When we launched Comic Foundry Magazine it was a breath of fresh air to the industry and introduced a variety of coverage in types of stories never seen before in the comics press. We found praise and a fanbase that had a deep passion for the content we created. Together, my team helped changed the game. Comic Foundry means the world to me, which is why it saddens me to an unexplainable extent to say that our next issue will be our last. I’m sorry to admit that I’ve reached the unfortunate point where my career no longer allows enough time to do the magazine. “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well,” my high school journalism teacher used to say. In this case, I’d rather cease publication than put out issues we don’t have time to devote to fully — less than 100 percent is not an option.

So what does this mean? Well, we have one last amazing blowout issue that comes out in early February — we’ll be at NYCC, MoCCA and probably even SDCC. If you have a subscription with pending issues you’ll be reimbursed. (Again, finances are not the reason for our early departure).

I want to take this time to thank my right hand (wo)man — Laura Hudson. She’s had my back every step of the way and I probably would’ve made this announcement much, much sooner if it weren’t for her. I also want to thank all of our contributors for believing in our vision — their efforts were the backbone of our success, and I owe it all to them. I also want to thank our readers and our supporters online, especially Heidi MacDonald, Blog@Newsarama v1, Tom Spurgeon, Matt Fraction, Chris Murphy, Brendan McGuirk, Sean McDevitt, Brigid Alverson, Peter Svensson, John Parker, Jason Michelitch, Tucker Stone, Michael Tedder, Ernie Estrella, Adan Jimenez, Evie Nagy, Matthew Badham, Caleb Goellner, Van Jensen, Brian Heater, Kai-Ming Cha, Sarah Jaffe, Freeman Jack, Alan Kistler, Chip Zdarsky, Jay Franco, Vikram Tank, Complex, TJ Wilkinson, Holly Wray, Chris Allen and Amber Mitchell and countless others — you guys/girls have had our backs from the get-go, and it means the world.

Thank you,
Tim Leong
Editor In Chief
Comic Foundry Magazine

Comic Book Club is live talk show in NYC that runs every Tuesday night at 8:00pm at the Peoples Improv Theater. I was fortunate to be a guest last year after the first issue came out, but I can’t wait to return with Laura and talk about the new issue and everything else happening in the comics world. Tickets are just $5 but you’ll get a free issue of Comic Foundry (which costs $5) — so it’s really like you’re making money by coming!

Laura Hudson and I (along with a very long list of amazing contributors) work pretty darn hard to get each issue out. And while we put our blood, sweat and tears into each page, we’ve got our respective ipods blaring. To what, exactly? So glad you asked. With the new issue of Comic Foundry in stores tomorrow, we present the Comic Foundry Issue 4 Mixtape — the best and bassiest of what we listened to when making this issue:

SEX IN COMICS? LAWS SAY GIVE IT ARREST
According to several state and federal laws, selling — or even owning – certain comics may now be a crime
By Laura Hudson

It was a very good year for First Amendment rights in comics, featuring one of the greatest triumphs ever for the nonprofit Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, when in the midst of April’s New York Comic Con, obscenity charges against Georgia retailer Gordon Lee were finally dropped after three and a half years of protracted legal battling and more than $100,000 in legal fees.

Lee had been accused of distributing indecent material to a child after a boy visiting his store in 2003 accidentally received a free comic containing an excerpt from The Salon, an Ignatz Award-nominated work that contained a nude image of Pablo Picasso.

But while the Lee case marked an important victory, the fight for First Amendment rights in comics is hardly over. Even now legal battles are under way in response to federal and state laws that could threaten the rights of both retailers and readers of comics and manga.

THE OREGON TRIAL
Two Oregon laws passed in 2007 to restrict the sale of sexually explicit materials to minors have been challenged by a coalition of retailers, librarians, publishers and First Amendment advocates — including the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and Oregon-based Dark Horse Comics — who say that the law restricts access to constitutionally protected material, including comics.

Although the laws were intended to target sexual predators giving sexually explicit material to children, the ambiguity of the wording does not specify any intent to harm. As a result, the laws could be used to prosecute booksellers who sell books, comics or graphic novels with sexual content to people under the age of 13, or in other cases, under 18 years of age.

The first law, OR 167.0574, criminalizes the giving or selling of “sexually explicit material” — which could potentially include everything from Watchmen to Judy Blume novels — to children under the age of 13. Violators can be punished by up to a year in prison, or a $6,250 fine. Selling the same material to a 13-year-old would be permitted, though no mention is made of how booksellers and comic shop are meant to distinguish between 12 and 13-year-olds.

The second law, OR 167.057, criminalizes giving or selling material with visual or verbal depictions of sexual conduct to anyone under 18, “for the purpose of arousing or satisfying the sexual desires.” Putting aside the fact that it can often be difficult to determine a customer’s exact sexual agenda at the time of purchase, the law could be used to prosecute the sale of any “satisfying” material — including the sale of nearly any yaoi manga title, for example — to a 17-year-old as “luring a minor,” a felony that can mean up to five years in prison and $125,000 in fines.

