Fight Censorship, Read Comics Fundraising Campaign Highlights 'The Most Banned Book in American Schools'

Cartoonist Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer is wide regarded arsenic 1 of the champion and astir influential graphic caller memoirs of the 21st Century. It's besides among the astir commonly banned books successful the US, with the Los Angeles Times labeling it “the astir banned publication successful American schools.” Fittingly, Kobabe is teaming with Oni Press for a caller fundraising run dubbed "Fight Censorship, Read Comics."

With the Fight Censorship, Read Comics run present unrecorded connected Oni's site, IGN tin exclusively debut caller images of the exclusive merchandise featured. Get a person look successful the slideshow assemblage below:

A information of the proceeds from Fight Censorship, Read Comics volition beryllium donated to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) and the Florida Freedom to Read Project (FFTRP). The run features 15 antithetic items, including T-shirts, creation prints, enamel pins, keychains, and adjacent signed and numbered editions of the Gender Queer hardcover. Preorders are unfastened from present until August 20, with fulfillment slated to statesman successful September.

“The state to read, the state to entree information, and the state to larn are immoderate of the astir captious rights successful this country,” said Kobabe successful a statement. “Removing books from schools and nationalist libraries cuts disconnected people's entree to cognition astir the wider satellite and astir their ain lives wrong it. This is particularly existent erstwhile the books being removed are astir number identities, oregon topics little commonly portrayed successful fashionable culture. A publication that mightiness look pointless to 1 scholar mightiness beryllium life-saving to another. Removing a publication due to the fact that its themes offend 1 scholar is censorship, and indispensable beryllium combated astatine each turn. Please basal up for the state to work and the state to write!”

"For astir a century, comics arsenic an creation signifier person played a captious relation successful championing the all-American ideals of escaped speech, equality, and anti-authoritarianism," said Oni Press President & Publisher Hunter Gorinson. "Although Maia's enactment is 1 of the archetypal and salient examples of impactful and important enactment to beryllium singled retired by pro-censorship forces, we tin warrant that it volition not beryllium the last. It is the work of originative institutions similar Oni Press and our chap publishers to support the escaped look of cartoonists and our mean arsenic a whole, and we are arrogant to enactment the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and Florida Freedom to Read Project with our ongoing 'Fight Censorship, Read Comics' initiatives."

To assistance observe Pride Month, cheque retired our recommendations for the champion LGBTQ comics to work close now.

Jesse is simply a mild-mannered unit writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intelligence thicket by following @jschedeen connected BlueSky.