Almost a year ago, when Syrian political cartoonist Ali Ferzat was abducted and had his hands broken by men likely connected to authoritarian president Bashar Assad’s government, the message was clear: stop drawing. But Ferzat defied the warning and, in…
Columbia Missourian Project Reveals the Breadth of Book Challenges in Public Schools
Why are books challenged in public schools and, even more importantly, why are some challenges successful in getting books banned while others fail? A new comprehensive study by the Columbia Missourian is attempting to find out. The periodical is currently…
Looking Back At SDCC 2012
The Summer Solstice of the comic fan’s year has come and gone. The maypoles are down, and the blood has been washed from the altars. Comic Con International is over until the earth spins around the sun again. …
Effort to Return MAS Books to Classrooms Fails in Tucson
Early this year, CBLDF joined a coalition of organizations to decry the removal of seven books by renown Latino and Native authors from Tucson, Arizona, classrooms. Last week, TUSD Governing Board Member Mark Stegeman brought forth a resolution to put…
Support The CBLDF At OTAKON!
This weekend the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund will be at Otakon, one of the country’s largest gatherings celebrating anime and manga culture! Learn more about the fight to protect manga with a panel and booth appearances by Ryan Matheson,…
Cartoonist Battles Frivolous Lawsuits with Comedic Protest
The Oatmeal, a website that features the work of cartoonist and programmer Matthew Inman, has been entangled in a legal dispute with the attorney of competitor Funny Junk, a comedy site that posts user-uploaded images. After exercising his First Amendment…
Danish Report Discredits Link Between Cartoons and Child Sex Abuse
The Copenhagen Post reveals that a report issued by experts at Sexologisk Klinik discredits claims that cartoon depictions of underaged characters engaging in sex acts encourage people to commit child sex crimes in real life. The report to the justice…
Canadian Fair Dealing Expanded to Include Parody
While working on my recent post about Canadian political cartoonist Dan Murphy’s animated parody being removed from his newspaper’s website, allegedly under pressure from the very company targeted by the video, I was somewhat surprised to learn that such works…
A Librarian Responds to a Book Challenge
One of CBLDF’s missions is to protect graphic novels when they are challenged in libraries. We’ve played a pivotal role in some challenges, most recently with Alan Moore’s Neonomicon, which faces a challenge in North Carolina. As I was cruising…
SDCC: The Fight to Defend Manga
On the Saturday of Comic-Con, CBLDF Executive Director joined Ryan Matheson for “CBLDF: The Fight to Defend Manga,” a panel discussing the particular issues that manga and its fans face when it comes to censorship. Matheson was arrested by…
Neil Gaiman’s “The Day The Saucers Came” Comics-On Tees Available Now!
Hot off the presses, and following a dramatic premiere at San Diego Comic-Con, Threadless & Neil Gaiman’s Comics-On Tees featuring his story “The Day The Saucers Came” is now available for purchase at Threadless! A percentage of the proceeds from…
Tunisian Man Loses Free Expression Appeal
On March 28, Jabeur Mejri, a Tunisian man convicted of upsetting public order and morals, was sentenced to seven years in jail after posting cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad on Facebook. Last week, he learned that the court would not…
Tales from the Code: Spidey Fights Drugs and the Comics Code Authority
Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina, went down a few weeks ago. Unlike other larger conventions, which have expanded to become focused more on pop culture like television, movies and video games, Heroes Con is still a good old fashioned…
CBLDF Deputy Director Talks to MTV Geek
Comic-Con International has just wrapped up, and CBLDF had a great weekend talking to supporters and new fans! You can come back here for a full Comic-Con report later this week. In the meantime, here’s a taste of what happened:…
Threadless Releases Neil Gaiman Comics-On-Tees for Comic-Con International 2012!
Just in time for Comic Con International 2012, threadless and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund have released the newest comic project from superstar author Neil Gaiman. An adaptation of his poem THE DAY THE SAUCERS CAME, this terrific new…