Posted in: Comics | Tagged: bleeding cool, Comics, entertainment, orbital comics, today's comics, wednesday

Adventure Time #30 Banned In The UK – We Have The Offending Art!

Published Wed, 30 Jul 2014 11:00:57 -0500

Last updated Wed, 30 Jul 2014 12:12:25 -0500

Adventure Time is Boom! Studios' best selling comic book, measuring all lines of revenue. Based on the cartoon, it's won plenty of awards, and I came home from San Diego with plenty of copies for my girls.

And me, obviously. Including Adventure Time #30.

Thankfully I wasn't stopped by Customs. Because it's been banned in the UK and Ireland.

My understanding is that the licensing situation with Cartoon Network is rather unique. When most publishers get a comic license, they are able to distribute it worldwide in whatever language they license it in. Cartoon Network, and its parent company Turner, aren't able to do that because they have the licensing rights divided up amongst four licensing divisions, each in a different country and independently operated. That means a publisher like Boom needs to negotiate four different licensing agreements.

Now, Boom has the license to publish and distribute in the US, Canada, and the UK and Ireland.

Until now. Because the UK office has rejected one of the stories in Adventure Time #30 called Manbabe's Lament by regular writer Ryan North and artist Carey Pietsch. What was bothered the UK office about the short story that didn't raise a red flag for the US?

It may be down to the fact that in the US, it is considered a teen or tween cartoon but in the UK is aimed younger than that, and the UK offices wanted stories more suited to that age range.

But here are the three pages for you to examine yourself. But on your Wertham masks… now!