Today I want to take a step back from reviews and address an issue that should be a concern to not just every manga and anime fan, but to everyone. The other day, Christopher Handley, a comic book collector from Iowa, pleaded guilty to one count each of possession of obscene visual representation of the sexual abuse of children, and of mailing obscene matter. What’s the big deal? The case revolves around manga that he ordered from Japan. In May 2006, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement searched a package addressed to his home, and, determining that the package contained obscene depictions of minors being sexually abused, issued a search warrant. His home was searched, additional books were seized, as was his computer. Handley was indicted by a grand jury in May 2007.
Fast forward to this week, when Handley agreed to plead guilty to the crime of possessing illustrations of minors in sexual situations. Keep in mind that these are drawings, not photographs. These aren’t real people, in real situations. They are comic book characters in a fictional book. Images like these used to be considered art, but now it has been labeled as obscene and it can land you in jail. This guy is looking at 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. For owning drawings of imaginary people.
This is scary. There has been a precedent set that allows people with a very narrow world view to enter your house, go through your things, and ruin your life because you have illustrations of characters that appear to be under the age of 18. WTF. How can an age be attached to something that isn’t real? I don’t know what manga Handley had in his possession, and I doubt that it would be anything that would be of any interest to me, but the implications here are terrifying. Will that copy of Red River, where Yuri and Kail finally have sex, land you in jail? Will that copy of Living for Tomorrow, which features two teenage in an intimate relationship, get you in hot water? Where does the new definition of obscene begin, but more importantly, where does it end?
Here are some links to Handley case. Please visit a few. Be frightened. Be vocal and demand that sanity be returned to our government. There are far more urgent issues to deal with, like fixing the broken economy and ensuring that everyone who wants a job can have one, than persecuting some guy from Iowa because he collects comic books. A millionaire athlete convicted of torturing animals was only given 23 months of detention, 2 months of which is at his cozy mansion. Donate to the CBLDF. Don’t allow this to happen again, not to you, not to me, not to the comic book collector who lives next door.
Brighter minds than mine have discussed this issue; please use Google to find more links pertaining to the case.
Edit – corrected Michael Vick’s sentence term
May 22, 2009 at 3:31 pm
[...] Network Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter Alexander Case at Dreams of the Red King ICv2 Julie at The Manga Maniac Cafe Kevin Melrose at Robot 6 Jyuichi at Wakeless [...]
June 21, 2009 at 2:29 pm
American censors are pathetic. "Lolicon" representations are everywhere. Not just in a couple of magazines imported by a guy in Iowa or a few images found by a guy in Virginia (Dwight Whorley). There are literally hundreds of blogs and download sites that offer the material on line. There are numerous blogs devoted to translating from Japanese to English. EVERY download service – deposit files, easy-share, badongo, rapidshare, mega-upload, etc. – have lolicon in their inventories. Manga is published in Japan, but the popularity of it, including lolicon, is a world phenomenon. There are sites in the U.K., Spain, Argentina, Portugal and Russia, (although the majority of sites are hosted in the U.S.) Lolicon is as unstoppable as trading music online, if not more so. The case against Handley (and Whorley, whose twenty-year sentence was recently confirmed by the 4th Circuit) for material that can be found in a quick Google search) is more pathetic than all the RIAA lawsuits combined. When the RIAA goes after you, they just take your time and money. When the US government goes after you, they take your freedom and ruin your life.
October 5, 2009 at 5:25 pm
i think that this whole thing is bs… the government should stop using their time to grab as much cash from any thing they can find… they keep puting lolicon lovers and manga collectors in jail… wtf this makes as much sense as putting tommy chong in jail…(he had no weed, and they forced him to a sentence, other wise his son would have gone to jail)…. i dont even get the reason that people would go to jail for images of children that dont even look real istic… its just art… fantasy, most of these storys the children want to do it… i mean, have you ever seen a kid ever want to fuck some one or any thing! nothing in most of those manga’s would happen in real life… they should go after real pedophiles, people who commit REAL crimes, people that deserve it, not the people that collect art… i think that is excessive and obscene punishment, 250000 dollars and 15 years in jail, and alos the court costs too… that sux..i started a petition to stop this misconception taking any more innocent people into jail. http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/nojailforloli