"The most frequently challenged book this year is This One Summer by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki," explains Charles Brownstein. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund executive director carved out a few minutes during his busiest week of the year to discuss his organization's nearly 30 year fight for first amendment rights.
"It was the first graphic novel to be honored with a Caldecott [Medal] recognition," he continues. "Drama by Raina Telgemeier came up last month. That was the tenth most banned and challenged book of 2014, according to the American Library Association. Number six was Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples and number two was Persepolis."
Brownstein has been with the group for roughly half of its existence, a job that these days entails serving as the public face for a non-profit tasked with helping artist, publishers, bookshops and academic institutions defend challenges to artistic expression.
Of late, the battle has shifted somewhat. A dozen years ago, the CBLDF was embroiled in one of its most high-profile cases when a comic store owner in Georgia found himself facing criminal charges after a comic featuring a nude drawing of Picasso ended up in the hands of a minor (the Fund ultimately got the charges dropped a few years later).
These days, many of the cases involve seemingly harmless young adult books like the aforementioned This One Summer and Drama. It's an unintended consequence, perhaps, of comics' new found academic acceptance, drawing concern from parents after making their way into schools and libraries.
"It goes from elementary school where Drama was in a school library and a parent said the book doesn't show the negative consequences of homosexuality and should only be assigned by a guidance councilor," explains Brownstein. "So you mean the book doesn't show hate crimes? What are we talking about here? [The cases range] from that to an adult saying they're going to protest it after taking their final exam."
There are growing pains involved in form of expression, sure, but they're particularly well pronounced in the comics of comics, a media that has gone from being derided to accepted art and literature all in one over the course of a generation.
"Partially it's that comics are more available, says Brownstein. "Partially it's that comics are more desirable. People want them in their systems, but there are still stigmas about comics that persist and need to be fought, that this is low value or just for kids. So we have to manage those things."
Thankfully, the CBLDF is around to do just that.
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