Six years after Syria’s uprising began, the future of the country is far from certain. But one surprising result of the turbulence is already apparent: an abrupt flowering of cartoons, comic magazines, and animated shorts spreading mostly through rebel-held areas…
CBLDF Podcast Episode 18: KATIE SKELLY on Crepax, Manara, and More!
In this episode, we speak with cartoonist and writer Katie Skelly (Nurse Nurse, Operation Margarine, My Pretty Vampire) about two classic European comic creators: Guido Crepax and Milo Manara. Skelly discusses the craft, context, and legacy of…
Deluxe Editions Signed by Brian K. Vaughan, Jason Aaron, Rick Remender, and John Layman Benefit CBLDF!
This week CBLDF is rewarding your donations with the brand-new Saga Book Two deluxe edition hardcover, signed by Brian K. Vaughan! But that’s not all — we also have deluxe hardcover editions of Saga Book One signed by Vaughan, Southern Bastards signed…
FTRF Offers Grants for Banned Books Week Programming
The Freedom to Read Foundation is offering grants for libraries and organizations that what to host an event or display for Banned Books Week. Deadline for application is May 12, 2017. Grants of $1,000 or $2,500 are…
Common Sense and Censorship Don’t Always Go Hand-in-Hand
In a recent post from the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, Pat Peters examined the relationship between common sense and censorship — or, rather, the lack of a relationship between the two. Peters provided a few examples of challenges that…
Detained Hong Kong Publisher Wins Swedish Press Freedom Award
Hong Kong publisher Gui Minhai, who has been held in an undisclosed location in mainland China since October 2015 as authorities try to extract information about his customers, has been awarded the Swedish Publicists’ Association’s Anna Politkovskaya Memorial Prize for…
CBLDF Leads Defense of Manga in Idaho Middle School
CBLDF this week took the lead in defending the manga volume Sword Art Online 1: Aincrad after it was…
Judge Finds No First Amendment Protection for Congressional Art Contest Painting
A District of Columbia circuit court judge has ruled against Rep. William Lacy Clay and David Pulphus, the 19-year-old Missouri man who sued the federal government after his…
Tell DHS Not to Require Social Media Passwords from Foreign Travelers
A coalition of 29 advocacy organizations called Fly Don’t Spy has launched a new online petition urging Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to reject a proposal…
Tamakis React to Top Spot on Frequently Challenged Books List
With Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s graphic novel This One Summer topping the American Library Association’s most recent list of frequently challenged books, the cousins are speaking out on the…
Banned Books & YA Classics Signed by Raina Telgemeier, Mariko Tamaki, Hope Larson, and More!
Check out some of the books that topped ALA’s Top Ten Challenged Books of 2016 list and other classic Young Adult titles, including This One Summer signed by Mariko Tamaki, Drama and Sisters signed by Raina Telgemeier, A Wrinkle in Time signed by Hope…
Dissident Cartoonist Wins Digital Activism Award
Chinese dissident cartoonist Rebel Pepper has been awarded Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Award for Arts. The win was revealed last night in London, during Index’s Awards Gala. Rebel Pepper, the pseudonym of Wang Liming, …
Join Us for She Changed Comics at UIUC!
Calling all central Illinoisans! Next Monday, April 24, CBLDF Editorial Director Betsy Gomez will join a panel discussion centered on our book She Changed Comics at the University of Illinois Undergrad Library….
Newspaper Readers Debate Merits of Beetle Bailey
A war of Letters to the Editor has broken out in the pages of a small Massachusetts newspaper over the content of Mort Walker’s long-running comic Beetle Bailey, with one reader labeling the strip “totally outdated and loaded with unhealthy…
Chinese Cartoonist Fights from Exile
Seven years ago, dissident cartoonist Badiucao fled his home country of China for Australia. He’s long relied on the internet to share his work. “I felt this deepening of free expression, as everyone began to use the internet in a new way,…