Canada’s Xtra reports that a shipment of erotic comics bound for a gay store in Montreal was seized earlier this year by the Canada Border Services Agency because the books were deemed obscene.
The article doesn’t provide a specific date for the seizure.
According to Xtra, the books are French translations from H&O Comics in France, and include Arena and Gunji, by Gengoroh Tagame, and the first two volumes of Justin, by Josman.
“They were determined to be obscene,” CBSA spokesperson Chris Williams told Xtra. “The indicators ranged from depictions of incest to sex with pain and sexual mutilation, defecation and vomiting.”
A spokesman for the publisher told the newspaper that the company was too small to devote resources to appeal the agency’s decision. Bernard Rousseau, owner of the store, said the books’ content played a part in his decision not to oppose the seizure: “We didn’t protest because it was mostly about younger boys and incest. We have protested before, but we decided that after looking into the matter it is too much.”
June 7th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Slow newsday, huh?
June 7th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Not especially. Why do you ask?
June 7th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Mark–It’s news because this is a comic book news and discussion blog, and Canadian customs has a history of targeting comics and gay bookstores for these kinds of seizures.
In the future, if a story so bores or offends you, might I suggest simply ignoring it, rather than leave a passive-aggressive comment?
June 7th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
“Not especially. Why do you ask?”
Seemed like a needlessly graphic article to post. The headline mentions “Erotic” comics, but the description of the materials in the article as “depictions of incest to sex with pain and sexual mutilation, defecation and vomiting”? Not so erotic….not to mention pretty far afield from relevant comics news.
Dorian- I would HOPE they would target comics and gay bookstores for this kind of stuff. Who’s gonna defend this kind of evil drek? The CBLDF?
June 7th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Mark, you may not like, or approve of, the content of the graphic novels mentioned, but that certainly doesn’t make the news irrelevant. They are, after all, still comics.
And one person’s “erotic” comic is another person’s “evil drek.”
June 7th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
“And one person’s “erotic” comic is another person’s “evil drek.”
Depictions of incest to sex with pain and sexual mutilation, defecation and vomiting?
Oooooo….YEAH! (cue Barry White music)
June 7th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Thank you for posting this, Kevin. Banning something “obscene” like Tagame is one step away from banning something like THE BOYS.
June 7th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
To Mark Engblom
What’s ironic is that the comic is deemed obscene by the CBSA. Canada is a country so pro-gay you can be fined for simply saying “Homosexuality is a sin.”
Perhaps there is hope for the country after all.
June 8th, 2007 at 12:11 am
I think it’s clear by the article that the authorities weren’t confiscating the books because there was homosexuality in it…it was the “depictions of incest to sex with pain and sexual mutilation, defecation and vomiting”.
I would hope gay and straight people alike could agree that that kind of material is hardly worth protecting.
Do we draw the line anywhere?
I guess not.
June 8th, 2007 at 7:59 am
I think all speech is worth protecting unless it impinges upon the rights of others.
June 8th, 2007 at 8:42 am
The whole point of free speech is it doesn’t matter if people agree with it or not.
June 8th, 2007 at 10:59 am
I think all speech is worth protecting unless it impinges upon the rights of others.
Apparently, however, some speech has more (or less) value than other speech (q.v., the store owner’s last quote above and Nymphet.
June 8th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Gunji and Nyphet… danm we really messed up the Japanese with those two atomic bombs.
June 8th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Mr. Oliphant said:
“Gunji and Nyphet… danm we really messed up the Japanese with those two atomic bombs.”
The American comic industry is actually worse since the sleaze isn’t confined to clearly defined adult titles. Examples range from “Britney stripper” Supergirl to the hentai Heroes for Hire (a.k.a., Victims for Hire). The former example is more shocking because Superman’s cousin is viewed as an all ages superheroine. It’s like seeing a porn scene in a Disney film.
Give Japanese publishers and creators credit for giving you some warning when you’re going to see something obscene.
June 9th, 2007 at 12:22 am
‘The American comic industry is actually worse’
Heroes for hire and Supergirl are more examples of bad marketing than shocking content.
Supergirl looks like Sailor moon rip off right now. The threatening tenticles come from the odd trapping of japanese Sexual morales. Japan’s view of sexual content is skewed in the same ways the Ancient Romans was on corpral punishment. It’s all just bread and circuses.
June 15th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
You can’t have freedom of the press (which is actually the issue, not freedom of speech) unless you protect what you also find to be upsetting, uncomfortable, objectionable, and potentially obscene. I object to any government telling its citizens what they can or can’t read, no matter the content. But society today prefers the government to be a parent, so individuals don’t have to think for themselves and make their own choices.
In the US, we are just two steps away from internet censorship thanks to the new puritans in charge of some branches of the federal government. If you don’t want to see nudity on the web, don’t look for it.
In Canada, the border authority has routinely seized books destined for GLBT bookstores. Depictions of sex with violence? That could be spanking. Or piercing a nipple. Or just a riding crop in the background. Without judging the material on your own, which the Canadian Government won’t let you do, how do you know they are telling the truth about the material? Governments never lie, right? And worse for these stores, the cost to fight the Board is atronomical. So the censors win. Almost all the time.
The best censorship is NO CENSORSHIP.