Tagged: CBLDF

Neil Gaiman NYC reading 11/8 to benefit CBLDF

  • News
  • November 7, 2008

So I was waiting for a subway yesterday after visiting my local comics store, and I heard a voice behind me say "Glenn!"

I turned around and didn’t see anybody. Then I looked down. Lo and behold, there was Jill Friedman, fundraising director for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

"Glenn, let me ask you, as a member of the press, how come you aren’t covering the Neil Gaiman benefit in town this weekend?" I kinda answered a bit non-commitally. Jill got that determined/slightly crazed look in her eye that suggested that if I didn’t write up a piece about cousin Neil, I would be beaten around the head with a stapler.

So here you are, Jill. Please don’t hurt me…

Sandman_Reading_11_08_08.gif

Veteran voice actor Tom Wayland and others, will read from some of the most politically charged excerpts of THE SANDMAN written by New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman, in honor of the 20th Anniversary of THE SANDMAN.

Presented by the CBLDF and Vertigo, Neil Gaiman will be on hand to host this dramatic reading which will be held at the Helen Mills Theater in New York City on Saturday, November 8 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available for a $50 donation to the CBLDF. Only 100 tickets are available to this special reading event. Reserve your tickets now!

THE SANDMAN is a series that is often hailed as one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling and which Norman Mailer famously praised as, "a comic strip for intellectuals." This very special evening will bring two of the series most beloved stories to life with a multimedia presentation that marries comics and live theater.

About the stories being performed:

Three Septembers & A January, originally published in THE SANDMAN #31 / Trade #6

The story of Joshua Abraham Norton the first, last and only Emperor of the United States of America that incorporates an explanation for his strange career centering on a challenge between Morpheus and Despair.

The Golden Boy, originally published in THE SANDMAN #51-56 / Trade #8

A revival of a 1970s DC character named Prez, it’s the story of the US’s first teenage president that considers how we view our leaders—while they’re in office… and once they’re gone.

cbldf-logo-5228876

Manga Reader Charged for Obscenity

  • News
  • October 17, 2008

cbldf-logo-4176638The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has defended several arists and retailers in the past. But now, for the first time, they have been called to aid an actual comic book collector.

Christopher Handley of Iowa is facing obscenity charges under the PROTECT Act (18 U.S.C. section 14661) for ordering and possessing manga that is allegedly “obscene.” Although no photographic material is contained within the manga in question, the charges allege that the material includes drawings depicting minors engaging in acts of a sexual nature. The material was reported by a postal inspector.

The”objectionable” manga in question is only a small part of Handley’s collection, which included over 1200 volumes of various manga. Despite this, authorities have taken possession of Handley’s entire comic book, magazine, manga and DVD collection, as well as his computer, in their search for further evidence.

If found guilty, Handley could face up to 20 years in jail. CBLDF legal counsel Burton Joseph commented, “I have never encountered a situation where criminal prosecution was brought against a private consumer for possession of material for personal use in his own home. This prosecution has profound implications in limiting the First Amendment for art and artists, and comics in particular, that are on the cutting edge of creativity. It misunderstands the nature of avant-garde art in its historical perspective and is a perversion of anti-obscenity laws.”

As of now, Handley and the CBLDF-assisted defense team have been able to achieve partial victory. The court has ruled that sections of the PROTECT Act are infirm because they “do no require that the material be deemed obscene” by a court-appointed jury but rather by Congressional standards.

In the latest CBLDF update, it states: “Handley now faces charges under the surviving sections of 1466A, which will require a jury to determine whether the drawings at issue are legally obscene.”

The following are the legal standards that would make the material “obscene.” All three must be met in order for there to be a conviction.

A. Whether the average person, applying comtemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.

B. Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law.

C. Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

For more information and how you can help, check out the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund web-site.

CBLDF Interview With Charles Brownstein

With the recent resolution of the Gordon Lee case, in which a comic shop owner was arrested for accidentally giving a copy of a Free Comic Book Day  title that contained male nudity to a child, there’s been quite a bit of attention on the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and their significant financial support for Lee during the trial.

Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter has posted a lengthy, comprehensive interview with Charles Brownstein, the executive director of the CBLDF, that touches upon the Lee case, its impact on the comics industry and the group’s other current and future projects.

As always, Spurgeon conducts a great interview that really gives you all you could ever want to know about the group and why there’s a genuine need for it. In this excerpt, Brownstein discusses the group’s ability to wage future legal battles, given the expenses incurred by the Lee case, and what types of legal issues are most worrisome to CBLDF:

What really makes me lose sleep is the prospect of getting a case under the PROTECT Act’s horrifying provisions equating drawings of teen and juvenile sexuality with actual child pornography. I’ve seen a couple of convictions for anime and manga that was ruled to be child porn. These were dirty people who also had real child porn, and who deserved their convictions for that material, not for repugnant art. There’s a difference between photographic evidence of a crime and drawings.

Those are the cases where we really need the community to stay firm in their support of the First Amendment. I think a lot of the content in the sexually oriented manga is pretty repugnant, but it’s lines on paper. The thing that raises my ire about PROTECT and the current slate of child pornography laws is that in attempting to create stronger resources against sexual predators, they create categories of thought crime. Child pornography is photographic evidence of a crime. To lower that bar to include dirty drawings and uncomfortable, if not repugnant, ideas muddies the waters in a way that disrespects the severity of the crime, and the victims of it.

For the full interview — which I highly recommend reading — head over to The Comics Reporter.

Categories

Archives

Everything you need to make great comics!

comicmix-pro-300x69-2

Nucleus X

Bookshop Zaks