The CBLDF Presents: Liberty

This volume gives us five of the “Liberty” comics anthologies that the Comic Book Legal Defense fund has been publishing annually in a nice hardcover package.  There’s a stunning array of talented creators involved with the stories inside this volume and I’m willing to bet that one of yours contributed something here.  I got my copy from their booth at Wondercon for a $30 (cover price) donation.  The CBLDF performs a regrettably essential service in this modern era as they work to protect readers, creators and retailers alike from any kind of legal persecution involving comics.  Buying a book like this from them is the least anyone can do in order to support their cause, and if you’re looking to do more or find out exactly what they do just head over to their website.

That buying this helps fund the CBLDF effectively makes it critic-proof, and any criticism of it is basically superfluous.  However, if you really want to know what I thought of the stories this collection, then just click through the link below.

While there’s no denying the talent on display here, the majority of them seem to have been tripped up by the fact that they’re working on something related to the CBLDF.  That is to say, nearly all of them have done a story that deals with censorship or persecution and how these are bad, bad things.  It’s always good to have reminders of these things, but to have the point driven home over and over throughout this collection really becomes boring after a while.

In fact, things get off on what is just about the worst note possible with a “The Boys” story from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson.  While I believe the quality of the storytelling and characterization allowed the series to rise above its many wretched excesses, it’s those two things that are missing in this short.  What we get is Ennis indulging his disdain for corporate superheroes in the most trite and vulgar way possible:  By having members of the team brutalize certain characters who aren’t named, but are recognizable enough to let you know who the target is.  So if you’ve ever wanted to see Wonder Woman with her face ripped off, or the Hulk’s severed nutsack, then this is the story for you!

For me, it’s everything I didn’t like about the series and an example of Ennis at his self-indulgent worst.  It even has a side order of condescending thrown in with Hughie’s remarks about how us Yanks like his accent and to support the CBLDF because the writer is bound to need their help someday.  There is another “The Boys” story in this collection from Ennis and Rob Steen, which tells the story of how the Legend was fired from being a comic creator and is a better mix of the title’s strengths and weaknesses.  It doesn’t make up for the awfulness of the first story, yet there’s something.

Thankfully the rest of the stories here aren’t nearly as crass and tasteless.  Yet they’re not all that special either.  We get a sharply executed story about a killer book from Darwyn Cooke with a moral as obvious and heavy handed as the tale is light on its feet.  Jason Aaron and Moritat tell us about the first censor with fairly predictable results.  Even the Devil himself gets in on the moralizing with a “Grendel” short featuring Hunter Rose from Matt Wagner.  The feeling you get after a while is that these creators felt obligated to tell a story about the evils of censorship and the necessity of freedom of expression given what they were contributing to.

It’s rare that these stories find a good balance between expressing the greatness of personal freedom and telling a good story.  Sergio Aragones and Mark Evarnier find that in a straightforward fashion by telling us “True Tales of Comic Book Censorship.”  The gleefully tasteless “Loverman” has Paul Pope pulling it off with a tale involving a fat superhero in a skintight suit foiling the scheme of female supervillain Gluteus Maximus.  Turning the whole concept on its ear is the “Criminal” short from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips as an intrepid reporter gets a lesson in integrity from the title’s best recurring character, Tracy Lawless.

Yet, when I think about the kind of stories that would’ve helped promote the CBLDF and their message more than what we got here, my mind keeps coming back to the last story in this collection.  It’s a “The Walking Dead” short from Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard featuring the Governor and the origin of his fish tanks.  Though the story isn’t a crucial part of the series mythos, it’s still fun and of definite interest to fans of the series.  Creators shouldn’t feel obligated to tell a story about the evils of censorship simply because they’re contributing a story to a CBLDF anthology.  Doing a simple one like this involving the series they’re best known for and leaving the audience satisfied is a much better way to engender good will about the organization’s cause.

Chances are it’ll be a few years before we see another one of these collections.  I’ll be sure to pick that one up as well because I believe in what the CBLDF does.  Even so, I’ll do it with the hope that more creators take a cue from Kirkman and Adlard about what to contribute, or find a really clever way to say that censorship is bad one… more… time…