Imagine walking into your favorite comic shop one day. You're looking for the newest Sin City book by Frank Miller. You walk up to the counter, suprised not to see it on the shelf. As you ask the clerk for a copy, he nervously looks around. "Uhm... we don't carry books like that anymore." He says. After increduously asking him what he means, he explains, "It's just too risky to carry comic books that somebody might find offensive. I don't wanna go to jail. I've got kids to feed."

You walk out of the store mystified. How silly could anyone be? No one is going to jail for carrying comic books! This is America. Freedom of speech and all that. Sin City is one of the best written, most intriguing books on the market. Obviously whoever runs that comic book store must be a complete idiot. Imagine! Going to jail over selling comic books! Then you get home and open the newspaper to the metropolitan section, the one with all the crime news and there you see it: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upholds the conviction of Jesus Castillo on "display of obscenity" for selling comic books.

What happened was this: An undercover police officer went into a Dallas area comic book store and asked to see a Japanese manga called "Demon Beast Invasion #2". He purchased the book and then arrested Castillo on charges of "display of obscenity". Castillo was tried and sentenced to 180 days in jail, a years probation and a $4000.00 fine. In the case of this comic store, any adult material was handled carefully. There were three display sections, one for general readership, an "18 and up" section at the back of the store and a box under the counter with adult material. You had to present proof of age to look at the adult comics in that box.

When the case went to trial, the defense flew in noted comic expert Scott McCloud to testify on the merits of comic book literature. They also brought in an expert on Japanese culture to testify on the social value of the material, neither of these testimonies were disputed. They were, however, apparently dismissed by the jury. In his closing arguments, the prosecutor made this statement: "And, again, why are we here? ... This medium, the medium that this obscenity is placed in is done so in an appealing manner to children. Comic books, and I don't care what type of evidence or what type of testimony is out there, use your rationality, use your common sense. Comic books, traditionally what we think of, are for kids. This is in a store directly across from an elementary school and it is put in a medium, in a forum, to directly appeal to kids. That is why we are here, ladies and gentlemen. I want to reemphasize that the fact that all this smut is out there, does not mean it's acceptable and is decent by our community. We're here to get this off the shelf."

Comic books have faced a stigma of being exclusively childrens fare for decades. Ironically, just as the medium is finally, slowly pulling itself out that stigma, it now faces charges for content that is no worse than is commonly accepted at the local video store. The difficulty obscenity laws present is that there is no rigid definition of what makes a book obscene. The Supreme Court ruled that the matter should be decided on a local level. A person who runs a comic book store, or any other kind of book or video store, has to make a judgment on whether the community in which he or she lives might find a particular book obscene. But if the Supreme Court cannot define it, and the local government cannot define it, how is a retailer supposed to make an informed decision? Nobody can agree on a definition of obscenity. Like art, it seems to be interpreted on an individual basis. But make no mistake, once a book is ruled to be obscene, you are not told to remove it from your shelf and no longer carry it, you are cuffed and sent to jail. It's a pretty stiff penalty for making the wrong call about a book.

We're not talking about keeping this material away from children. In the case of this comic shop, and most others which have suffered arrest or convictions, the material was clearly labeled as being for adults and accessible only to adults. No, the issue in all of these cases was not whether the material was appropriate for children, even though prosecutors love to appeal to our sense of guardianship and claim that they're only trying to protect children. The issue was whether the material was appropriate for anybody. In the eyes of the law there is no such thing as "obscene to minors". In the eyes of the law a book either is or is not obscene. In the case of this comic shop in Dallas, the jury did not rule that children should not have access to it, they ruled that no one should have access to it. A prosecutor argued that because comic books are for kids. And by extension, no one, no matter their age, should have access to comic books with adult material. Would you like to make that choice for yourself? In Dallas, you won't get that chance.

Is this a single, bizarre isolated case? No, sadly it is not. While perhaps not occurring regularly, it still occurs. In election years, Obscenity cases go up several hundred per cent, as local prosecutors look for easy ways to show their constituents that they are making their communities safe. Innocent or guilty, it's very expensive to fight charges like these, and most comic shops have nowhere near the capital that a successful legal defense would cost. In 1990 the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund was established to aid in these cases. In the years since, it has attempted to defend a number of comic professionals charged with variations of "selling obscene material". Sometimes it has been successful, sometimes it has not.

Now, you might be thinking that this has little to do with you. You might not care for "adult" comics. You might not even like the work of Frank Miller. But the important part, the scary part, is that somebody else is deciding for you what kind of material is appropriate for you to read. Reread that last line and let it sink in. I run a shop that I like to think is friendly for kids and families. As a parent and a community member, I make choices and decisions every day about what kind of material I will sell in my shop. I know my community and frankly, there's a number of books out there that I have no interest in supporting. I place a value on being able to make those decisions myself. I would not want anyone to come into my shop and tell me that I have to carry "Demon Beast Invasion." But while I value my ability to make those decisions, I would not want them made for me nor would I want to make them for anyone else. Ultimately that is what it comes down to: The ability to make decisions and choices for yourself. You may find some of this material to be offensive or repugnant. As a free citizen you should put the book down and refuse to support it, as is your right. But let's hope that you do not decide to enact a law so that no one else will be able to pick up that book and make the same decision for themselves.