CBLDF Annual Report 2015 by Betsy Gomez

COMIC BOOK LEGAL DEFENSE FUND

Leading the Fight for Free Expression!

ANNUAL REPORT • 2015

Director’s Note There’s a new wave of censorship affecting comics, and CBLDF is at the front lines, fighting back! This year saw the most attacks on the freedom to read comics in a generation, including calls to ban graphic novels in schools and libraries, threatened legal actions, and unconstitutional legislation that endangers the rights of creators, retailers, and readers. CBLDF responded to all of these threats with timely direct assistance, expert legal action, and a deep, prevention-minded education program. In the pages that follow, we’re proud to provide you a brief snapshot of our 2015 efforts. If you’d like to learn more, we invite you to visit www.cbldf.org, where our daily news blog reports on the latest cases CBLDF is tackling and where our extensive library of educational resources is available. Our work defending the right to read is timely and important. But we can’t do it without your support. Please help us continue to lead the fight to protect free expression in comics by making a tax-deductible contribution today! You’ll help us protect all of our rights now and in the year to come. Thank you for your support! —Charles Brownstein, Executive Director

CBLDF thanks our Guardian Members: James Wood Bailey, Grant Geissman, Philip Harvey, Joseph H. King, and Midwest Comic Book Association. CBLDF’s education program made possible with the generous support of the Gaiman Foundation and supporters like you!

STAFF Charles Brownstein, Executive Director Alex Cox, Deputy Director Betsy Gomez, Editorial Director Maren Williams, Contributing Editor Caitlin McCabe, Contributing Editor Robert Corn-Revere, Legal Counsel

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Larry Marder, President Milton Griepp, Vice President Jeff Abraham, Treasurer Dale Cendali, Secretary Jennifer L. Holm Reginald Hudlin Katherine Keller Paul Levitz Christina Merkler Chris Powell Jeff Smith

ADVISORY BOARD Neil Gaiman & Denis Kitchen, Co-Chairs Susan Alston Matt Groening Chip Kidd Jim Lee Frenchy Lunning Frank Miller Louise Nemschoff Mike Richardson William Schanes José Villarrubia Bob Wayne Peter Welch

CREDITS Betsy Gomez, Designer and Editor Front cover art by Michael Cho. Back cover art by Duncan Fegredo. CBLDF is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. Donations are taxdeductible to the fullest extent allowed by law in the year they are given. ©2015 Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and respective authors.

Corporate Members

YOUR FREEDOM TO READ IS UNDER ATTACK! Although comics have never been a bigger part of mainstream pop culture, they sustained more censorship attacks in 2015 than at any other time this century. CBLDF was on the case, fighting back by providing expert support to keep comics available for everyone!

CBLDF is at the forefront of defending against a new wave of attacks on the freedom to read. In 2015, we fought more than 24 attempts to ban books, including the comics Drama, This One Summer, The Sandman, Fun Home, Palomar, and others. Thanks to CBLDF’s intervention, these books stayed on the shelf! Your support also helped us fight unconstitutional laws, provide legal advice to professionals and readers, and develop timely education. Schools and libraries are the front line in today’s fight for free expression! Challenges to comics and other books have been rapidly increasing in these locations over the last few years—and we expect even more challenges in 2016 if the trend continues. CBLDF stands up for the rights of teachers and students at all academic levels. Every time a book is challenged, educators and librarians are at risk of losing their jobs, and students are being stigmatized for their choice in reading.

CBLDF takes your support seriously, striving to make the most prudent and responsible use of contributions. Here’s a snapshot of how your donations are used to support our fight for the right to read:

CBLDF TAKES ACTION! WE PROTECTED BOOKS IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES

WE PROVIDED LEGAL SUPPORT

Much of our work defending the right to read in 2015 happened in schools and libraries. CBLDF successfully defended dozens of books and publications against censorship! Among those books were nine highly acclaimed graphic novels that our work helped keep in classrooms and on shelves. Here’s a brief look at how we defended the freedom to read:

We provided legal resources in a variety of cases affecting our constituents. CBLDF sprang to action at the first sign of a First Amendment emergency by providing access to counsel, writing letters of support, making referrals, and stopping several legal incidents before they became public.

After breaking new ground for comics by winning the Caldecott Honor, Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s This One Summer became the book we had to protect most frequently in 2015. It was challenged in several undisclosed locations for content some deemed age-inappropriate. A parent in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, challenged Gilbert Hernandez’s Palomar, claiming it was child pornography, and CBLDF led the successful defense of the book. In a rare higher education challenge, CBLDF helped protect four graphic novels—Fun Home, Persepolis, The Sandman, and Y: The Last Man—from “eradication” at a California community college. CBLDF joined coalition efforts to fight overly burdensome curriculum approval and parental notification policies, otherwise known as “red flagging,” in schools across the nation. Such policies may lead to censorship when educators stick to “safe” materials rather than more challenging and thought-provoking books that might cause controversy in some communities.

WE FOUGHT LAWS THAT INFRINGE ON FREE EXPRESSION CBLDF monitors legislation around the country and takes action against laws that restrict free speech. In 2015: The Media Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union brought a lawsuit on behalf of several plaintiffs, including CBLDF, challenging the constitutionality of a new Louisiana law that requires websites to age-verify every user before providing access to non-obscene material that could be deemed harmful to any minor. The law puts an undue burden on retailers and effectively bars all minors from buying all books. CBLDF joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Organization for Transformative Works to ask the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s decision that gives celebrities veto power over creative works featuring depictions of them and to untangle inconsistencies with how lower courts handle such cases by establishing a consistent right of publicity standard under the First Amendment.

