
First stop was the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s panel “The History of Comics Censorship,” where CBLDF executive director Charles Brownstein covered a brief history of what used to be art’s red-headed step-child, comic-books. The sequential art medium has a long and sordid history of artists, retailers and readers being persecuted for practicing their 1st amendment rights. But in the mid-eighties, industry leaders decided it was time to start fighting back and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund was born.
Director Brownstein explained that during World War II, 25% of all printed materials being shipped to the troops fighting in the war were comic books. So the government initially had no problems with the medium and its stories. But after the troops came home from the war, moral crusaders like Fredric Wertham felt like comic books were the root of all evil and that they were morally corrupting children with their stories of horror and men running around in skin tight costumes.

Comics were even burned in the 50s and who knows what the collective value of those books that went up in flames would be today. Mr. Brownstein also covered the alternative works of R. Crumb and ZAP comics, and how MAD founder William Gaines caused severe damage to the industry by treating his Senate hearing in a flippant manner.
Censorship is still happening even today, as comics have become “the heart of popular and creative culture.” The CBLDF is busier than ever, especially in defense of some of the edgier Manga materials and other comics that are most certainly not created for children. The CBLDF’s censorship presentation was a very insightful, informative and an entertaining history of comic books.
Next stop was a casual stroll (if you call ricocheting off of hundreds of people casual) down artist alley on the exhibit show floor. Here industry professional artists are mixed with well known independent artists and up & coming hopefuls making their first appearance on the world’s biggest geek stage.

I thought artist Tommy Castillo had the coolest overall collection of original art and art prints on Friday, and he has an amazing new collection of dark Oz images that blew me away. The rehashing of the Oz universe is starting to get a little old, but I was really impressed with Tommy’s work and I’m looking forward to his upcoming comic with these characters. You’ll find Tommy’s incredible spread at booth #4823.
The art book that caught my attention is Frank Reade: Adventures in the Age of Invention, the new collection of revised history stories by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett, the same creative team who did Boilerplate (currently in development as a film by J.J. Abrams.) Once again Guinan and Bennett have taken old stale history and images and turned them into something new and entertaining. You’ll find Paul & Anina in section CC01 of artist alley.

Along my travels on Friday I came across hundreds of amazing attractions and you can see the photographic proof of my journey in the slideshow below. Saturday is going to be a Hall-H day, all-day, for a sneak peek of The Hobbit, Iron Man 3 and the upcoming Man of Steel film. Be sure to follow the Nerdvana Comic-Con coverage on Twitter (when it isn’t jammed-up from thousands of con tweets) and see all of our Con blog posts HERE.
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