Censorship and American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression today wrote a letter commending King County Library System’s response to recent objections to the manga…
Library Director Responds to Seattle Manga Challenge
Yesterday we told you about Seattle area resident Travis de Nevers, who asked the King County Library System to change its circulation policies for minors after his unsupervised 10-year-old niece checked out the yaoi manga Hero-Heel 2. In response to…
Sherman Alexie: Censorship of Any Form Punishes Curiosity
According to critically-acclaimed author Sherman Alexie, “Book banners want to control what every child reads,” and that “censorship of any form punishes curiosity.” In an interview with Ed Winstead of Guernica Magazine, Alexie discusses being the author of banned books…
BE COUNTED: Join The CBLDF Today!
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund needs your support! Our program activity is increasing, and we need your membership contributions this October to help pay for this important work. Comics are threatened more frequently than you may think, and the…
NYCC: CBLDF’s Massive Hometown Showing!
Signings! Free gifts for members! Charlie Adlard original art raffle! Programming! Friday night rock concert! Discounts at NYC Comic Stores! Grab bags! The best selection of signed comics in the nation! It’s NYCC weekend, and the CBLDF is bringing out…
NCAC Interviews SIDESCROLLERS Creator Matt Loux
The National Coalition Against Censorship’s blog has a new interview with Matt Loux, whose graphic novel SideScrollers was recently removed from an Enfield, Connecticut, high school’s summer reading list after one resident complained of profanity and sexual references. CBLDF and…
Otaku: Japan’s Favorite Scapegoat — and Tourist Draw
Japan has long had a checkered relationship with its subculture of otaku, a word whose nuances cannot easily be translated to English but which more or less means “geeks whose hobbies border on the fanatic” (Ito). More often than not,…
Nudity a Frequent Target for Book Challenges
A frequent cause for the contention when it comes to comic books and graphic novels has been the age-old, yet incorrect, idea that all comics are for children. In this light, it is not hard to discern why books featuring…