Word From Neil Gaiman

vogeleinUncategorized

This quote is taken from Neil Gaiman’s Weblog. If you haven’t given the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund a couple of bucks by this point, do yourself and
them a favor and jet over to their site. At least buy a bumpersticker or something. These guys
are fighting for your civil rights, too.

“Well, I’m not going to write the essay, not at this time of night after five
hours of conference call. But I’ll quote from the District Attorney in Texas,
in his summing up to the jury who recently sentenced a comic store clerk to
prison for six months for selling an undercover cop a rude manga title. (The
DA’s explaining why the jury should ignore the expert witnesses who came in to
explain that the comic in question was adult comics, and art, and deserving of
first amendment protection):

“And, again, why are we here? This medium, the medium that this obscenity is
placed in is done so in an appealing manner to children. Comic books, and I
don’t care what type of evidence or what type of testimony is out there, use
your rationality, use your common sense. Comic books, traditionally what we
think of, are for kids. This is in a store directly across from an elementary
school and it is put in a medium, in a forum, to directly appeal to kids.”
Remember that one. Comics are only for kids. Doesn’t matter if the manga title
in question was sealed, marked for over 18s, and in the off-limits to kids
section of the store in question. Comics are for kids. The DA says so, and the
jury believed him.

And yes, we’re appealing it. And we’ve spent at least $40,000 on the case so
far (and managed to win the other case they brought at the same time).
So tell your friends who read comics, and who don’t. Tell your friends who only
read manga. Repost this where people will see it. Link to the Comic Book Legal
Defense Fund site at http://www.cbldf.org/index.shtml or straight to their
commercial site at http://www.cbldf.com (which is the place you can buy cool
stuff).”