Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

ComicsAlliance & CBLDF Launch THE MONSTERS PROJECT!

by cbldf • September 20, 2010

ComicsAlliance is joining forces with the CBLDF for The Monsters Project, a month-long art exhibit and benefit auction showcasing the spooky, scary, and creepy best from comics brightest art stars!

Chris Haley of “Let’s Be Friends Again” got the ball rolling above with a monster-fied reinterpretation of a certain classic ’80s teen drama, and we’re issuing an open invitation to all comics artists for original art with a monster theme. Throughout October, the donated art will be featured on ComicsAlliance, auctioned online, and offered at San Francisco’s Alternative Press Expo (APE) to raise money for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

The project is open to all creators, from big to small and mainstream to indie to webcomics, and a great way to have a little Halloween fun and support one of the most important causes in comics. Check out more details after the jump.

Fundraising, Homepage, News Blog

Techland Previews The Liberty Annual!

by cbldf • September 20, 2010

Our friends over at Techland offer up an exclusive preview of all the great stuff coming in this year’s Liberty Annual! Liberty Annual arrives on October 6 — be sure to ask your retailer to set aside your copy!

Homepage, Legal, News Blog, Press Releases

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Urges Supreme Court to Reject New Restrictions on Speech in Video Game Censorship Case

by cbldf • September 17, 2010

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund today filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Schwarzenegger v. EMA, urging the Supreme Court to affirm the Ninth Circuit’s decision that a California law banning the sale or rental of any video game containing violent content to minors, and requiring manufacturers to label such games, is unconstitutional.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund submits that, if allowed to stand, California’s law would reverse fundamental First Amendment principles by creating a new category of unprotected speech, diminishing the First Amendment rights of minors, and reducing First Amendment protection for new media. The CBLDF argues that the law under review is the most recent example of government improperly attempting to regulate content by using junk science, and calls upon a history of moral panics against media that includes the 1950s crusades against comics that crippled the industry and harmed the art form. The CBLDF asks the Supreme Court to deny California this attempt to roll back protections guaranteed by the First Amendment, as it and other courts have correctly done in the past.

Read on for the full release, and brief.

Homepage, Legal, News Blog

Yale Hosts “Superheroes in Court! Lawyers, Law and Comic Books” Exhibit

by cbldf • September 15, 2010

The Yale Law Library is hosting “Superheroes in Court! Lawyers, Law and Comic Books,” an exhibition of rare comics highlighting the cross section of comics and the law, in the real world and on the comics page. The exhibit is curated by Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer.

Writing about the show for the New York Times, John Schwartz highlights artifacts on display showcasing comics’ censorship challenges:

And, as with all works of literature, the comics have spawned First Amendment disputes, in this case pitting free speech against the dangers of harming young psyches with depictions of things like crime and horror. The show displays a report to the United States Senate, “Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency,” from 1955, and an American Civil Liberties Union report from the same year, “Censorship of Comic Books.”

The exhibit runs until December 16. Highlights are also on view at the Yale Law Library Rare Books Blog.

Fundraising, Homepage, Premiums

THE CBLDF PRESENTS LIBERTY ANNUAL 2010

by cbldf • September 10, 2010

Berkeley, CA – 10 September 2010 – Image Comics and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund are proud to launch the most exciting edition of their annual benefit anthology yet! THE CBLDF PRESENTS LIBERTY ANNUAL 2010 is powered by the donated time and energy of comic book luminaries to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

CBLDF’s LIBERTY ANNUAL 2010 boasts 48 incredible pages of story and art celebrating Free Expression! Previous volumes, published by Image Comics under the title CBLDF’s Liberty Comics, have so far raised more than $50,000 for the Fund.
Available Now!

Fundraising, Homepage, News Blog

Job Opportunities At CBLDF

by cbldf • September 7, 2010

The CBLDF is currently hiring for a new Development Manager, and has a variety of volunteer opportunities available in our New York home office, and for telecommuters. Read on to learn how you can be a part of the team that protects comics’ First Amendment rights!