The CBLDF and the Ellison Vs. Fantagraphics Lawsuit

Free Speech, Lutefisk Sushi

I’m sending this letter off to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund tomorrow along with the final funds from the Lutefisk Sushi Volume B show from last year, and I wanted you all to be aware of it’s contents.

It addresses what I see as serious problems with the CBLDF’s current stance on the Harlan Ellison vs. Fantagraphics lawsuit. If you have an opinion you want to share on this subject, please let me know what you think in the comments below, or contact me directly.

You can get more information about Fantagraphics dilemma here, and find out more about how you can help them to win their case (note that they are taking art donations for ebay auction).

Hi there,

Enclosed please find checks totaling $350 made out to the Comic Book Legal Defense fund. These are a second round of proceeds from the Lutefisk Sushi Volume B show of minicomics by Minnesota cartoonists that the Minneapolis Cell of the International Cartoonist Conspiracy put on last year (we sent $876 last year for the first round).

As with Lutefisk Sushi volume A (where the Conspiracy donated over $1000) all of our profits are going to the CBLDF. With Volume B, instead of a direct donation, we have been splitting it up into memberships for some of the cartoonists who participated in the event (we had just over 50 cartoonists participating in the show this time).

Enclosed you’ll also find a list of the relevant information for the 7 remaining participating cartoonists who have requested memberships (we got 35 memberships with the first round). The remaining funds after that are just a straight donation.

For more information about last year’s Lutefisk Sushi show, please direct your web browser to http://www.cartoonistconspiracy.com/sushi

I also wanted to take this opportunity to express my deep disappointment that you are not assisting Fantagraphics with their legal defense in their lawsuit with Harlan Ellison. This is clearly a first amendment issue, and it is being fought by the what is arguably the finest publisher of comics in the world. If they lose, they face potential bankruptcy, which I believe would be disastrous for the artform. To me, it seems unbelievable that you have not risen to their defense.

Mr. Brownstein’s defense of this inaction, as seen in a recent posting on Heidi MacDonald’s The Beat blog (http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2007/05/09/cbldf-makes-a-statement) is ultimately unsatisfying. Mr. Brownstein claims that it is not appropriate for the CBLDF to support Fantagraphics in this case because the lawsuit is not over a piece of comic art, but journalistic prose. Mr. Brownstein points out in the comments:

“Likewise, we wouldn’t spend (our supporters) money defending a retailer who was fined for selling a copy of a violent video game derived from a comics property, or a video store who was sued for renting a copy of the Crumb movie, or a cartoonist who was arrested for a work of performance art with no comics in it whatsoever.”

This seems like a reasonable statement. However, this defense seems inconsistent with the CBLDF’s actions in some previous cases, notably the Stu Helm (King VelVeeda) vs. Kraft Foods case, as Dirk Deppey pointed out in his Journalista! blog (http://tcj.com/journalista/?p=353).

I should note that I have respected Mr. Ellison and his strong stands on free speech issues in the past, and I have enjoyed some comics he was involved with (I read most of his Dream Corridor series). Thus I am very dismayed and puzzled by his recent litigation, which is so blatantly a direct attack on the first amendment. It is sad that he puts less value on maintaining his reputation as a voice for free speech than he puts on his misguided attempt at legal revenge.

Mr. Ellison is suing Fantagraphics partially over them using his name on the cover of a book an interview with him appears that he admits Fantagraphics owns the rights to. What kind of precedent does that set if he wins the lawsuit? Could you have a more cut and dried first amendment case?

I assume if the CBLDF took part in an amicus brief, as mentioned in the Beat post, it would be on Fantagraphics’ behalf? I wonder if Ellison supporters reading the Beat post assume that you would do so on Ellison’s behalf?

I think the CBLDF should take a public stand on this case regardless of whether or not they intend to participate in the legal proceedings. Those who support Mr. Ellison based on his previous reputation as a free speech advocate and CBLDF supporter may not be aware they are on the wrong side of a first amendment battle. If the CBLDF publicly sided with Fantagraphics, the bad publicity for Mr. Ellison could go a long way towards making him decide it was prudent to try and resolve this unfortunate lawsuit quickly.

