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Censorship disproportionately impacts comics. We gathered quotes from creators
about censorship and the importance of free expression.

© Alison Bechdel. From Fun HomeI don’t think there is such a thing as a bad book for children. Every
now and again it becomes fashionable among some adults to point
at a subset of children’s books, a genre, perhaps, or an author, and todeclare them bad books, books that children should be stopped fromreading. I’ve seen it happen over and over; Enid Blyton was declareda bad author, so was RL Stine, so were dozens of others. Comics havebeen decried as fostering illiteracy.
It’s tosh. It’s snobbery andit’s foolishness…

Ariel Schrag

http://cbldf.org/?p=30305)

Ariel Schrag’s anthology Stuck in the Middle has
been challenged several times due to Schrag’scommitment to authentic stories that accuratelyreflect the realities of middle school.

[The censorship of diverse content] sends a problematic
message to readers. Every flavor of young person deserves
to see themselves in literature, and the powers-that-be challenging content that isn’t straight–white–cis–conservative
tells everyone else that they’re not worthy. The future isbright, though. The storytellers coming of age now have access to such a goldmine of diverse content, and they’re already busy adding their own voices to the mix. I don’t thinkanyone will be able to stop them. (Source: She Changed Comics)
Raina Telgemeier’s Drama has been challenged
for the depiction of gay characters.

G. Willow Wilson
Honestly, I don’t know why anybody
bothers to try to censor books anymore.
Haven’t they learned? Attempting tocensor books sends sales through theroof. When you tell people a book is too
risqué or dangerous to read, they will goout of their way to read that book, because now it
has the appealof somethingforbidden. You
can’t contain astory once it’sout there. (Source:She Changed Comics)

G. Willow Wilson
writes Ms. Marvel.
Ms. Marvel © and ™ Marvel Comics.
Art by Jamie McKelvie.

© Raina Telgemeier. From Drama

Alan Moore

If parents are making the decisions that their children canor cannot read this sort of book in the home, that’s fairenough. The parents can take the consequences of that.
It won’t necessarily stop the children reading it, but atleast it’s a transaction between the child and the parent
and it’s the parent taking responsibility for their children... I prefer to let my children
read anything, but I want to knowwhat they’re reading, and if there’s
anything they come across whichmight be disturbing, then I’m always on hand to talk about it withthem. Which, to me, seems to bethe responsible attitude. (Source: The
Comics Journal #118)

Alan Moore’s Watchmen, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Batman: The Killing
Joke have drawn the ire of censors.

Watchmen © and ™ DC Comics

Every parent has the right to monitor his or her child’s reading (or TV
watching, or movie watching, etc.),
and if you don’t want your child reading Stuck in the Middle, I completely
respect that choice. However, there’s
a big difference between making thatchoice for your child and making it
for every child, which is what banning the book does. (Source: CBLDF interview,© Marjane Satrapi.
From Persepolis

Raina Telgemeier© Ariel Schrag. From “Plan of the Number 7 Bus,” Stuck in the Middle

Neil Gaiman

Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis is often challenged
for the depiction of Islam.

© Jillian and Mariko Tamaki.

Alison Bechdel’s acclaimed Fun Home is one of
the most frequently challenged graphic novels.

Photo Credit: Kimberly Butler

ican Libraries Magazine)

Mariko and Jillian Tamaki’s
This One Summer was thefirst graphic novel to earn theCaldecott Honor. CBLDF has
defended the graphic novel
from censorship on severaloccasions.

My first reaction [to being banned] is: What a great honor! My second reaction is,
it’s a very interesting situation, and it’s all about the power of images, which I think
is something people need to talk about. I can understand why people wouldn’t
want their children to accidentally think this was a funny comic book and pick it up
and see pictures of people having sex. I can understand that. I think banning books
is the wrong approach. (Source: The Comics Journal)

Neil Gaiman is the author of several
award-winning novels and comics,
including The Sandman, Neverwhere, and The Graveyard Book, allof which have been challenged.

The good thing is that these people who ban things,
it’s like they are completely unaware of what a human being is. If you want to make adolescents reada book, ban it! And then they
all want to read it. Because
then they’re rebellious. Why
not just explain it? It’s notlike kids are dumb. (Source: Amer-If you pull a book froma library shelf, it’s notavailable to the kid whogets their books at thelibrary. So, you’re impacting that library as aresource to the readers
who depend on it. (Source:She Changed Comics)

Alison Bechdel

Well-meaning adults caneasily destroy a child’s
love of reading: stop themreading what they enjoy, orgive them worthy-but-dull
books that you like, the21st-century equivalentsof Victorian “improving”
literature. You’ll wind up
with a generation convinced that reading is uncool and worse, unpleasant. (Source: The Guardian)

Marjane Satrapi

Mariko Tamaki