The recent detention of cartoonist Becky Burke and ongoing ICE raids exemplify the importance of understanding U.S. immigration law, which applies both to nonimmigrant temporary visitors and immigrants leaving their home countries to reside here permanently. The heightened degree of…
Category: Webseries
This Week: Visas and Comic-Cons
Now that convention season is well underway, one of the most frequent questions we’ve been hearing here at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is whether it’s safe for creators from other countries to go to comic-cons in the U.S.…
Stopping ideas at the border (Tariffs pt. 4)
This published and then withdrawn digital poster from ICE illustrates why monitoring border policy is essential. It also highlights why understanding the publications exemption for new reciprocal tariffs is so important, as border agents have the authority to seize goods…
Why Trump’s Tariffs Should Not Apply to Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comics: The Book Ban Connection (pt. 2)
In my previous post, I noted an aspect of Trump’s tariffs that has received little to no media attention: the evident exemption for books and other publications, including graphic novels, comics, and manga. Today we’ll take a more detailed look…
Visas and Comics Creators, Pt. 2: B-1, B-2, Be Careful
Since yesterday’s post, news of Becky Burke’s return to the U.K. has at least signalled the end of her detention by ICE, though in an ideal world she would have been neither detained nor forced to leave. As we now…
Visas and Comic Creators, Pt. 1
The detention of cartoonist Becky Burke by U.S. immigration officials is a potent reminder of the complexity and rigor of U.S. visa laws. We’re relieved to learn that her family has been able to secure legal assistance – we were…
Finale: U.S. v. Comics
The medium is the massacre in the epic finale of U.S v. Comics: The Senate Effort to Censor Comic Books, which examines how televised U.S. Senate comic book hearings in 1954 led to the creation of the infamous Comics Code.…
Part 6: U.S. v. Comics
This week the science has spoken, as the publication of the notorious Seduction of the Innocent sets up a landmark senatorial showdown.
Part 5: U.S. v. Comics
Recent attempts to censor graphic novels and manga have resurrected the claim that comics are bad for kids’ mental health. Today’s episode of U.S. v. Comics examines the origins of this assertion in what was once considered to be cutting-edge…
Part 4: U.S. v. Comics
Politics enters the picture in the fourth episode of the webseries U.S. v. Comics by Ian Rosenberg and Mike Cavallaro, as Senator – and soon-to-be the Democratic candidate for vice-president – C. Estes Kefauver targets the fifth horseman of an…