I assume the CBLDF is within its mandate to publicly condemn any attacks on the first amendment regardless of the media involved in the attack, since this presumably costs nothing?

I would also hope that the CBLDF would consider actively using its relationships with both parties to offer to formally or informally help attempt to mediate a resolution to this conflict before it gets to another courtroom. Perhaps this has already been pursued?

As a result of the CBLDF’s inaction on this issue, I will be encouraging the Cartoonist Conspiracy to help fund Fantagraphics’ legal defense rather than the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in any future fund raising efforts we may pursue until Fantagraphics’ legal issues are resolved.

It should be noted that the donation of funds by the Cartoonist Conspiracy on a particular project is not my decision alone, but the decision of the participating membership in whatever project is being pursued, so it is possible donations will still go your way in this time period. I could certainly be outvoted.

I sincerely hope the CBLDF will reconsider its current stance on this divisive issue.

Thanks much for listening, and for your continued efforts in protecting our first amendment rights.

Best wishes,

Steven Stwalley
Webmaster, The International Cartoonist Conspiracy
www.cartoonistconspriacy.com

San Francisco cell meeting – Thursday May 10, 2007

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On Thursday May 10, 2007 San Francisco Cartoonist Conspiracy Cell will be having our semi-weekly Muddy Waters Café. Folks start arriving around 6:30 to 7:00 pm and we usually hang around till 9-10 depending on how folks are feeling. We would love to have any Bay Area folks come on by and Jam with us.

The location can easily be reached from BART/MUNI.

The new location is:

Muddy Waters
260 Church Street
San Francisco, CA 94114

For more information, comments, questions …. e-mail Doc Popular.

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

May 3, 2007 Jam: FAITHMOLE

Jam Comics

It’s been quite a while since I got a jam posted. Here is the one from this month. At Avidor‘s suggestion, the theme this month’s jam was Dan Lacey’s right-wing Christian webcomic Faithmouse (recent award winner… and loser… of the City Pages Best Locally Generated Blog (Right Wing))… see the results by clicking the below image.

WARNING: There is something in our jam comics to offend everyone. If you are easily offended, you may not want to view them. Children should strongly consider going elsewhere for their amusement.

Sat. Open Studio, May. 12, noon-4 p.m.

Events

Saturday Open Studio
(Seems like it’s a lot earlier in the month this time.)

Sat., May 12, noon-4 p.m., MCBA

This is the date they gave us. Second week in the month. If this seems early, check out next month’s date at the bottom of this note! Whew!

In any case, join us at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts for cartooning fun and frolic. If you can’t find us right away, ask the friendly person working in the bookstore. This is open studio time for all cartoonists, so come and hang out and draw. There’s plenty of room for everyone.

The fourth installment of the 12-part 144-page graphic novel challenge will be going on during the open studio. Cheer on the page-crazed cartoonists. Or join in. They are starting today’s 12 hours in the coffee shop at 8 a.m.

Minnesota Center for Book Arts
(Just down the street from Big Brain Comics)
1011 Washington Ave S, Suite 100
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Phone: 612-215-2520

Future Sat. Open Studio dates:
June 9
July 21
August 18

worlds smallest conspiracy shout-out

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can you find it in this MN Daily article about Free Comic Book Day???

http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2007/05/02/71815

Also on FREE COMIC BOOK DAY:

Danno, Bob Lipski, Brian Bastian, and Taki Soma will be at
JIMMYJAMS COMICS in Rochester doing our part to help raise
money for the Rochester Public Library to buy more graphic novels.
We’ll be doing sketches and selling stuff.

Bud “MUSCLES AND FIGHTS” Burgy will be at THE SOURCE doing
his part to sell MUSCLES AND FIGHTS, which EVERYONE should buy….NOW!!!

Vas Littlecrow tells UPS to ‘bring it on’!

