Comic Book Legal Defense Annual Fund Report 2018
DEFENDING VULNERABLE VOIC Legal Action From providing legal aid and expertise to protecting access to valuable books, CBLDF is a champion for free expression. Here’s a snapshot of the Fund’s legal efforts this year. CBLDF intervened in nine cases, working behind the scenes to offer legal knowledge before the cases went to court. Cases ranged from providing legal advice to publishers and creators to a flurry of customs crises, in which comics readers had their packages seized at the border. The Fund is also serving as a consultant on an ongoing basis for the Small Press Expo (SPX), as it raises legal funds in support of 11 small
press creators who are fighting a defamation action. Thanks to CBLDF’s partnership in the Media Coalition, we are also monitoring new legislation that would restrict the First Amendment, including a troubling campaign to pass laws mandating Internet filtering. CBLDF joined two important amicus briefs this year, one resisting a more restrictive approach to the right of publicity that could affect fact-based comics and the other advocating for limits on the government’s ability to restrict speech in public spaces. CBLDF remains on the front lines, defending the First Amendment with legal action!
“Freedom of expression is about protecting the minority, however you define that word. It’s making sure that people with unpopular ideas, people from backgrounds that may seem strange to the majority, are able to express themselves. It’s protecting voices that are unpopular so that as a diverse community we can come up with creative solutions.” —Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese, Boxers & Saints)
Protecting Access 2018 saw increased efforts to ban books by and about the LGBTQ community. CBLDF stood up for their rights. CBLDF rallied the free expression community to defend a Banned Books Week display in a Maine library after a group of local religious leaders attempted to have it removed because it included LGBTQ books. One pastor went so far as to say that the books, including the graphic novels My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness and Queer: An Illustrated History, should be burned. The swift intervention of
CBLDF and other free expression groups bolstered the case to keep these books where they belong— on the library shelf! Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home suffered another attack in schools when a group of parents challenged the book’s assignment to outgoing seniors at a New Jersey high school. CBLDF led a coalition to defend the book, contributing to the retention of the title in the curriculum. Challenges to comics content of all kinds are frequent, and books by marginalized voices are the most vulnerable. CBLDF fights to protect this valuable work!
CES
“The CBLDF is an amazing organization. They’ve come to my defense a number of times, and I know I can always count on them.” —Ariel Schrag (Stuck in the Middle)
Artwork by Michael Allred
EMPOWERING EDUCATORS & “CBLDF, the work that it does by promoting access to books that are challenged, by defending creators and retailers that have been attacked by different groups, is just overwhelmingly brave and daring.” —Scott Snyder (Batman, Dark Nights: Metal)
Even though comics are at the center of pop culture, the medium still experiences challenges and censorship. CBLDF made big strides to help teachers and librarians use comics by providing a broad range of programs supporting the medium’s place in these important institutions!
Comics – Start Here! Just because graphic novels are popular, that doesn’t mean everyone knows how to use them in their library. That’s why we created this essential new publication! Comics – Start Here! includes the latest research from a CBLDF-sponsored study about cataloging comics, plus suggestions about the fundamentals of starting, expanding, and defending a graphic novel collection. Comics – Start Here! is a must-have resource for every librarian seeking to help their community love comics! Get it for free at cbldf.org/library
Read Banned Comics Read Banned Comics is your essential guide to banned and challenged comics! Released during Banned Books Week, Read Banned Comics showcases the dozens of graphic novels most frequently targeted for censorship alongside author quotes, programming ideas, and other resources to help raise awareness about how readers can support the right to read. CBLDF circulated 20,000 print copies during Banned Books Week and thousands more downloads. Download your copy at cbldf.org/read-banned-comics/
LIBRARIANS Online Resources CBLDF’s website offers up-to-theminute news and a tremendous library of resources to help fight censorship of comics! Visit cbldf.org to access our collection of educator and librarian tools, including Using Graphic Novels in Education, Raising A Reader!, Panel Power, and more! You can also follow the conversation about free expression in comics with the CBLDF Podcast and get up to date on the latest legal news at the CBLDF blog. Visit cbldf.org to use these dynamic free resources!
“If you pull a book from a library shelf, it’s not available to the kid who gets their books at the library. So, you’re impacting that library as a resource to the readers who depend on it.” —Mariko Tamaki (This One Summer)
Library Livestreams CBLDF celebrated Banned Books Week with Image Comics and the Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable of the American Library Association by producing a week of Library Livestreams, featuring creators Nick Dragotta (East of West), Grace Ellis (Moonstruck, Lumberjanes), Pornsak Pichetshote (Infidel), Charles Soule (Curse Words), and Skottie Young (I Hate Fairyland, Middlewest). Each Library Livestream was a freewheeling discussion on creativity, freedom of expression, and the power of storytelling that library patrons around the world enjoyed. You can view them at www.twitch.tv/imagecomics/videos/all
Artwork by Matthew Loux
CBLDF does all this and more thanks to your contributions. Please help us continue our important work in 2019! cbldf.org/contribute/donate/
TEACHING THE FIRST AMENDM The First Amendment protects freedom of expression. CBLDF developed a wide range of projects and tools this year to help promote the medium as a valuable form of free expression and to educate people about their First Amendment rights.
