Obscenity is like humor, in that both are subjective. Humor is like obscenity, in that both are part of the foundation upon which human culture has been built. One of the more obvious places that the two meet is in comic books, an art form that is often laughably obscene (see Omaha the Cat Dancer, Get Fuzzy, etc.). Should we censor the bondage in early Wonder Woman comics or make Robin wear bicycle shorts under his costume? Perhaps those are the best examples.
As a result, some exceedingly strange lawsuits have arisen in recent years. Benevolent java-pusher Starbucks sued the artist Kieron Dwyer for copyright infringement when he parodied their mermaid logo. The resulting court decision prevented Dwyer from printing his parody or displaying it on his website or linking to a website that displays his parody.
How can a lone artist stand up to such massed power (corporate or political)? The Comic Book Legal defense Fund (cbldf.org) was formed in 1986 to fight for freedom of speech in their corner of the world. While they often represent the creators of comics, the Fund has more often found itself defending retailers who face prosecution from local authorities defining their political convictions with a few public convictions.
Self-appointed watchdogs have long tried to force all media through a filter of their own design. Pegged as a children’s medium, comics have consistently faced censorship. As the funny books strive to shake off the juvenilia label, creators step into adult waters. The CBLDF was founded by publisher Denis Kitchen, reacting to efforts to push comics back into the kiddie pool.
Currently, the fund is defending shopkeeper Gordon Lee, who is charged with distributing obscene material when a nine-year-old found himself in possession of a free copy of Alternative Comics #2 last Halloween. Within that anthology, the youth found an excerpt from a tale about the early Cubists. Pablo Picasso is portrayed painting in the nude in three panels. One can only imagine the trauma.
September, 2005