Category: Features

Japanese Censors Discuss Banning Comics for “Making Kids Gay”

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In 2010, the Tokyo government signed the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance Regarding the Healthy Development of Youths, a vaguely-worded bill that restricts the sale and rental of manga, anime, games, and other media that can be “considered harmful to a minor’s mental health regarding sexuality.”

The intent of the bill was to keep drawn erotic material involving children out of the hands of minors, but it raises concerns among advocates for free expression.

Keep reading…

Please help support CBLDF’s important First Amendment work and reporting on issues such as this by making a donation or becoming a member of the CBLDF!

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CBLDF Now Hiring: Office Manager

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With more than 25 years of defending free speech for the comics community, CBLDF has firmly established itself as the premiere non-profit organization in the field. Now you can join the fight against censorship by becoming part of the CBLDF team! CBLDF is currently looking for an Office Manager:

OFFICE MANAGER
(Full-Time, Salaried)

Works with the Deputy Director in the further development of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, with an emphasis on managing the day-to-day financial and practical operations of the organization.

The Operations Manager’s responsibilities include:
• Bookkeeping and day-to-day financial management of the organization, including but not limited to: entry of all income; bank deposits; bill entry and payment; supervision of document retention; and preparation of materials for treasurer and accountants.
• Responsible for processing all invoices, payables, receivables, expenses, and general reporting.
• Management of all workplace compliance, and preparation and responsibility for insurance, utilities, and supply vendors, with the oversight of the Deputy Director.
• Management of shipping and processing premiums and donor acknowledgments. This includes oversight of physical inventories of fundraising premiums.
• Management of bulk mailings, mailing lists, and membership data.
• Recruitment, training, and supervision of volunteers and interns for office and off-site tasks.
• Managing logistics, staff preparation, material handling, vendor services, and shipping for off-site events and conventions.

Qualifications
• Extensive practical Quickbooks training and experience.
• Experience in human resources and insurance compliance useful.
• Education, training, and experience with bookkeeping sufficient to fulfill job description.

Additional qualifications:
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including Word and Excel.
• Strong financial, analytical and organizational skills.
• Experience with inventory management.
• Ability to work under pressure and balance numerous priorities simultaneously.
• Experience with project/organizational management and strategic planning.
• Experience with recruitment, supervision and training of interns and volunteers.

Please send cover letters, resumes, and inquiries to alex.cox@cbldf.org or submit a cover letter and resume by mail:

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
ATTN: Alex Cox
255 West 36th Street, Suite 501
New York, NY 10018

About CBLDF
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the First Amendment rights of the comics art form and its community of retailers, creators, publishers, librarians, and readers. The CBLDF provides legal referrals, representation, advice, assistance, and education in furtherance of these goals.

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Study Questions Supreme Court’s Protection of the First Amendment

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With the much ballyhooed wins for free speech in cases like Brown v. EMA and more, many commentators commended a John Roberts-led Supreme Court that upheld our right to free speech. A recent study questions whether the current Supreme Court is as supportive of free speech as we think it is.

Keep reading for excerpts from the New York Times and other sources analyzing the study.

Please help support CBLDF’s important First Amendment work and reporting on issues such as this by making a donation or becoming a member of the CBLDF!

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STUCK IN THE MIDDLE Remains In School Library

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In December, CBLDF and the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom wrote a letter to the superintendent of the Dixfield, Maine, school system in order to prevent the removal of the anthology Stuck in the Middle: Seventeen Comics from an Unpleasant Age from library shelves. On Monday, the school board voted to leave the book on library shelves with the caveat the students must have parental permission to check out the book.

Stuck in the Middle was edited by Ariel Schrag and includes contributions from acclaimed graphic novelists Daniel Clowes, Dash Shaw, Gabrielle Bell, Lauren Weinstein, and more. The book received praise from Booklist, New York Times, and Publishers Weekly, and it was selected for New York Public Library’s “Books for the Teen Age” list in 2008.