CBLDF helped protect the following titles in 2015: • Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Waterloo, Iowa) • Cal by Bernard MacLaverty (Rumson, New Jersey) • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Leon County, Florida) • Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman (Rumson, New Jersey) • The Diary of a Young Girl by Phoebe Gloeckner (undisclosed location) • Drama by Raina Telgemeier (undisclosed location) • The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History (Charlotte County, Florida) • Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (Mattoon, Illinois) • Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (Crafton Hills College, California) • The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russell (undisclosed location) • The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Buncombe County, North Carolina) • The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter (Duval County, Florida) • My Princess Boy by Cheryl Kilodavis and Suzanne DeSimone (Hood County, Texas) • Nasreen’s Secret School by Jeanette Winter (Duval County, Florida) • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho) • Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez (Rio Rancho, New Mexico) • The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (Wallingford, Connecticut) • Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (Crafton Hills College, California) • The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll’s House by Neil Gaiman and various artists (Crafton Hills College, California) • Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers (Charleston, South Carolina) • This Day In June by Gayle E. Pitman and Kristyna Litten (Hood County, Texas) • This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki (undisclosed locations) • World History: Connections to Today (Charlotte County, Florida) • Y: The Last Man Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra (Crafton Hills College, California)

CBLDF BUILDS AWAREN WE PARTNERED WITH FREE SPEECH ADVOCATES CBLDF isn’t alone in the fight for the freedom to read. We join key coalition efforts to fight unconstitutional laws, to write letters of support, to expand education efforts, and more. In 2015: CBLDF maintained our membership in the Media Coalition (http://mediacoalition.org) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (http://ncac.org), important allies in the fight for free speech. CBLDF continued our sponsorship of the NCAC’s Kids’ Right to Read Project, and joined KRRP letters of support for challenged books. CBLDF continued our sponsorship of Banned Books Week, the annual celebration of the right to read. CBLDF and Diamond Comic Distributors partnered with Every Child a Reader and the Children’s Book Council to bring greater focus to what comics offer kids during Children’s Book Week. This year, Free Comic Book Day kicked off this celebration of children’s books! CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein was elected to a twoyear term on the Freedom to Read Foundation’s Board of Trustees (www.ftrf.org).

WE WELCOMED NEW MEMBERS TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Reginald Hudlin and Christina Merkler joined CBLDF’s Board of Directors in 2015. Hudlin is an innovative

force in modern Black entertainment, having written or directed films such as House Party, Boomerang, and BeBe’s Kids, as well as producing Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. Merkler is the co-owner of DCBS, a CBLDF Corporate Member and one of the largest and most influential comics retailers in the United States.

WE EXPANDED OUR PUBLICATIONS We launched CBLDF Defender, a free quarterly news magazine coming to you from the front lines of the fight for free speech. CBLDF Defender brings engaging creator interviews, analysis of current censorship news, and in-depth features about the people fighting for the freedom to read! View it online at http://tinyurl.com/o7d3twd

issue two

CHICAGO VS. PERSEPOLIS: CONSPIRACY & COVER-UP

NEIL GAIMAN: WHEN I WAS CENSORED

summer 2015

FREE SPEECH AFTER CHARLIE HEBDO THE YEAR COMICS ALMOST DIED HOW TO FIGHT BOOK BANS Issue 1 Spring 2015

ATTACK WOMEN WHO CARTOONISTS ON CHANGED FREE «« « «« «SUMMER READING UNDER FIRE EXPRESSION

NESS! CBLDF released the Comic Book Club Handbook, which provides all the tools anyone would need to start a graphic novel book club. This publication is the latest in the ongoing educational collaboration between Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and ComicCon International, who co-produced the handbook with the assistance of Erwin Magbanua of the San Diego Public Library. Available online at http://tinyurl.com/nvqjojb We released a revised edition of the CBLDF Banned Books Week Handbook, featuring a cover by comics superstar Raina Telgemeier, and free resources for librarians, educators, and retailers! View it online at http://tinyurl.com/q2dcmwe CBLDF released the latest—and greatest—edition of CBLDF Liberty Annual. A love letter to a long-lost style of humor magazine, the 2015 issue is raunchy, ridiculous, absurd, and very funny! Get yours here: http://tinyurl .com/oohhxu9

WE UNVEILED NEW ONLINE RESOURCES CBLDF launched CBLDF Comics Connector, a free directory resource that connects educators and librarians with comics professionals who are able visit classrooms and libraries. Find it at http://tinyurl.com/nn6dvbe CBLDF also expanded our news coverage in 2015, posting more news items than ever, adding more books to our “Using Graphic Novels in Education” series, and launching new features: “Women Who Changed Free Expression,” a daily series that ran throughout Women’s History Month. Check out the series at http://tinyurl.com/njv5xml “Adding Graphic Novels to Your Library or Classroom Collection,” an ongoing feature that provides specific resources for librarians and educators who may need to justify and defend the inclusion of a comic in library and classroom collections. This ever-expanding feature can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com /ps2hu47

WE LAUNCHED A LEGAL WRITING CONTEST CBLDF launched its inaugural writing contest, the CBLDF Writing Competition for Excellence in Comic Book Scholarship, which is directed to current students at any U.S. law school and seeks writings about comic books and the comic book industry. For more information, visit http://tinyurl.com /nsdwjcq

HOW TO HELP BECOME A MEMBER For a membership contribution

of as little as $30 a year, you can be 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!

SPREAD THE WORD Join our email list and follow us

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DONATE Visit our website to make a monetary donation in support of our important work!

“CBLDF is a major force in fighting censorship and preserving First Amendment liberties for those of us who read, create, publish, or sell comics on paper or on the Web.”

—Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, The Graveyard Book)

“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)