Posted in: Boom, Comics | Tagged: censorship, comics censorship, graphic novels

So… What Does the CBLDF Actually Do? Banned Books Week 2018

What does the CBLDF – the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund – actually do? It is a question that has been asked much of late.

The answer, according to Read Banned Comics: A Guide to Banned, Challenged, and Controversial Comics and Graphic Novels embedded below, seems mostly to keep comics in school libraries after someone objected to a gay character appear in them.

Banned Books Week runs the week after Thought Bubble, September 23th – 29th, and courtesy of the CBLDF we have a copy of their accompanying publication, below.

As a proportion of comics to prose, comics are disproportionately challenged and banned, due to the belief that they are intended for children. Or that things are worse drawn than when written. The CBLDF disagrees and has got Neil Gaiman, Raina Telgemeier, G. Willow Wilson and more talking about having their comic books challenged and banned. Read Banned Comics also shows how to report and fight censorship, suggests programming ideas, and gives more tips to make a celebration of Banned Books Week.

CBLDF is an official sponsor of Banned Books Week, and this year's theme is Banning Books Silences Stories, a call to action for everyone to stand up against censorship. The annual celebration of the freedom to read will be observed in libraries, schools, bookstores, and other community settings across the nation and the world. Events can be discovered – and suggested – right here.

Hard copies of Read Banned Comics can be ordered here.

CBLDF's education program is made possible with the support of the Gaiman Foundation and CBLDF's Corporate Members — ABRAMS, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, BOOM! Studios, comiXology, DCBS, Diamond Comic Distributors, Dark Horse Comics, DC Entertainment, Fakku!, IDW Publishing, Image Comics, Lion Forge, Oni Press, Penguin Random House, Rebellion, ReedPop, Scholastic, SPX, Valiant, the Will & Ann Eisner Family Foundation — and CBLDF members, creators, publishers, retailers and more.

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers for Free Expression, American Library Association, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Freedom to Read Foundation, National Association of College Stores, National Coalition Against Censorship, National Council of Teachers of English, PEN American Center, People for the American Way Foundation, and Project Censored.

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