"His prosecution is unjust, and a conviction would have a chilling effect upon other retailers in Georgia," Brownstein says, noting that the Fund's existence is owed to a case quite similar to Lee's. In 1986, police seized a number of titles from a store owned by Illinois comics-retailer Frank Mangiaricina, and arrested the store's manager for displaying "obscene" materials. One of the officers, Sgt. Jack Hoestra, later told the Gary Post-Tribune that, "There was absolutely a lot of satanic influence in the comics there. If you know what you're looking for, you can see the satanic influence all over. Three-quarters of the rock groups today show satanic influence, and it's all over the television."
It was then that CBLDF founder Denis Kitchen became concerned. "I realized immediately that if police officers with built-in Satan detectors could get away with making arrests and seizing objectionable comic books, much more than the comics industry was at stake," Kitchen recalls.
Attacks on the comic-book industry
"A conviction in this case could make artists second-guess their creation."
have historically reflected the dominant anxiety — paranoia, perhaps — that the public has about the safety of its children: Satanic cults in the 1980s, sexual predation now. The first backlash against comics commenced in the late 1940s, culminating in congressional hearings that examined the superhero genre's alleged role in promoting juvenile delinquency.
In 1954, the industry chose to circumvent potential government censorship through
Above: the disputed comic, which found its way into the hands of a nine year old; artist Nick Bertozzi.
self-regulation, imposing a moral code on itself that included such gems as this one: "Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal, to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals." And if that didn't make the moral purpose of comics clear: "In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds."
Inevitably, however, "evil" did triumph, or at least moral complexity. Alternative comics that dared to depict violence, nudity and sex were originally distributed primarily through head shops, but they have long since found their way onto to the shelves of conventional comics stores like Lee's. In recent years, the Comics Code has become increasingly irrelevant, with DC submitting only two of its lines for approval, and Marvel declining to participate entirely. Neither Lee nor his lawyers can speak about the details of the night Alternative Comics #2 found its way into the hands of a minor, but it's unlikely that anyone would notice the comic book lacked the once ubiquitous Comics Code seal.
Regardless of how Lee's case turns out, it is unlikely to revive anything like a formal Comics Code. But according to Brownstein, it doesn't need to. "I think a conviction in this case could make artists second-guess their creation, creating a de facto self-censorship," he says.
Bertozzi is less concerned about self-censorship than self-consciousness. He says drawing Picasso nude was an instinctive gesture: a way of expressing an aspect of the character's personality.
"It's shorthand for someone who's monofixated and ego-maniacal," says Bertozzi, who once managed a comics store in Philadelphia, and says he sympathizes with Lee. Though Bertozzi isn't in any legal trouble himself, he says the lawsuit may impact his story-telling.
"The case has influenced me to the point where if I'm going to draw a scene where there's nudity, I think I will be saddled with the knowledge that there will be people out there misinterpreting it," Bertozzi says. Still, he acknowledges, the flap surrounding The Salon is likely to help sales in April, when the book is published. He compares the situation to the outcry surrounding the Brooklyn Museum's Sensation show in the late 1990's. When the museum displayed a Madonna accessorized with elephant excrement, former mayor Rudolph Giuliani unsuccessfully called for an end to the museum's public funding.
"What was the real outcome?" asks Bertozzi. "Giuliani gets a bump in the poll numbers and looks good to his conservative base, the artist oddly enough benefits from it too, gets hundreds and thousands of people seeing his art work, and even the Brooklyn Museum probably benefited as well."
In the case of Georgia v. Gordon Lee, there is one major difference, Bertozzi points out.
"In this case, someone is getting hurt," he says. "His name is Gordon Lee." n°
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
A recent graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Justin Clark has written for L.A. Weekly, Psychology Today, Black Book, Architecture, Fuse, and The Fader, among other publications. He is currently researching a history of the American child prodigy, and writing a mystery novel set in Los Angeles.
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