“While we’re pleased to see the book retained in the library’s collection, we’re very disappointed that it is retained with restrictions,” CBLDF’s Executive Director Charles Brownstein said.
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Please help support CBLDF’s important First Amendment work by making a donation or becoming a member of the CBLDF!

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Library Censorship Awarded Jefferson Muzzle

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As each year begins, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression “awards” individuals and organizations around the country with Jefferson Muzzles “as a means to draw national attention to abridgments of free speech and press and, at the same time, foster an appreciation for those tenets of the First Amendment.”

The 2011 Muzzles have been awarded, and recipients include the Obama Administration, BP, the TSA, and more, but one recipient in particular ties in with CBLDF’s work to protect books and comics in libraries. Keep reading…

Please help support CBLDF’s important First Amendment work by making a donation or becoming a member of the CBLDF!

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The Good Fighters: Mike Richardson

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In 1986 — the same year CBLDF was established — Mike Richardson founded Dark Horse Comics, which has since grown into one of the largest and most influential comics publishers in the world. From Aliens to Hellboy to Sin City and more, Dark Horse has released some of the most beloved — and occasionally controversial — books in comics.

Inexorably energetic, Richardson isn’t content to only preside over a comics publishing company. He writes, produces films, and owns popular comics retailer Things From Another World. Towering close to seven feet tall, Richardson exudes the same aura held by some of the superheroes found in the books he publishes. But his heroism is all too real: He is one of CBLDF’s most devout supporters.

In celebrating more than 25 years of both the CBLDF and Dark Horse Comics, CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein sat down with Richardson to talk about censorship and his experience as a publisher for this edition of The Good Fighters.

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CBLDF Kicks Off The Convention Year At Amazing Arizona Comic Con!

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The Amazing Arizona Comic Convention debuted to huge crowds last year, and it looks to be even bigger in 2012, with superstar guests Robert Kirkman, Rob Leifeld, Greg Capullo, Scott Lobdell, and more! This year, CBLDF will be part of the first comic convention of 2012, exhibiting at booth #123!

The Amazing Arizona Comic Con takes place January 6 – 8, at the Mesa Convention Center (263 N. Center Street, Mesa, AZ 85211). Come on out and use get the gifts you really want and support Free Speech from the CBLDF! We’ve got a great array of grab bags, signed comics, signed graphic novels, and more! Get the best collectibles for a great cause from CBLDF at booth #123 during Amazing Arizona Comic Con, this weekend in Mesa, Arizona!

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ACLU Asks Missouri Library to Stop Censoring Websites

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In addition to protecting our right to free speech, the First Amendment also guarantees freedom of religion, including the ability to find information on various faiths. Today, the ACLU of Eastern Missouri filed a lawsuit charging the Salem Public Library with unconstitutional censorship for blocking access to information about minority religions. In particular, information about Native American practices and Wicca were blocked because they were classified as “occult” or “criminal.”

In their press release, the ACLU justifies their action:

“The library has no business blocking these websites as “occult’ or ‘criminal” in the first place and certainly shouldn’t be making arbitrary follow-up decisions based on the personal predilections of library staff,” said Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “Public libraries should be facilitating access to educational information, not blocking it.”

Such censorship by libraries has chilling implications, as the blocking of material could be extended to impact other legitimate educational material, including comics. You can find ACLU’s official press release here.

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Today In Comics Showcases First Wave of Comics Code Censorship Articles

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57 years ago today the first news of how the recently formed Comics Code Authority censored comics hit the wires, and Tim Stroup’s excellent “Today In Comics” blog has the clippings. Stroup gathers stories from five news services that covered Comics Code administrator Charles Murphy’s press conference touting the organization’s work to diminish the impact of images containing sexuality and violence within comic books.

Earlier this year the Comics Code Authority closed its doors and the CBLDF acquired the intellectual property rights to the Code’s Seal of Approval. Thus ended an era of censorship that sanitized the medium’s output, and established a stigma against comics that would endure until recent years. Dr. Amy Nyberg created a short history of the Seal of Approval for the CBLDF.

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