CR Sunday Magazine

Lowest Heroism Threshold Ever

I haven't looked into it yet to know if the facts are true in the manner they've been presented to me, but I was personally taken aback by the basic idea being floated that the magazine Free Inquiry, intentionally or not, could set itself up to be seen as a free speech hero by giving its bookseller clients a heads-up on its intentions to print a few of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammed cartoons and then excoriating the part of the system that blinked (Borders). While if what seems to be true turns out to be true I'm on the side of the publisher and will deplore Borders for making a summary decision the same way I'm furious at the Associated Press for refusing to carry the images so that its newspaper clients could make the chocie to run them or not, it seems sort of well, wrong to me on some level that one's actions in simply pursuing one's job as a journalist, disseminating information in a way that informs one's readership, could ever be seen as anything more than meeting an expectation we should have for all editorial outfits on all stories, even indelicate ones.

Given the general reluctance of the world press to deal with the imagery, to deal with the news when it becomes news even if one does so creatively and with a heavy heart, it's hard to blame someone for noting their own contrarian stance above and beyond the usual myth-of-publication navel-gazing. Here's a list of print sources publishing the cartoons. It's from the Wikipedia entry on the cartoon controversy, which casts some doubt on the reliability of its details. It seems to be a decent general snapshot. No matter how you slice it, it's a pretty pathetic list. My head is filled with too much about 1970s Marvel inkers and too little about philosophical fundaments to know whether free speech is properly termed a basic human right or not, but the exercise of unfettered speech within a journalistic enterprise is certainly one of the more admirable and important expressions of a pluralistic society. The collective, general failure of the Western press to see this case first and foremost in terms of its primary responsibilities to educate and inform, regrettably conflating that mission with various secondary even laudatory notions of being an amicable citizen of the world, a supportive member of one's local community, a profit center for shareholders and stock plan participants -- that should make none of us feel good, even about ourselves.

Go, Bid: Abortion Rights Cartoon



Received this note from the cartoonist Stephanie McMillan:

Last week my Minimum Security cartoon featuring the phone numbers of anti-abortion South Dakota senator Bill Napoli went viral. It was posted on boingboing.com and countless blogs, linked in Salon.com and even written about in a New Zealand newspaper.

Since it's been receiving this attention, I decided to use it to raise money to help keep abortion safe and legal in South Dakota. To that end, I'm auctioning off the original cartoon on ebay. So far bids have reached more than $1,500, and there are 4 days left.

To see it, search on ebay for "Napoli Cartoon," or here's a link.

I will donate 100% of the winning bid, after I receive it, to two places, half of the amount going to each:

1) Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, which operates the only clinic in the entire state of South Dakota that performs abortions, and
2) Sacred Choices, a women's reproductive health clinic planned by Cecilia Fire Thunder, President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The clinic will be built on tribal land in South Dakota, and thus will not be subject to US laws.

Both organizations have been informed, and copies of their letters of acceptance are posted in the auction.

The auction ends at 3 p.m. EST on Wednesday, April 5.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Long Box



A Sentence That Will Make Sense to About 23 Readers

I finally sent off all the packages I promised to various people last Christmas morning, so if you're one of those people, that's what that box is.

For No Particular Reason, Here's a Weird X-Men Cover



I don't know how much this is common fanboy knowledge the way it was back in my spinner rack days, but there was a point between the excellent Roy Thomas/Neal Adams run and the era-defining Claremont/Cockrum-and-then-Byrne run where the X-Men comic book consisted of nothing but re-runs. As I recall, about half of the time the old cover was used and half of the time a new cover was used, such as during the period represented here where Marvel's covers featured large frames instead of using the entire cover for the image. Doing X-Men covers when the book was in perpetual repeats couldn't have been a glamor gig, which is why I'm surprised to see this Gil Kane effort. It's really odd-looking, too, and and kind of striking.

Ironically, the original was probably much-maligned artist Werner Roth's best cover for the book.

Go, Read: Burn



Go, Read: First Second Preview

CR pal Chris Mautner looks at First Second's initial offerings in two parts.

Go, Look: Ralph Bakshi's Phone Doodles



Initial Thought of the Day

If the last two weeks are any indication, we're not going to hear a whole lot from Scott McCloud when he goes on next year's tour, are we?
 
posted 8:30 pm PST | Permalink
 

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