CBLDF Reports on Recent Attempt, Failure to Censure THE KILLING JOKE

Click here for information about a patron's attempt to have Alan Moore's The Killing Joke removed from a public library in Nebraska. The patron assumed the text "advocated" rape, apparently. Cooler heads prevailed, and the librarians did not remove the graphic novel.

According to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund:

The book is currently shelved in the young adult section of the library with several other graphic novels. Ellyson notes that the review board consistently denies material challenges posed in the community, ensuring the availability of materials for patrons.

While this case is a victory for free speech, Batman: The Killing Joke can now be added to the list of Alan Moore’s books that have been challenged in libraries. Watchmen, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and most recently Neonomicon have all been challenged.

Chalk up a win against censorship, and give the opus of Alan Moore another notoriety upgrade! 

SANEjournal issue 1:2 Now Available!!!

"Teaching the Works of Alan Moore," the second edition of volume 1 of SANEjournal:sequential art narrative in education, just published!

The issue features thoughts and ideas on teaching Moore Classics like Watchmen and V for Vendetta, but it also explores Promethea, Lost Girls, and other texts from Moore's amazing opus.

Three articles, three rationales, and one review make up the table of contents, which features scholars from Northwestern University, The University of New Mexico, and even a practicing high school teacher who uses Watchmen with his upperclassmen.

Click here to visit the journal, and here's to happy reading and fun learning! Warning, you might get tachyons in your eyes or find yourself in a flux resulting from rifts in the space-time dimension!

It's Coming......

My Summer Pleasure Reading: *Saga of the Swamp Thing*

I've now read 5 of the 6 volumes of Alan Moore's run on Saga of the Swamp Thing, and I just gotta say that I'm loving it.

I don't know if living the Southwest has me yearning for the South, or if the desert and recent humidity has me yearning for bodies of water and marsh, but I've found myself drawn to Swamp Thing since reading Jeremy Love's Bayou and noticing that the eponymous character of that series is a clear homage to Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson's soggy slosh super-hero.

(Did you know that Swamp Thing and Man Thing debuted almost simultaneously, and that both are an homage to an obscure character called The Heap?)

It's also fun to see Moore playing with Watchmen themes prior to releasing that text and seeing scenes and that seem "tested" in this series, as if the bayou of Louisiana became the Brit's natural playground. I enjoy wondering if Moore every visitited the Southern swamps. I enjoy the romance between Swampy and Abbie, the taboo that isn't really.

I also sort of like seeing an elemental character kick the asses of DC's more mainstream capes.

I do think the series could be used in the high school and college classroom, especially as a text to illustrate Southern Gothic literature. I even wrote a rationale for volume 1 of the collected series while working on the Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels text.

Right now I just want to savor the story's essence, though, as if I don't have allergies and moss makes me feel alive and erotic and connected and free at the same time. Nothing fancy. Just want to say I recommend these volumes.

Seriously, if you like Moore and you like brooding and romance, check out this Mr. Natural/Frankenstein via the Saga of the Swamp Thing collected editions.

International Poll Asked Comics Readers to Name their Top 10 Singificant/Important Works

See the results here. There's also some good examination of what made the list and what didn't. N=+200, for those interested in how many folks The Hooded Utilitarian surveyed.


I was very happy to see Krazy Kat, Little Nemo in Slumberland, Maus, Watchmen, and Locas in the top ten.

More Alan Moore Advocacy for Libraries

He's the one with the beard! I love that accent, love that voice, and love that message!

Alan Moore: Literacy and Library Advocate!

As some British libraries face closing, The Bearded One of Greatness speaks.

From Bleeding Cool and the Northapton Chronicle:

I am absolutely against the closure of any library – particularly in the St James area which has had enough taken away from it already. I joined the library in Abington when I was five and all the books available gave me a broad reading experience – without Northampton’s libraries I would not be the writer I am today. I am very concerned about the kids today which might grow up without this access. I am very against taking literacy away from people. Education must not be a privilege for the well-off.

Please click the Northampton Chronicle link, as it gives a much broader story.

With a Rebel Yell!: Moore, Moore, Moore!

The Black Dossier censorship case in Kentucky heats up. Evangelical involved! Porn invoked! Evangelical's relative warns of dangers of censorship!

It's Blue Grass, Dumb Ass, and a Text that's Crass (depending on your p.o.v.)! Grab your peanuts (no, I said "peanuts," gutter-head!) and enjoy!

ICV2 has Even More on Kentucky Librarian Shocked by LOEG

The story that just won't die keeps spurting out extra details like some lascivious alien pig teat. To be sure, LOEG: The Black Dossier, the hijacked library book at the center of all this, is one of Moore's more self-indulgent works, almost on the same level as Lost Girls. There does seem to be gratuitous nudity in it, but as is often with Moore's work, it seems to be necessary gratuitous nudity (hey, I just used the phrase "lascivious alien pig teat." You think I worry about writing "necessary gratuitous?") as the author unravels the threads of reality and storytelling itself.

I love the text because I see it as offering evidence that Mark S. Bernard and I were correct in our analysis of Moore's use of space-time relationships and 4th wall dynamics. But, I can see where someone not familiar with Moore's themes might see it as salacious. Not that I think that would merit someone embargoing the book so others couldn't see the images, nor that I think that I would ask people to pray for me just so the images wouldn't get stuck in my head. (There are so many other terrible things one can see that I'd rather not think about. That truck with the pictures of aborted babies I saw on campus at UVA one semester comes to mind).

I find it interesting that the whole "I was trying to save it from the eyes of a child" angle has given way to a sort of "I was trying to protect anyone from seeing these terrible images" slant from the librarian. Where will this story go next? Will basketball season be enough to pull Blue Grassers away from this enthralling story about the blue-haired moral crusader?