Comics and legal troubles

ztoical

I wasn't sure what to call this thread as its really just going to be a rant cus I'm feeling a little bit helpless right now. A good cartoonist friend of mine Lee who I was looking forward to catching up with at an up coming london comic con, has just emailed to say he won't make the con. The reason? He's been suspened from his Job as a teacher and faces the sack all because of his comics.

He used the scanner at his job to scan his work when he was getting it ready for print and they claim he used it to scan 'sexually explicit' images. It sucks and reminded me of why organisations like the comic book legal defense fund were set up.

So just a reminder to all you guys out there who are working those jobs just for the paycheck so you can go home and do comics, be careful when abusing company resources. His legal hearing is in March so send positive comics vibes his way if you can.

Unpossible

What exactly did he draw? Was it sexually explicit?

qwertplaywert

well im assuming he wasnt copying an issue of the simpsons comic

ztoical

Unpossible wrote:

What exactly did he draw? Was it sexually explicit?

he does a comic called One for sorrow - the story does deal with adult issues but its more in the writing then the art and even then its hardly sexually explicit [IMO] Like most cases like this its something that has been taken out of context. The case of Mike Diana mirrors Lee's in that he also worked in a school [not as teacher thou] and used the school copier to make his zines but his work was very sexually explicit.

Fine Lee should not have used school equipment for personnal work but he should be disciplined for that. Getting fired for allegedly producing "sexually explicit" work is something that sticks and will give him major grief.

Unpossible

Is it a primary school?

ztoical

Unpossible wrote:

Is it a primary school?

no secondary school

Unpossible

Thats good, the school can't claim the students are completely innocent then

qwertplaywert

lmao

has your friend started legal procenings?

ztoical

qwertplaywert wrote:

lmao

has your friend started legal procenings?

He's spoken with his union and myself and several other cartoonists got him in thouch with the lads from the CBLDF for advice as like i mentioned above these are the kind of cases they deal with regularly.