Out of the Gutters

Available from Nook & Cranny Books when we last checked. Sold from the shop’s own store; the price there is the one that counts.

Comics have long been a subject of moral panics, no doubt thanks to their in-your-face illustrations and their association with young readers. Indeed, the politicians and parents behind today’s book-banning campaigns reserve special ire for graphic novels. What makes today’s controversies different is the content of the alleged obscenity. Instead of targeting sex as such, censors now focus on affirmations of nonheteronormative identity, as in Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer . And while violence is a