The laws would also require bookstore and comic-shop retailers to make a determination about the often subjective sexual content for every single item they stock, which could pose a significant burden for stores that often carry thousands of titles.

“It doesn’t fit any national standard,” says Charles Brownstein, executive director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. “There’s a lower degree of protection than the constitution provides, and that’s fairly dangerous.”

Attorney P.K. Runkles-Pearson, who is representing the coalition of various plaintiffs in the case with both laws, says the material is constitutionally protected, and that while the plaintiffs “do not contest the importance of protecting minors from harm … [the statute] cannot sweep over the protections of the First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to do so.”

Runkles-Pearson cites manga classics such as Kazuo Koike’s Lady Snowblood and Kentaro Miura’s long-running Berserk as titles that could spur criminal charges if sold in violation of the laws.

She adds, “In the process of reading these materials for the case, I’ve come to really appreciate” graphic novels. A work that particularly impresses her is Charles Burns’ Black Hole, the distribution of which could now result in prosecution.

An injunction has been sought to halt enforcement of the laws, which are currently in effect, and oral arguments were scheduled to begin Oct. 3.

F*#K OBSCENITY
Another case with potential consequences for comics involves Iowa resident Christopher Handley, who is being prosecuted by the federal government not for distributing sexually explicit comics material, but rather for owning it.

Handley is charged with receiving “obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children” for importing what is known as lolicon manga from Japan. Derived from the term “Lolita complex,” lolicon is a genre of manga that features young girls drawn in sexual situations.

Although the Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that the prohibition of “virtual” child pornography under the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 was unconstitutional, as it prohibited “speech that records no crime and creates no victims by its production,” the PROTECT Act of 2003, which was intended to prevent the abuse of children, says something very different.

Its prohibitions against child pornography state that “it is not a required element of any offense under this section that the minor depicted actually exist,” extending to drawings, sculptures, computer-generated pictures or any other type of image that portrays sex with a person under 18 and is deemed obscene.

The law has a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison, according to Mike Bladel of the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Southern Iowa, which is prosecuting the case.

And it could potentially apply to any individual in possession of yaoi or shotacon manga, for example, “if the depictions appeared to be of anyone underage,” says lead defense attorney Eric Chase.

The definition of who does and does not “appear to be” 18 can also be more complicated in the case of manga, where artistic conventions often dictate that characters appear more childlike than their age might indicate.

“Technically it’s an obscenity statute, but the punishments are cross-referenced with child pornography. They’re punished the same way as if it were [pictures of] real children,” Chase says. “If this is permitted, it could easily move into other genres. The implications are very far-reaching.”

The case is slated for trial in October in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

Be there or be square, my dudes (and dudettes)

Today was supposed to be the release date for the new issue….but apparently that’s not the case. Next Week! It sucks, my friends, but it is what it is. The release party for tomorrow is still on, PS, and we’ll still have copies on hand for the lucky first 50 that arrive…

I love my job. Some days I REALLY love my job. Yesterday was one of those days, as I was one of a select few to see exclusive Watchmen footage — hosted by Zack Snyder and Dave Gibbons. Let me be frank with you — it was pretty fucking cool.

They screened three sequences — The first 12 minutes of the film, which included the Comedian’s fight/death and the movie credits, which helps establish the backstory of the Minutemen and group progression. The second sequence was Dr. Manhattan on Mars and showed his creation via voiceover flashbacks. The last bit was Nite Owl and Silk Spectre breaking Rorschach out of prison.

There’s all kinds of little easter eggs (look for the number 300) and subtle book references. It definitely made me want to re-read the book, which is probably a good sign.

Notes from the event:
-Zack Snyder mentioned that they’re going to 1. Release a DVD of the animated Black Freighter when the film premieres. 2. In an extended movie DVD, they’re going to incorporate the Black Freighter bits into the film.

-Dr. Manhattan’s junk is clearly visible. I’m waiting for the first blue balls joke to hit the web.

-Paul Levitz is a very eloquent speaker.

-Rorschach’s ink blots move. Awesome.

-Prediction: Almost every print magazine will design their Watchmen stories with Futura. Please don’t be that predictable.

-The Nixon makeup was the weakest part.

-Overall, it was pretty amazing stuff. If the rest of the film and pacing matched what I saw, I think fans will be very happy

Minx will cease publication beginning January ‘09. Minx was an experimental imprint for DC Comics and we are extremely proud of the books we published and the stories we told during the past two years. We thank all of the writers and artists who lent their talents to our endeavor and especially thank readers who came along for the ride. DC Comics remains committed to publishing diverse material for diverse audiences as we continue to welcome new readers.