A Public Service Announcement! ;)

A Public Service Announcement! ;)

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

ENSANE in the Membrane, INSANE in the Brain!: Censorship and Sequential Art

Some people think it is crazy to allow comics and graphic novels in the classroom, but this site is dedicated to proving that it is a SANE venture. Sequential Art Narratives in Education are gaining more ground, but censorship has long been a problem for many school texts, and sequential art narratives are no exception.

Here I'll post some links about censorship and sequential art. For an excellent primer on recognizing censorship, what to do about it and how to prevent it as best one can, I recommend chapter 12 of Kenneth L. Donelson and Alleen Pace Nilsen's Literature for Today's Young Adults, 7th edition.

NCTE also has a number of great censorship-related materials, including a couple of CD-ROMS of excellently written rationales for teaching oft-challenged texts.

Libraries pull graphic novels Fun Home and Blankets until new plan is enacted:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/9459.html
http://www.marshallnews.com/story/1171005.html

(thanks to James Lowder for sharing these links with the comics scholars listserve)

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: Yup, the industry has its own non-profit group. Since 1986, it has fought for first amendment rights for comics creators. The "resources" tab at the right hand top of the page is of particular interest, especially the comics censorship timeline. It starts in the 18th century, for goodness sakes!