The Question
The goal of the Comic Book Advocate is to make graphic novels of all types available to all of the people who want to read them. After thinking about the issue for several months, I think I’ve discovered the first solution I’m going to implement to achieve this lofty goal
·The main obstacle to achieving to expanded access to graphic novels is the rising tide of censorship in America, especially in schools and libraries (See All Book Bans are Local). The deeper one looks into the issue, the more troubling the problem turns out to be for at least three reasons:
1. According to the ACLU, there are more than 14,000 school boards in the United States. Keeping track of what each one does on a monthly basis with regards to graphic novel censorship would be a full-time job for several people. For one person with a laptop, it’s simply not viable.
2. Censorship goes beyond targeting books. Almost twenty-five percent of school librarians have experienced harassment, the loss of their job, or even prison sentences for trying to provide graphic novels to their communities. A librarian’s job is hard enough. I’m not trying to make it harder by pushing controversial books on them.
3. The logistical cost and potential danger of trying to deliver physical copies of graphic novels to communities where the book is controversial is prohibitive to a person doing this by themselves, part-time, and with no budget.
So what is the solution?
The Answer
The best solution I’ve come up with so far is something that I’m calling the Boosted Book Program. It basically has four parts.
1. Determine that a graphic novel has been banned in a specific school, library, or city.
2. Make digital copies of that book available to anyone living in the zip code(s) impacted by the ban.
3. Produce zip code targeted content for social media announcing the free books
4. Repeat for each new graphic novel
This solution gets banned books to the people who want to read them, doesn’t require librarians or educators to actively endorse the program or put themselves at risk, and relative to print distribution is more affordable and scalable over time.
The Unknown
This solution is only in the concept stage now. There are still a lot of unknown factors.
Do the people who want access to these books have access to the digital technology they need to take advantage of this program? According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, more than 95% of students ages 3-18 have access to digital technology, but that doesn’t mean they can use whatever app they want to know the books are available or actually read them.
What happens if a banned book isn’t available in a digital format? Do we have to convince the publisher to make the book available or license the digital rights for this purpose? If so, how much does that cost? What are the other costs involved, in terms of both time and money? How will censors respond to this circumvention? Has someone already tried this before? Every answer leads to new questions. That’s not a reason to stop, but it doesn’t make sense to ignore the potential issues.
Boosted books can’t help everyone get access to graphic novels. It can’t provide books that aren’t available. It doesn’t even begin to address the issues of shadow banning, self-censorship, or unreported bans. But as I said, this is the first solution to a multifaceted problem. We can’t end censorship with one grand gesture, but this might be a good place to start.
Stay tuned.