XXXMedia Release -- When you sign up for membership in the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, you're standing shoulder to shoulder with comics lovers who want to defeat censorship, so there's no better mascot for the Fund in 2009 than Mark Millar & John Romita Jr.'s Kick-Ass! The CBLDF is proud to unveil its 2009 CBLDF Member Card featuring Kick-Ass. Become a member of the Fund, and we'll send you this gorgeous new member card, so you can show everyone that you're part of the good fight!

Why You Should Join The Fund

What if, suddenly, as a result of a routine weekly shipment of new comic books, the police appeared at door with a warrant to seize all the comics in your store's inventory? What if, in the span of a single morning, your personal collection was seized and you faced a bewildering list of criminal charges because of some of the comics that are packed away in one of your long boxes? What if, in a single day, your entire life was turned upside down?

It's not a hoax, not a dream, nor an imaginary story. This is what happened to manga collector Christopher Handley, on whose behalf the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund currently works as a special consultant. Right now the Fund needs your support to aid Handley's case, and to fight against the precedent it could set, one that could prove crippling to the business of comics.

For more than 20 years the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has been defending comics at the front lines of the law. The CBLDF is the comics industry's partner in defending the First Amendment rights that creators, publishers, retailers and readers depend upon to keep comics' thriving. Since 1986, we have provided a strong line of first defense against prosecutors attacking our medium. Like the heroes of the comics we love, the Fund is there to protect comics whenever they are threatened.

Last year the CBLDF registered a victory in the long-running struggle of Georgia v. Gordon Lee. For three and a half years, Gordon, the owner of Legends in Rome, Georgia, was locked in a legal struggle with a prosecutor's office that doggedly persecuted him and denied him his day in court. After years of litigation, and over $100,000 of resources were expended to prove Lee's innocence, all charges were dropped last April. Were it not for the CBLDF, Gordon's court costs would almost certainly have driven him out of business, or he would have been forced to plead guilty to crimes he did not commit.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is able to perform this work because of the monetary support of its members. Now is the time to support our important work by joining the cause.

Sign up at http://www.cbldf.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1