Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

by Christopher Schiller

Throughout the history of comics there are many brave examples of artists tackling controversial subject matter, which has been fodder for many stellar, ground breaking works. Often the tension of controversy is required to have a conversation of great substance with the audience. But there are those who attempt and often succeed in restricting these conversations through censorship, often with dire consequences. The novelist Salman Rushdie, no neophyte in the arena of censorship battles, has recently commented on the impact of censorship on both the works and their creators, pointing out that there is more lasting resonance in the consequences of the prior restraint of creative endeavors than is immediately apparent.

Click through for a discussion of Rushdie’s commentary on censorship and the chilling effect of censorship on the creative process.

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by Mark Bousquet

A recent Forbes article discusses some of The New Yorker‘s most controversial covers and reveals images that never made it to print. The subject of the piece is the recent release of Françoise Mouly’s book, Blown Covers: New Yorker Covers You Were Never Meant to See. Though typically drawing attention for their artistic and satirical merit, select New Yorker covers have also proven controversial, such as Barry Blitt’s July 2008 cover that depicted President Barack Obama and the First Lady exchanging a “terrorist fist-bump” in the Oval Office. Ms. Mouly’s book helps to illuminate the tension that exists between artistic expression and commercial interests.

Click through for more about covering The New Yorker and links to images of some of the most controversial covers.

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by Justin Brown

Let’s say you’ve been reading up on the CBLDF coverage of the top 10 banned books of 2011, which included a graphic novel in the #2 spot, and you want to vent your frustrations by gathering with a group of friends to play a trending role-playing-game. You amble amongst local comic shops, book stores and libraries to obtain the newest player manual only to discover that it has been banned or censored to the point of being unplayable. (I mean, who wants to try to bewilder a bug-bear with a rubber-mallet-of-kindness? Ok, that scenario is a little farfetched, but you get the picture.) According to a recent article on ICv2, censorship has branched out to include RPGs for many of the same reasons that comic books have been challenged and censored.

More on RPG censorship after the jump.

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by Maren Williams

Two political cartoonists who have courageously defied government censorship and brutality will be honored with the 2012 Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award from Cartoonists Rights Network International. Syrian Ali Ferzat and Indian Aseem Trivedi will receive the award on September 15, 2012 at George Washington University in Washington, DC, according to a post on CRNI’s website.

The annual award recognizes cartoonists who have “shown exemplary courage in the face of unrelenting threat, legal action or other pressure as punishment or disincentive for cartoons that are too powerful for some officials, sects, terrorists or demagogues.”

Click through for more on Ferzat and Trivedi’s groundbreaking work.

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by Soyini A. Hamit

On May 14, one day after the 60^th anniversary of the Indian Parliament, the government decided to ban textbooks from the National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) for using cartoons that mock politicians. The government will also review NCERT textbooks, in addition to removing the offensive cartoons.

What began as an affront to famed cartoonist Shankar Pillai’s depiction of political leader B. R. Ambedkar has grown into an assault on the use of all cartoons in textbooks. Members of Parliament protested until the government relented and agreed to censor textbooks. The lone voice of dissent came from MP Sharifuddin Shariq, who felt that the cartoons should not upset politicians because they “reflected the reality.”

More after the jump…

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