14 APRIL 2015
If you're like a lot of nerds, libraries may have played a sacred role in your childhood - the place where you read so many weird/adult books that the librarian talked to your mom; the place where you ate lunch in middle school after getting bullied in the cafeteria; the place where you got to read the graphic novels your allowance wouldn't cover and your parents wouldn't buy you. Libraries are an amazing part of our universe, right?
So it's always depressing and irritating to find out about the people trying to drive certain books out of library walls - shutting down public access to knowledge and entertainment, essentially. Now the American Library Association has released its list of the books that make cranky people make phone calls (or emails). And what do you know, they tend to be: YA novels, graphic novels and books by people of color. Sometimes all three.
If you're a comic fan, a few of these probably sit on your bookshelf - and if you've been paying attention to SDCC2015 special guests, you'll definitely recognize one of these names.
1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
2. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
3. And Tango Makes Three - Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
4. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
5. It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
6. Saga by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples
7. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
8. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
9. A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard
10. Drama by Raina Telgemeier
That's right, SDCC special guest Raina Telgemeier is among the ranks of the subversive. I haven't read her book Drama (though I plan to immediately) but Amazon describes it as "a diverse set of characters that humorously explores friendship, crushes and all-around drama!" So you can see why it would be a huge threat.
Possibly this is news to some, but comic books have always been targeted for censorship - hence the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Efforts at silencing have come from other cultures, political groups and of course, Concerned Parents. But there's quite a difference between picking out your own kid's reading material and trying to stop anyone in a library jurisdiction from reading a specific book. So this is a report worth paying attention to, especially in this regard:
"The lack of diverse books for young readers continues to fuel concern. Over the past 12 months the library community has fostered conversations and fueled a groundswell toward activism to address the lack of diversity reflected in children's literature - both in content and among writers and illustrators."
Yikes.
At any rate, we know we have an inspiring creator (one of many) in our midst this July. Let's hope there will be some good panels on fighting censorship and fostering diversity - which is just another word for humanity, remember! - in comics. And let's all hope people of all ages get even more exciting books and graphic novels in the future.
Showing posts with label censorship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label censorship. Show all posts
Help CCI fight censorship
13 SEPTEMBER 2014
No one wants their comic books taken away, right? Or to be told how to think?
The tentacles of censorship spread in many directions - violence, sex, politics, religion - but they all grow out of one central tyranny: the need to control. Over the years, comics and graphic novels have been subjected to this as much as any other art form, with both consumers and governments trying to restrict the availability of "subversive" material.
Creators like Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Alison Bechdel, Jeff Smith and Marjane Satrapi have all had their work attacked - and those are just the top names in the field. Plenty of emerging writers and artists are silenced before they can even break into the public eye. While we can fight to preserve the availability of popular material, we'll never know what potential masterpieces are strangled by censorship in their infancy.
This year, for Banned Books Week, CCI is teaming up with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund to present Beware of Comics! - what they're calling "a lively conversation about comics, censorship and what makes the medium so dangerous in the 21st Century." Scott McCloud and Larry Marder will lead.
When: 25 September at 7:00 pm
Where: San Diego Central Library Auditorium - 330 Park Blvd, San Diego
Cost: Free! Donations welcome, of course, to help fight the good fight.
I feel like most nerds have a maverick heart - generally speaking, we tend to be the nonconformists of society. So consider supporting CCI and the CBLDF if you can, or fighting censorship in whatever way is expedient for you this September.
No one wants their comic books taken away, right? Or to be told how to think?
The tentacles of censorship spread in many directions - violence, sex, politics, religion - but they all grow out of one central tyranny: the need to control. Over the years, comics and graphic novels have been subjected to this as much as any other art form, with both consumers and governments trying to restrict the availability of "subversive" material.
Creators like Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Alison Bechdel, Jeff Smith and Marjane Satrapi have all had their work attacked - and those are just the top names in the field. Plenty of emerging writers and artists are silenced before they can even break into the public eye. While we can fight to preserve the availability of popular material, we'll never know what potential masterpieces are strangled by censorship in their infancy.
This year, for Banned Books Week, CCI is teaming up with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund to present Beware of Comics! - what they're calling "a lively conversation about comics, censorship and what makes the medium so dangerous in the 21st Century." Scott McCloud and Larry Marder will lead.
When: 25 September at 7:00 pm
Where: San Diego Central Library Auditorium - 330 Park Blvd, San Diego
Cost: Free! Donations welcome, of course, to help fight the good fight.
I feel like most nerds have a maverick heart - generally speaking, we tend to be the nonconformists of society. So consider supporting CCI and the CBLDF if you can, or fighting censorship in whatever way is expedient for you this September.
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