{"id":308099,"date":"2025-11-23T01:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T01:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/308099\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T01:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T01:49:12","slug":"efforts-underway-in-sacramento-to-repeal-decades-old-comic-book-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/308099\/","title":{"rendered":"Efforts underway in Sacramento to repeal decades-old comic book ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 On a recent day at Sacramento native Lecho Lopez\u2019s comic shop in the city, his 5-year-old nephew read his first word aloud: \u201cbad.\u201d It was from a graphic novel.<\/p>\n

There was irony in that being his first word, because Lopez credits comic books<\/a> with many positive things in his life. That is why he supports repealing a city ordinance dating back to 1949 that bars the distribution of many comic books to kids and teens. It is not enforced today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a silly law,\u201d said Lopez, who has a red-and-black tattoo of the Superman<\/a> logo on his forearm, in an interview at his store, JLA Comics. \u201cA lot of good things come out of comic books.\u201d<\/p>\n

A City Council committee unanimously voted this week to advance the repeal and designate the third week of September as \u201cSacramento Comic Book Week.\u201d It now heads to the full council for a vote. The ban prohibits distributing comic books prominently featuring an account of crime that show images of illegal acts such as arson, murder or rape to anyone under 18. <\/p>\n

In the mid-20th century, as comic books were on the rise, fears spread over their impact on children, with some arguing they could lead to illiteracy or inspire violent crime. The industry decided to regulate itself, and local governments \u2014 from Los Angeles County to Lafayette, Louisiana \u2014 passed bans to shield certain comics from young people. While some cities like Sacramento still have those laws on the books, they are rarely if ever enforced.<\/p>\n

Now, proponents of repealing the Sacramento law say it is necessary to reflect the value of comics and help protect against a modern wave of book bans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Local artist pushes for repeal<\/p>\n

Comic book author Eben Burgoon, who started a petition to overturn Sacramento\u2019s ban, said comics \u201chave this really valuable ability to speak truth to power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese antiquated laws kind of set up this jeopardy where bad actors could work hard to make this medium imperiled,\u201d he said at a hearing Tuesday held by the city council\u2019s Law and Legislation Committee.<\/p>\n

Sacramento is a great place to devote a week to celebrating comics, Burgoon said. The city has a \u201cwonderful\u201d comic book community, he said, and hosts CrockerCon, a comics showcase at a local art museum, every year.<\/p>\n

Sam Helmick, president of the American Library Association, said \u201cthere is no good reason\u201d to have a ban such as Sacramento\u2019s on the books, saying it \u201cflies in the face of modern First Amendment norms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The history behind comic book bans<\/p>\n

The movement to censor comics decades ago was not an aberration in U.S. history, said Jeff Trexler, interim director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which fights to protect the free-speech rights of people who read or make comics.<\/p>\n

New York, for example, created a commission in the 1920s dedicated to reviewing films to determine whether they should be licensed for public viewing, based on whether they were \u201cobscene\u201d or \u201csacrilegious\u201d and could \u201ccorrupt morals\u201d or \u201cincite crime,\u201d according to the state archives.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time there\u2019s a new medium or a new way of distributing a medium, there is an outrage and an attempt to suppress it,\u201d Trexler said.<\/p>\n

The California Supreme Court ruled in 1959 that a Los Angeles County policy banning the sale of so-called \u201ccrime\u201d comic books to minors was unconstitutional because it was too broad. Sacramento\u2019s ban probably doesn\u2019t pass muster for the same reason, Trexler said.<\/p>\n

There is not a lot of recent research on whether there is a link between comic books and violent behavior, said Christopher Ferguson, a professor of psychology at Stetson University in Florida. But, he said, similar research into television and video games has not shown a link to \u201cclinically relevant changes in youth aggression or violent behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comic-book lovers tout their benefits<\/p>\n

Leafing through comics like EC Comics\u2019 \u201cEpitaphs from the Abyss\u201d and DC\u2019s and Marvel\u2019s<\/a> collaboration \u201cBatman\/Deadpool,\u201d Lopez showed an Associated Press reporter images of characters smashing the windshield of a car, smacking someone across the face and attacking Batman using bows and arrows \u2014 the kinds of scenes that might be regulated if Sacramento\u2019s ban were enforced.<\/p>\n

But comics with plot lines that include violence can contain positive messages, said Benjamin Morse, a media studies lecturer at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpider-Man is a very mature concept,\u201d said Morse, who became an \u201cX-Men\u201d fan as a kid and later worked at Marvel for 10 years. \u201cIt\u2019s a kid who\u2019s lost his parents, his uncle dies to violence and he vows to basically be responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopez\u2019s mother bought him his first comic book, \u201cUltimate Spider-Man #1,\u201d when he was around 9 years old, he said. But it was \u201cKingdom Come,\u201d a comic featuring DC\u2019s Justice League, that changed his life at a young age, with its \u201chyperrealistic\u201d art that looked like nothing he had ever seen before, he said.<\/p>\n

He said his interest in comic books helped him avoid getting involved with gangs growing up. They also improved his reading skills as someone with dyslexia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing that I was really able to read that helped me absorb the information was comic books because you had a visual aid to help you explain what was going on in the book,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n

And a comic book can offer so much more, Burgoon said at this week\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes imaginative thinkers,\u201d he said. \u201cIt does not make widespread delinquency. It does not make societal harm.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 On a recent day at Sacramento native Lecho Lopez\u2019s comic shop in the city,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[32625,159490,2356,159493,159491,88,793,159492,152186,16592,795],"class_list":{"0":"post-308099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-animation-and-comics","9":"tag-benjamin-morse","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-christopher-ferguson","12":"tag-eben-burgoon","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-jeff-trexler","16":"tag-local-news-for-apple","17":"tag-sacramento","18":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}