With the appointment of comics creator Dave Gibbons of Watchmen fame as the U.K.’s first Comics Laureate, it seems the rest of the world has finally started to figure out what we already knew: that comics can have a positive…
Category: International
UK Prosecution Spotlights Dangers For Manga Readers
Last week, we reported on a disturbing case in the UK, where Robul Hoque, a 39-year-old UK citizen was convicted of possession of child pornography as a result of owning manga-style images and anime. On its face, a successful child pornography…
UK Man Pleads Guilty to Possessing Illegal Manga
A UK man last week pleaded guilty to 10 counts of possessing illegal manga and anime, a first since manga was added to the country’s child pornography laws in 2010. Robul Hoque of South Bank, Middlesbrough was sentenced to nine…
Malaysian Appeals Court Lifts Ban on Two Zunar Books
A Malaysian appeals court last week lifted a ban on two books by political cartoonist Zunar, who has been arrested and had his work seized by the government multiple times over the years. Although the unanimous ruling by three appeals…
Egyptian Cartoonists Choose Creative Freedom or Mainstream Distribution–Not Both
In the tumultuous years since Egyptians overthrew ex-dictator Hosni Mubarak, political cartoonists have continued to lampoon whichever government is in power–but sometimes they must find ways to be circumspect about it. An article from last week’s Sunday Observer took the…
Indonesian Regulators Attack Japanese Children’s Cartoon
Television regulators in Indonesia have demanded that broadcasters to censor certain aspects of the globally known children’s show Crayon Shin-chan. The show has been popular in Japan for more than two decades, and focuses on a a precocious child who…
Australian Supermarket Chain Takes Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes Off Shelves
Australian supermarket chain Aldi has removed Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes from its shelves. Revolting Rhymes, first published in 1982,is Dahl’s collection of poems, reimagining traditional fables through the author’s signature deranged humor. One of the stories in the book is…
Bill Teoh: From Comics Censor to Comics Retailer
Bill Teoh, the 80-year-old owner of one of the few comic book stores in Singapore, took an unlikely path to that business. Before opening Comics World in 1987, Teoh was a police inspector on the censorship board that reviewed and…
Indian State Allows Pre-Emptive Arrest for Online Obscenity, Copyright Violations
In the state of Karnataka in southern India, Minority Report has come true. Actually, the state’s so-called Goondas Act — an umbrella law covering offenses from bootlegging to gambling — has long allowed police to put habitual offenders in “preventive…
On the Border of Fourth Amendment Rights
As evidenced by the Ryan Matheson case, one of the risks we face as comics fans is the search and seizure of electronic devices such as cell phones and laptops when we cross international borders. Two recent decisions in Riley…