Thursday, April 20, 2006
San Berdoo bluenose orders removal of scholarly manga book from public libraries
Bill Postmus, the chairman of the board of supervisors in San Bernardino County, California has banned Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics from public libraries, citing it as obscene. What a jerk.
The 2004 trade paperback, written by Paul Gravett and published by Harper Design, is a history of Japanese comics, and includes, in several chapters, discussion of adult comics that depict sex and violence. The violence was apparently not an issue, nor was the fact that the reproductions of panels that feature sexual situations were, as far as we could tell, all R-rated and treated in a serious, scholarly way. Postmus' statement and the local newspaper coverage made much of the fact that the book contains "sex with animals," but we couldn't find it; we must not have looked as hard.
Link (thanks, Rogier!) Ray says: "The offending picture was on page 144, a picture of a fairy having sex with a squirrel. The original image was from Bondage Fairies.
"What probably got the book pulled was the fact that it was shelved as a Young Adult book, despite a Library Journal article mentioning the numerous pictures of sex and gore. It's a great book, but it needs to be shelved as an adult book."
posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:36:29 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments
