CBLDF Appeal

The following is a press release from the CBLDF.

Gordon Lee Trial Date Set – CBLDF Needs Your Help!

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund urgently needs your help. This August, the long-running case of Georgia v. Gordon Lee will finally go to trial, with court costs expected to hit $20,000.

For nearly three years the Fund has defended Georgia retailer Gordon Lee, seeing him through multiple arraignments and procedures, and racking up $80,000 in legal bills. The charges stem from a Halloween 2004 incident in which Lee handed out, among other free comics, an anthology featuring an excerpt from the critically acclaimed graphic novel The Salon. The segment depicted a historically accurate meeting between 20th Century art icons Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, the latter depicted in the nude. It was a harmless sequence, no more explicit than the nudity displayed in the award winning Watchmen. Yet because the title found its way into the hands of a minor, Floyd County prosecutors hit Lee with two felony counts and five misdemeanors. The Fund eventually knocked out most of the charges, but must now defeat the two remaining misdemeanor counts of Distribution of Harmful to Minors Material, each carrying a penalty of up to one year in prison and up to $1,000 in fines.

The case is slated to go to trial the week of August 13. We urgently need your support in order to wage the best defense possible against these remaining charges, and that means raising the $20,000 that the trial is expected to cost. Here’s how you can help:

Make A Monetary Donation: Every dollar counts, so please visit the cbldf.org and make a tax-deductible contribution today. As a thank-you for making a donation of $30 or more, the Fund will give you a brand new t-shirt displaying the text of the First Amendment in the shape of an American flag. Show your commitment to free speech, and your support for this very important case.

Join The CBLDF: Now is the time to join or renew your membership in the Fund. Your member dollars provide the baseline of support that we need to perform our casework, and defend your right to buy whatever comics you wish. If you join now with a basic membership of $25 you will receive a CBLDF Member Card, featuring new Groo art by the one-and-only Sergio Aragones, as well as a subscription to our news publication Busted!, and special admission to CBLDF events across the country. If you join at a level of $100 or more, you will also receive one of the new First Amendment t-shirts.

Donate Original Art & Collectibles: With summer conventions upon us, the Fund needs original art, high-grade comics, and other collectible items to make the most of our summer auctions. Please e-mail cbldf1@gmail.com for more information about how to donate to our auctions, or with a description of your intended donation. If your donation is accepted for our summer auctions, you will receive a letter of acknowledgment and a 2007 membership. To ensure that your donation is received safely, please do not send physical items until accepted by the CBLDF.

With Gordon Lee’s freedom in the balance, the CBLDF needs everyone who values Free Expression in comic books to do his or her part to support this very important case. Please visit www.cbldf.org and make your contribution today.

Donations: http://cbldf.safeshopper.com/12/cat12.htm?479

Membership: http://cbldf.safeshopper.com/7/cat7.htm?945

Other Donations: cbldf1@gmail.com

PAD

FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer

So Kath and I went to see the latest FF movie the other day.

I liked it. Liked it a lot. Liked it beyond the whole “It’s a lot better than the first effort” vibe. The plot hung together, the actors were far more comfortable inhabiting the skins of their characters, the entire family vibe was pitch perfect. Bottom line, THIS incarnation of Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny actually seemed to like each other…even love each other. In getting that right, it provided a foundation for a quality film that simply wasn’t present in the first go around.

On top of that, we have the Silver Surfer. Understand, I remember when a Surfer movie was being discussed decades ago, back when such an endeavor would have required an actor painted in silver and standing on a board…a less than impressive prospect. No more. Now we have a Surfer who is a combined effort of special effects wizards, Doug Jones, and Laurence Fishburne, and the results are spectacular.

And ultimately? It feels and “reads” like a 1960s Stan and Jack effort.

How many Marvel films can you really say that about? That they feel THAT old school, that you can bring your kids to it with relative impunity? It’s not dark, foreboding, terrifying…it’s the Lee/Kirby FF, right down to such story developments as Doc Doom endeavoring to steal the power of the Silver Surfer.

And yeah, yeah, yeah, Galactus is a cloud. But you know what? Galactus was always presented as a force of nature anyway, so hëll, why not take that to its logical extreme? Personally, I think “Ghostbusters” has forever ruined the concept of some big terrifying entity stomping about New York City anyway.

Definitely worth your time and money.

PAD

Confusing Movie Marquee That I saw

It listed the following films:

Spider-Man 3
Pirates 3
Shrek 3
Fantastic 4

It just reminded me of the time years ago when Gwen saw the movie title “Passenger 57” and asked why it was called that, and I explained that there had been fifty-eight previous films about Passenger.

PAD

Yes it can finally be said

Peter’s next project for Marvel will be “She-Hulk”.

There are interviews at both Comic Book Resources
http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=10890

and Newsarama
http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=116900

He’ll comment here after he gets back. So feel free to dicuss the topic here.

Kath

Ask the Wife a Question

Since Peter is off at Heroes Con this weekend and I finally finished the Doctor Who short story I owed my editor, I thought I would give you a chance to ask me (being Kathleen) any questions you might have.

The usual rules apply including:
1) I won’t do your homework for you
2) If Peter or I are under an NDA (Non-Discloser Agreement) then I can’t discuss it or even give hints
3)There are certain subjects I will not discuss and ask that you accept that

So Whatcha Wanna Know?

Kath