This week, I have some good news and I’ve got some bad news. You can either here the good news first, or the bad news first. It’s all up to you dear reader. If you want the good news first, read the next paragraph. If you would like to read the bad news first, skip down to the third paragraph and then back track from there. It’s like a choose your own adventure this week at Fangirl Ramblings.
The Good News is my new job is going really well. I’ve been loving all my work and everyone is incredibly nice. It’s been a great first week. I want to thank all of you who emailed me and wished me a congrats and a good luck on my job. It was very sweet of you guys. It was like having my own cheering section on my first day of the job. If you happen to live in the north Jersey area and you see the Free magazine Exit, pick it up. You’ll be one of the first to see the start of my new career as a layout designer.
Now on to the Bad News of the week. As some of you might have read last week, I started a new job on Monday. This is my first foray into the 9-5 work force. My body is not used to this torture that you regular workers put yourself through. Working, commuting, going to bed early. To top it all off, on Monday afternoon, on my first day of work, I started coming down with a sore throat. I’ve been overdosing myself with vitamin C all week long, but it seems that alas, the cold has gotten the better of me. What does that mean to you, my dear reader. It means this column is going to be incredibly short.
Sorry guys. Any other time I would have pressed on, fought through the pain, but this week it’s not going to happen. I haven’t even read any new comics this week. I need to get some rest and hopefully be better for work tomorrow. So in place of the column you all know and love, I’m going to reprint a speech I gave in my college speech class a couple of years ago. We had to write a speech that was political in nature. I being the type of person that I am, I did my best to wrack my brain to choose a topic that I would enjoy and would some how be bent on my agenda of spreading the comic book love.
The answer came in the form of censorship, the CBLDF, and the case of Jesus Castilo. I give to you, my speech.
I want you to imagine this scene with me. Imagine that you work in a retail store. And in this store that you work at, you happen to sell products of an adult nature. Now these products are tucked away in a corner blocked off with a sign that says Adult only. One day a guy comes in, and goes and picks himself up a magazine from the adult section, and you ring him up at the register. For some people, this is a normal routine. Flash forward to several months later, the police come to the store and they arrest you on charges of obscenity for selling the adult magazine to an adult. Sounds crazy doesn’t it. The scenario that I just mentioned is true. In 1999 a man by the name of Jesus Castillo was charged with a class A misdemeanor, an offense punishable by up to 2 years in jail plus fines, for selling an adult undercover police officer, an adult comic book.
Its really a far fetched idea to think that in today’s day and age an adult could be arrested for selling a comic book for adults to an adult, and be charged with obscenity. It sounds like something that would happen in another country or in George Orwells novel, 1984. We live in a country where the first amendment is freedom of speech and press. It sounds like a case you would read about in the newspaper and then expect to read a week later that the charges were dropped, or the case was thrown out of court. In this case it wasn’t.
In 2000 Jesus Castillo went to court to fight the charges. With the help of an organization called the comic book legal defense fund, Castillo stood on trail. The comic book in question that Castillo was being arrested for selling was an English translation of a Japanese comic book called demon invasion: the fallen #2, an incredibly popular series in japan. The book is very graphic in it’s nature, and was labeled with a warning that said it was for Adults only. The prosecutor based their case on the idea that comics were for kids, plain and simple. The defense called up 2 witnesses to testify on their behalf. First was Scott McCloud, the author of a book called Understanding Comics. McCloud based his argument saying that the book, even though graphic in it’s nature of pornographic material, there was an overall connecting plot and thematic values to the story. The other witness Susan Napier an associate professor of asian studies went through the comic in question page by page, explaining the cultural context of the book, and explaining the symbolism in the story.
Under US law for a work to be obscene it must lack any serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. The prosecutor did not try to contradict this testimony at all. Instead she saved everything for her closing statement to the jury when she said, “I don’t care what type of evidence or what type of testimony is out there, use your rationality, use your common sense. Comic books, traditionally what we think of, are for kids. This is in a store directly across from an elementary school and it is put in a medium, in a forum, to directly appeal to kids. That is why we are here, ladies and gentlemen. … We’re here to get this off the shelf.” And with that closing statement she convinced the jury who found Castillo guilty to the charges of obscenity.
Sounds insane doesn’t it? We live in a country where we can turn on the TV and watch acts of violence or sexual content on prime-time television or cable. Or go down to the local convient store and buy a copy of Playboy, but a man gets arrested for selling an adult book, to an adult. Because of this, Castillo was sentenced with 180 days of probation and a 4,000 dollar fine. His record now says he’s been arrested and he can now never pursue a government job, all because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Now, you might be asking yourself, why should I care, how is this relevant to my life. What people don’t realize is, that this is a viable threat to peoples first amendment rights. According to Charles Brownstein, the director of the comic book legal defense fund, “This case bodes badly for the First Amendment….the Court has allowed a precedent to stand that allows a man to be convicted of obscenity charges without adequate proof being presented that the work he is convicted for selling is constitutionally obscene. All because the medium the alleged obscenity was placed in ‘is for kids.'” According to the comic book legal defense funds, legal counselor, Joseph Burton Burton, “One thing is clear, with every defeat of the First Amendment, the censors gain courage to pursue their unconstitutional ends. The Castillo case is among the most appalling cases of injustice ever to come to the attention of CBLDF. Conservative communities are quick to condemn comic book artists and publishers without an understanding that they enjoy the full panoply of First Amendment rights.” The first amendment protects our freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly and petition. The printed medium in all its form is protected under this amendment.
The prosecutor in her closing argument out right said she was looking to get that book off the shelf. The question is where does it end? This is one example of a group deciding what is right for you to read. They believe in protecting the children, but at what cost? As an adult you should be able to decide what you want to read. The material that was presented in that book was not suitable for a child, and it might not have fit the taste of certain adults, but as a person of legal age, you should be able to choose to read what you want, not what other people decide is obscene for you. Sure, this case was based on the selling of a comic book, but this case has set a precedent for other conservative watch groups in other forms of media. In Arkansas a new amendment has been added to a statute requiring businesses to keep material that is deemed inappropriate for children away from minors by either putting the material behind a counter or hiding ¾ of the cover. The law is so vague that anyone could deem anything harmful to minors, some of the greatest novels ever written included. We are living in a time where we are granted all these freedoms, but they can slowly be taken away from us if we don’t pay attention
In my speech I have mentioned one organization a few times, the comic book legal defense fund. This is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of First Amendment rights for members of the comics community. It’s an amazing organization that has helped fight and fund court cases against comic creators and retailers alike for over 15 years. More information can be found at www.cbldf.org, where you can read about what they are working on, donate money, or buy really cool products.
In conclusion I think the writer Neil Gaiman summarized it best when he said, “I think the hardest thing to believe is that Jesus was found guilty of selling an adult comic, from the adult section of the store, to an adult police officer, and convicted because the DA convinced the jury that all comics are really intended for children.”
Hope you all enjoyed. Come back next week where I’ll be writing something new. Not pawning off old homework assignments as columns. And remember, email is much loved and always answered.