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Vanesa Littlecrow W. said…
Not only do I not donate to the G.O.P. or the Democrats, I vote 3rd party, use recycled when possible and give my extra donation funds to Second Harvest! 😀
Since I feel like kicking some UPS ass this month, I am going to hemorrhage a little money for y’all.
For the entire month of May Conspirators or any verified professional comic book artists all over the US will get a sweet deal. $0.39 DOUBLE-SIDED color copies on 28 lbs semi-gloss or matte letter size, $0.03-per-book folding AND scoring, with every order. I can’t match the $.03 B&W copies without cutting my own throat, BUT, I can offer two-sided 28 lbs semi-gloss or matte letter-size copies for a measly $0.08. Unlike the big boys, I actually care about your work looking good. I even don’t require cards and/or silly gadgets. I offer shipping to all 50 states and Puerto Rico (save on gas,) AND I will be including random free VAS Littlecrow/Catnose Comics stickers with every order.Pass it on, and spread the love because on May 31, this offer is gone FOREVER.*BTW* Cartoonist Conspiracy – Rice, MN Local happens here on Saturday May 12, if you feel like driving and meeting us. :)Cheers!

Exquisite Corpstraits

exquisite corpse corpstrait mike hales rio doc pop

Last weekend I had a table at Pandoras Trunk, where I sold some of my clothing designs and comics. As an extra bonus, Mike, Rio, and myself set up a chair and tried a new creative excercise based on the cadavre exquis.

The equisite corpse is a drawing (or writing) excercise in which a piece of paper is usually folded into thirds. Each artist works on a section of the folded paper then continues their lines just a little bit onto the next section of paper before folding their section up (so the next artist can’t see any of it) and then passing it on. After all three sections are finished, the paper is unfolded and the overall image is seen for the first time.

That’s pretty much what we are doing, but we have turned it into a way to do caricatures. At Pandora’s Trunk we set up some chairs and did Exquisite Caricatures for only $6 each. It was tons of fun and everyone seemed to love the results. It’s one of the few creative methods where both the artist and the model are surprised to see the final results.

We had been talking about doing this for many months now, so I’m glad we finally tried it out. After I get back from Minneapolis, I think we’ll set up on 20th and Valencia and do this for a couple of hours. The cool thing is that if we time it right, we can work on up to 3 subjects at the same time.

Click here for the full flickr set.

On a similar topic, I had previously blogged about a similar project that needs 4 artists. The paper is still folded in three parts, but each section is done in pencil only. After three artists have completed their sections, the paper is unfolded and the fourth artist inks the entire piece. This gives the piece a more consistent look, while still getting that surreal style. It’s excellent exercise too as I feel a large part of our group could use more practice inking other peoples pencils. When doing this exercise, we usually have four sheets of paper and work in 10 minute cycles, after each cycle we pass the folded paper to the artist on the left. After the pencils are done, the inker works for about 30 minutes. Ideally, you’ll have four finished pieces with four different artists, and nobody will have worked on the same piece more than once.

Print some mini-comics for CHEAP!

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I dont know if its happening at ever UPS STORE(though I assume it is) but the UPS STORE at the QUARRY(in Minneapolis) is having a sale on copies thru the END OF MAY.
ALL BLACK AND WHITE COPIES are 3 CENTS each!!!
ALL COLOR COPIES are 39 CENTS each!!!
AND you can buy ‘COPY CARDS'(which look more like giant watch batteries) for $30 that will give you 1000 copies available 24 hours a day at any UPS STORE.
UPS STOREs don’t offer the warm comfort of a Kinkos, but they offer damn cheap copies for the next 40 days, so I say stock-up on those COPY-CARDS while you can.
Also, don’t forget about THE RICE PRINT SHOP run by conspirator VAS LITTLECROW. She’ll get you a great deal on copies too. AND she’ll even fold and staple things at a good price. AND, unlike UPS, Vas doesn’t donate to the G.O.P(I’m assuming).