Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

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Editor Bob Schreck Talks CBLDF LIBERTY ANNUAL with MTV Geek

by Betsy Gomez • August 17, 2011

Bob Schreck, Editor in Chief for the comics division of Legendary Enterntainment, took a moment to talk to Alex Zalben at MTV Geek about his experience editing CBLDF Liberty Annual 2011, which hits shelves on October 12. MTV Geek also has an exclusive sneak peak at the Grendel pages from the issue.

Schreck sums up the Liberty Annual for Zalben:

The Liberty Annual is designed to help raise money and awareness every year by bringing great creators together to tell stories about freedom of speech. Scott Dunbier started the series in 2008, my friend Jamie Rich helmed the second edition in 2009, and Larry Marder edited the third book in 2010. Every year Eric Stephenson and the good folks at Image Comics volunteer their efforts to publish the book and Richard Starkings and JG Roshell at Comicraft do the production. It’s a great team effort.

Read on for more about Schreck’s interview with Zalben.

Features, Homepage, News Blog

Celebrate Banned Books Week with the Virtual Read-Out

by Betsy Gomez • August 17, 2011

Banned Books Week takes place September 24 through October 1. In celebration of Banned Books Week, book lovers around the country are encouraged to make a YouTube video of themselves reading a banned book. From the School Library Journal:

Librarians, bookstores, and others celebrating the freedom to read from September 21 to October 1 are encouraged to take part in this year’s Virtual Read-Out on YouTube. The criteria are simple: create a video that’s less than two minutes long of anyone reading a book that’s been banned. If you choose to talk about a personal experience battling censorship, then feel free to extend the video to three minutes.

Comic books are often challenged in libraries, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a sponsor of Banned Books Week. Imagine your library without graphic novels such as Craig Thompson’s Blankets, Jeff Smith’s Bone, or Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home — CBLDF helped protect these books and more when they were challenged. Now, you can film yourself reading these books to celebrate Banned Books Week!

Find out more about the Virtual Read-Out and Banned Books Week here.

Celebrate your right to read and support CBLDF’s defense of free speech by making a donation or becoming a member today!

Features, Homepage, Legal, News Blog

Erica Friedman Speaks Out on Canada Customs Case

by cbldf • August 16, 2011

Writing exclusively for the CBLDF, Yuricon founder Erica Friedman discusses the CBLDF’s important efforts against Canada Customs.

There is a gap here, in between actions and words, in between discussion of freedom of expression and actual freedom of expression. It is not a small gap – it is a tiger pit. It is a gap that is, right this very second, affecting all of us in the manga community. The gap lies in between our stated right to express ourselves freely and recents actions of authority to strip that right from us.

This issue not a rhetorical one to me. I am about to leave the country to attend a comic event called Girls Love Fest. It is focused entirely on comics with lesbian themes. This is the genre that I have worked on promoting for more than a decade – and for the first time in my life, I am not sure that I can purchase these comics and bring them home with me. Because I cannot be sure that a reasonable person would understand that the comic of two cute girls holding hands, saying they like each other and kissing is not offensive. I cannot presume that the people hired to “protect” us are reasonable at all. Why should they be? These people have been given imprimatur to be unreasonable and suspicious. I want to support these artists, and share their work…but I may not be able to. I certainly have to look at each book more critically and think “what would TSA make of this?”

Full Story

Homepage, News Blog

Bruce McFarling Talks Canada Customs Case

by cbldf • August 16, 2011

Writing on his Daily Kos community blog, Bruce McFarling makes a passionate case about the CBLDF’s fight against Canada Customs.

Some things I can write, some things I cannot. My outrage at the obscenity of these Customs Officials using child pornography laws as an excuse to try to throw a comic book reader into jail because they do not like the drawings on his laptop and/or ipod and/or ebook reader … that’s not something I think I can express.

And this blurring of boundaries by authorities to steal the authority to suppress what they have no reasonable right to suppress … all that a Customs Officer has to do to suppress any comic book that they disapprove of for being too sexually explicit is to decide that one or more of the individuals protrayed is underage. Pity the poor fool that has bought some digital copies of classic R. Crumb out of sixties and seventies nostalgia.

Read the full story here.

Please make a contribution to support this case today!

Fundraising, Homepage, News Blog

Neil Gaiman Gives You The Shirt Off His Back!

by cbldf • August 12, 2011

Outspoken CBLDF board member and First Amendment champion Neil Gaiman believes in the First Amendment so strongly that he’s giving you the shirt off his back when you make a contribution of $50 or more to the CBLDF!

The CBLDF is proud to offer a limited selection of signed t-shirts from Neil Gaiman’s personal wardrobe, a most unique thank you for your support of the CBLDF’s First Amendment legal work!

Each signed t-shirt is straight from Neil’s own collection, and will be chosen at random in the size of your choice, while supplies last.

This donation will help fund the defense of Free Speech, and you can own a unique piece of memorabilia from one of the most beloved creators in contemporary culture!

Get yours now!

Features, Headline, Homepage, News Blog, Press Releases

FIGHT FOR YOUR FREEDOM!

by Betsy Gomez • August 8, 2011

Support CBLDF With The Industry’s Greatest Creators in CBLDF LIBERTY ANNUAL 2011 from Image Comics!

United We Stand Against Censorship! That’s the message from Image Comics, over two dozen of the industry’s greatest creators, and our friends at DC Comics and Marvel Comics, who have all banded together to deliver the greatest CBLDF benefit comic yet — CBLDF LIBERTY ANNUAL 2011!

Famed comics editor Bob Schreck, Editor-in-Chief of Legendary Comics, and Assistant Editor Greg Tumbarello view censorship as the ultimate form of bullying and have gathered an all-star team of comics creators to tell powerful stories that take a stand against censorship. CBLDF LIBERTY ANNUAL 2011 comprises 48 powerful pages of all new stories and art. The proceeds from the sale of the book benefit the ever-important First Amendment work of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.