“In the U.S., freedom of speech is paramount. The First Amendment states that you can’t be arrested for saying things the government doesn’t like. It’s important that students everywhere know that they have the right to be heard.” —Neil Gaiman (Sandman, The Graveyard Book)
Be Heard! As millions of American students asserted their First Amendment rights in protests across the country earlier this year, CBLDF helped them stay safe with Be Heard! Protecting Your Protest Rights, a practical guide for students. Drawn by cartoonist Kai Texel and developed in partnership with National Coalition Against Censorship, Be Heard! reached hundreds of thousands of students through social media; was covered in outlets like Teen Vogue, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post; and was included in printed displays in schools all over the country. You can download your own copy at cbldf.org/beheard
The Art of March: A Civil Rights Masterpiece CBLDF helped create the exhibit The Art of March: A Civil Rights Masterpiece to showcase how the powerful graphic novel trilogy embodies the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. The landmark exhibition of Congressman John Lewis’s celebrated memoir, created with co-writer Andrew Aydin, artist Nate Powell, and co-curator John Lind, took visitors on a visceral tour of the Civil Rights Movement and showcased how comics can help effect social change.
Presentations
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CBLDF’s presentations about the power of comics as free expression reach thousands of people all over the world. In addition to our mainstays, State of Censorship and Comics and the Power of Intellectual Freedom, this year we introduced two new presentations.
MENT History of Activism in Comics From the medium’s earliest days, activists have used comics to communicate their messages to the world. CBLDF developed this image-filled journey through more than a century of comics that use the First Amendment to effect social change and presented it at events all over the country.
EC: Fighting for Change CBLDF revealed the untold story of Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the First Amendment rights of the comics art form and its community of retailers, creators, publishers, librarians, educators, and readers. CBLDF provides legal referrals, representation, advice, assistance, and education in furtherance of these goals.
STAFF Charles Brownstein, Executive Director Alex Cox, Deputy Director Georgia Nelson, Development Manager Patricia Mastricolo, Editorial Coordinator
comics’ original social justice crusaders in this vibrant presentation. From 1950 to 1955, EC Comics changed the face of the medium. In titles like Tales from the Crypt, Weird Fantasy, MAD, and Shock SuspenStories, EC addressed taboo subjects such as civil rights, war, gender, and more. These and other CBLDF presentations will continue to be offered throughout 2019! To bring them to your institution, email us at info@cbldf.org
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
ADVISORY BOARD
Christina Merkler, President Chris Powell, Vice President Ted Adams, Treasurer Dale Cendali, Secretary Jeff Abraham Jennifer L. Holm Reginald Hudlin Katherine Keller Paul Levitz David Steinberger Gene Luen Yang
Neil Gaiman & Denis Kitchen, Co-Chairs Susan Alston Greg Goldstein Matt Groening Chip Kidd Jim Lee Frenchy Lunning Frank Miller Louise Nemschoff Mike Richardson William Schanes José Villarrubia Bob Wayne Peter Welch
Robert Corn-Revere, Legal Counsel
CREDITS
CBLDF thanks our Guardian Members:
Betsy Gomez, Designer and Editor Charles Brownstein, Contributor Patricia Mastricolo, Contributor
Grant Geissman, Philip Harvey, and Shadowline Comics
Cover art by Nate Powell. CBLDF is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law in the year they are given. For detailed financial information, including audited financial reports, please visit cbldf.org/financial-data ©2018 Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and respective authors.
CBLDF’s education program is made possible with the generous support of the Gaiman Foundation and supporters like you!
Corporate Members
HOW TO HELP BECOME A MEMBER With options for every bud-
get, CBLDF membership makes you part of the supporter community that ensures we can continue our important work to protect free expression.
VOLUNTEER CBLDF is a lean organization that’s
made powerful by the contributions of our volunteers. Whether you’re a student or an enthusiast, CBLDF has volunteer opportunities in our office and at conventions. If you’re a writer, artist, or designer, we also need your help!
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DONATE Visit cbldf.org to make a tax-deductible
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cbldf.org • 1-800-99-CBLDF
“Even though there’s more ways than ever for authors and artists to make their voices heard, censorship and restrictions of expression are ever-present. Beyond legal aid and assistance in actual cases of censorship, CBLDF’s mission of education and information helps maintain the First Amendment’s role as a powerful tool for the freedom of speech.” —Jeffrey Brown (Lucy & Andy Neanderthal, Darth Vader and Son, Jedi Academy) “As Americans, we need to keep working to protect the freedom we and our children have not only to say and write what we want, but also to read what we want. CBLDF is at the forefront of protecting the freedom to read, and I’m proud to be a part of it.” —Jennifer L. Holm (Babymouse, Squish) “The work they are doing is as important and timely as ever, because with the growing popularity of graphic novels, the art form has caught the attention of people who think they know better than the rest of us what we should read.” —Jeff Smith (Bone, RASL)