Nonprofit Protects First Amendment Rights Of Comic Book Readers And Creators

As the hometown of the biggest comic book best convention in the country it may come as a surprise that comic books need a defense fund. But beyond the walls of comic con comics and graphic novels still face instances of censorship and discrimination beginning on the first day of comic con this Thursday the comic book legal defense fund will be holding a series of panels they'll explore subjects like the history of activism in comic books and the trials of underground comics. Joining me is Charles Brownstein executive director of the comic book legal defense fund. And welcome to San Diego. Thank you I'm thrilled to be here with you. As I said we celebrate comic books in San Diego every year. So who's giving you guys trouble. I mean what are the most common types of cases your organization is working on. I know it's amazing to be here in San Diego where the entirety of the town is given over to a celebration of comics in the popular culture which the Comecon international organization has built over the years but we still do see a tremendous amount of challenge to comics and graphic novels throughout the culture whether it's challenges in a school or library space over content in comics and graphic novels or even artists facing challenges for the content of their works. Give us an example if you would have a recent case that comic book Defense Fund has worked on the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is frequently called upon to provide advocacy on behalf of the readers of comics and graphic novels and so recently we've had a couple of cases in the school and library space for some really acclaimed work. Even younger readers material being challenged rain it's Holga Meyer is probably the best selling graphic novelist in the United States if not the world right now. And we've seen her book drama challenged many many many times because it includes a gay character in the body of the story. So we're dealing with a lot of these cases that involve individuals placing their values ahead of the rights of their peers in the community and other parents in the community and again as I say each individual has the right to raise their kids as they choose. But you've got to afford your neighbors that same privilege. There's been a history in this country of treating comic books as something dangerous. Where does that come from. That's a very good question. You often see with all new media there is this history of moral panic that recurs I often say it's the job of the younger generation to horrify their elders. And our job as Elders is to determine how we're going to manage being horrified and in many cases you see this with a call to censorship. Most recently you saw it with videogames when I was growing up. You saw it with heavy metal music. When folks were growing up in the 1920s and 30s you saw with jazz and early motion pictures in comic books this moral panic took root in the 1940s and 1950s resulting in Senate subcommittee hearings that attempted to link comic books with juvenile delinquency. And just like that SRAW the challenges to videogames and the Internet and rap music it was media effects arguments that was not based on any kind of a real science it was OK. These kids are doing this deviant behavior. They're reading comic books. It must be the fault of the comic books. It must be the fault of the heavy metal music. It must be the fault of the video games rather than looking deeper and the difference is that in the comic book medium it really stuck. There really were these Senate subcommittee hearings that led to the media being stigmatized the stigma that really persists to this day where you will have challenges to books in schools that well that's not real reading. Why are you assigning a comic book. Because that's you know clearly desert reading at best. While no this is a very important form of literature that helps students acquire skills in a wide range of areas not merely spoken word not own not merely written word but art appreciation the appreciation of gestures the appreciation of body language in a variety of other skills. Now one of the panels you're conducting at Comic Con will trace the history of activism in the comic book industry and that activism continues today for instance. Comic books have played a part in the national school walkouts to protest gun violence. How have they taken apart in that the legal defense fund was actually behind putting together a comic book to teach students their rights ahead of the march for our lives earlier this year. We engaged a cartoonist named tech cell to create a comic called Be Heard protecting your protest rights that showed students what to understand when preparing to raise their voices. And this wasn't about any specific issue it's about the first amendment and the first amendment being a foundational right in who we are as Americans and empowering students to really understand that they have the right to say whatever they choose. But they might want to be strategic about it. So you can be punished in a school context for instance for your behavior but not for your message. So we created this comic that you can read at CBL the door slash be heard to help kids really wrap their wrap their arms around that. So that's the most recent thread of activism but in the panel that we're going to have on Friday we really go back into the history and show how going back to the suffrage movement going back to the New Deal and then extending up through the 1950s with DC Comics and 1960s with the underground the 1970s and 80s and mainstream and alternative comics that people always turn to this medium to express activist leaning messages. And I attribute that to the medium's fundamental democratic nature. All you really need is your native talent and idea and the ability to put pen to page. And that's really about it. You don't need vast committees and so it makes it a really powerful medium to raise one's voice. I've been speaking with Charles Brownstein executive director of the comic book legal defense fund. You can find a listing of the fund's events at comic con on their Web site CBL D.F. dot org. Charles thank you. Thank you.