When the Jessamine* County Public Library acquired a copy of Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, two library workers conspired to keep it out of the patrons' hands, checking it out for an entire year. After an eleven-year-old girl put a hold on the book, they removed the hold; upon discovering this, the library director fired them. [more inside]
posted by Halloween Jack on Nov 19, 2009 - 150 comments

DC Comics' All-Star Batman and Robin series (from creators Frank Miller and Jim Lee) has taken quite a bit of heat here and there, but it's not the dubious quality of the book that has its publisher urging retailers to pulp its newest issue: It's some censored dialogue that managed somehow to not quite get censored. [more inside]
posted by kittens for breakfast on Sep 10, 2008 - 67 comments

The pictures that horrified America - how comic books tipped 50s America into a moral panic. [more inside]
posted by Artw on May 8, 2008 - 51 comments

Pablo's Penis Prosecution, the crazy case against comic retailer Gorden Lee was supposed to start today. Only the judge was sick, or the air conditioner was broken, or maybe the prosecution wants to drop all the charges and refile...again. Interesting to note that the judge presiding over the case has ruled against Mr. Lee in a previous prosecution for comics obscenity. Previous MeFi discussion, before the original charges were all dropped 18 hours before trial.
posted by dejah420 on Aug 15, 2007 - 30 comments

The Strange Case Of Gordon Lee. “It is highly unusual to have a single defendant face three arraignments in less than two years for the same alleged criminal conduct. In my fifteen years of practice, I have never seen such an occurrence.”* [more inside]
posted by grabbingsand on Jun 16, 2006 - 20 comments

Camouflage Comics [requires Flash] - an exploration of the issues of censorship, dictatorship, human rights and the legacy of the Argentinian "Dirty War", the 1976-1983 military junta's repression and extermination of dissidents (when 10,000 to 30,000 Argentinians were tortured and "disappeared"). Produced at the Jan van Eyck Academy of Fine Arts in Maastricht, the project presents striking comics and illustrations made between 2002 and 2005 by contemporary Argentinian artists, as well as text essays on the production of comics and cartoons during the dictatorship era.
posted by funambulist on Sep 26, 2005 - 2 comments

If the president can say it, why can't Gary Trudeau?
posted by ZachsMind on Jul 26, 2005 - 59 comments

Disney's War Against the Counterculture. Parody Mickey Mouse and see your life turn to madness, even if things are more or set straight in the end. “The main point,” O’Neill says, “was to buck corporate thinking. We just didn’t like bullshit.” [via]
posted by Sticherbeast on Dec 9, 2004 - 8 comments

How they censor Tintin comic books in Iran
posted by hoder on Jul 8, 2004 - 12 comments

Comic book retailer sentenced to jail for selling a book to an adult The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's lawyers are filing an appeal in the highest criminal court in Texas in the obscenity conviction of Jesus Castillo, manager of a Dallas comic book store. Castillo has received six months jail time, a year probation, and a $4000 fine. [more inside]
posted by dejah420 on Aug 21, 2002 - 36 comments

"The irony, of course, is that I can buy the book in any country except the one I've been living in for the past 14 years." -Eddie Campbell who can't get his book, From Hell, that he made with Alan Moore imported into Australia.
posted by john on Oct 31, 2000 - 0 comments