A while ago, I was asked to write something up for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund about what the Canada Customs case meant to me.
I was pretty pleased to be asked, but when I thought about it the case, honestly my mind was just flooded with fear. That’s how I feel when I think about anybody being arrested or prosecuted for owning comics. So as I worked on the piece, that’s what I tried to express. I hope I made my point.
You can read the post, Voicing an Opinion: Manga Bookshelf’s MJ Talks Canada Customs Case at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund website, to find out what I’m so afraid of.
Sara K. says
October 6, 2011 at 10:49 pmI think this is an important topic. And wow, somebody *really* left that comment on Manga Bookshelf … that comment is so *ignorant* (and harmfully so) that I would not even know how to respond.
I have a more international collection than you. I’ve even ordered comics from Canada, ironically enough – fortunately, US customs are much more comic-friendly than Canadian customs, though the content was such that I think it would have been OK even if it was going in the other direction. Well, maybe not … one of the comics I ordered from Canada had a sub-plot about an 11-year old girl being forced to marry a 40-something year old man. It would be easy to defend that particular comic on historical grounds – said girl and pedophile were based on real people, and the marriage really did happen – but I shouldn’t even need to have to defend it. And that is another example about how that harmfully ignorant comment is flat out wrong – that particular comic plays that sub-plot for tragedy and tears (a *lot* of tears). Likewise, you don’t have to lust after teenagers to get something out of stories of teen romance.
I also know that I have comics which are a little tricky to get past Canadian customs (even though, very ironically, some of them were *printed in Canada*), so Canada definitely has a comics censorship issue that goes far beyond this incident.
Melinda Beasi says
October 8, 2011 at 12:07 pmLikewise, you don’t have to lust after teenagers to get something out of stories of teen romance.
RIght??? Geez. I love romance comics of all kinds, but that’s because I love *romance,* which is not even remotely related to lust, in my experience.
Jenn says
October 7, 2011 at 4:43 pmThanks for that column. I often have the same thought you do – all my comics were purchased in the US, so I should be okay. But really, you never know when a moral panic is going to set in (like the D&D panic in the 1980s). So, I look at my collection and think about how someone who has never read manga would look at it…. Well, I own Lychee Light Club, and Fumi Yoshinaga can be quite explicit, and so on.
Melinda Beasi says
October 8, 2011 at 12:10 pmYes, speaking of Yoshinaga, I look at my collection and see something like Gerard and Jacques and wonder what the average person would think if it was pulled off the shelf, let alone Canadian Customs.
Aaron says
October 9, 2011 at 3:09 pmI always feel really conflicted when these types of issues come up.
On one hand yes I don’t think local communities or the government have the right to decide what I can and can’t read but…
I’m also prone to ask “where does it end?” Do I have to defend everything on the princaple of the matter?” That just seems fanatical and romance is one thing
Out and out pornogrphy is another thing entirely for me so it’s not easy for me to “rally round the camp” so to speak.
Along with the fact that in Canada you’re just as libel to be prosecuted for speaking out against Homosexuality as to be prosecuted for owning obscene publications.
(I don’t say that to engender strife “I just find Canadian law schizophrenic that’s all)