CBLDF is committed to supporting the comics community. Fill out our form to request assistance or report censorship today!
CBLDF is committed to supporting the comics community. Fill out our form to request assistance or report censorship today!
Last week, CBLDF announced that Canadian criminal charges against American comics fan Ryan Matheson had been dropped. In turn, Matheson spoke out on his own behalf in a lengthy statement about how he was treated by Canadian authorities, a statement that imparted the indignation and confusion any innocent comics fan would feel after being exonerated from a crime he or she did not commit.
Click through for a round up of some of the coverage of the story.
Last week, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund announced that criminal charges had been dropped in R. v. Matheson, a case involving an American manga reader who was wrongly accused of importing child pornography into Canada because of comic book images on his laptop. Ryan was extensively, wrongfully searched and detained by the Canadian government who charged him with a crime before he even entered the country. Read the story in his own words here. The CBLDF provided financial and substantive legal support in his case, and is currently fundraising to help restore Ryan’s $45,000 legal debt.
While the good news is that Ryan’s ordeal is now over, the bad news is that this kind of prosecution can happen again. To help travelers crossing borders with comics, the CBLDF is pleased to offer important resources that you should read before you cross a foreign border. These tools aren’t designed to take the place of your lawyer. Nothing in them is intended as legal advice. But they are important overviews of the concerns travelers now face when crossing borders with comic art in printed form and on their digital devices, and must reading for everyone in those situations.
In late January, CBLDF joined a coalition of national anti-censorship organizations in protesting the dissolution of Tucson’s Mexican American Studies program, which led to the removal of books and anthologies by Latino and Native American authors from classrooms. Many of the authors who contributed to the books that were banned from classrooms have taken their protest a step further by participating in caravans that have “smuggled” the banned books into Arizona.
Click through for a summary of how authors and various organizations are working to overturn Tucson’s policy.
Last weekend big crowds mobbed the Anaheim Convention Center for WonderCon, the long-running California show that’s become a favorite on the comics convention circuit. This year’s event marked the first time the con was held in Southern California after years as a mainstay of the Bay Area comics culture, but the new market didn’t diminish the crowds or excitement of the show. Attendance was extremely strong throughout the con’s three days. At the end of the weekend, contributions to CBLDF exceeded $12,500, making it our most successful showing at WonderCon in years. CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein, a longtime WonderCon exhibitor, recounts the con and puts it all into perspective after the jump.
While CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein, founder Denis Kitchen, and board member Paul Levitz are in New York City for a symposium on how the city has influenced comics, nerds in the west will be able to geek out at SLC Nerd, a one-day event taking place March 24 and featuring live music, cosplay, gaming, and more. Amidst the nerdy festivities, Night Flight Comics is sponsoring a silent auction to benefit CBLDF!
SLC Nerd starts at 2:00 p.m. on March 24 in the Rockwell Room of The Complex (536 West 100 South, Salt Lake City, UT). Come out, get your geek on, and bid on original artwork and signed comics to support CBLDF!
More details after the jump!
This weekend, CBLDF founder Denis Kitchen, board member Paul Levitz, and Executive Director Charles Brownstein will be participating in Comic New York: A Symposium, which will take place in the Low Library on the Columbia University campus. The two-day symposium “brings together creators and academics to discuss the intertwined histories of American comics and the town where they were born: New York City. From the role of New York as breeding ground for generations of comics talent to the political, periodical, and underground nature of the comics themselves, the best NYC has to offer celebrates this unique medium.”
Kitchen and Brownstein are participating on Saturday, March 24. Kitchen will join Peter Kuper, Sabrina Jones, and John Carey for “Political New York,” a panel that takes place from 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. From 3:00 – 4:00 p.m., Brownstein joins Bill Griffith, R. Sikoryak, and Julia Wertz for “Alternative New York.” Levitz will be at the symposium on Sunday, March 25, from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. for “Comic New York and the Academy,” which also includes academics Jonathan W. Gray and N.C. Christopher Couch.
Join Kitchen, Levitz, and Brownstein as they celebrate how New York City helped shape comics during this spectacular symposium, taking place March 24 – 25 at the Low Library, Columbia University (535 West 116th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue). For more details, visit the Comic New York website here.