Well, say you did try, but it just came out anyway. ;)

I speak here as a victim of the disaster.

If the so-called "good cause" wants you to self-censor, they are NOT a "good cause.

I loathe fucking assholes who pretend they are holier than everyone else, dispense damn little in the way of real relief, and try to dictate their fuckin sick morality on everyone else.

If I were you, I'd make an extra-raunchy comic. If they turn it down, advertize far-&-wide that that particular charity refused it. I Am sure some other charity will ask you to please let them use it.

Evil censoring "charities" need to be put the fuck out of business.

What kept me alive during this mess was my adamantine ethics. I never compromize my ethics & I ALWAYS encourage others to be true to their ethics as well.

Do you know what happened with this community you found yourself in?

It dispersed. I never got anyone's names or contacts. o idea where any of them are.

Sorry to be the boringly balanced voice of reason, but they really don't seem like evil people; they just expect to get a lot of different folks visiting the site, some of whom may be young, others of whom may be less inclined to give money to a fundraiser if they see a bunch of nipples flying around. That, I'm afraid, is the way folks work.

Personally, I'm donating original art to the telethon rather than drawing a strip for the site. You could do something like that. Or you could do the sensible thing, which is to tell the nice people up front about the content of your comics and work out a solution with them. For the love of Mike, it's a couple of guys with a website; it's not the Man trying to keep you down.

Actually, I'd be more inclined to give money to a fundraiser if I see a bunch of nipples flying around. :-P

People who REQUEST art from someone whose AT includes adult themes, then asks him to CENSOR, are, indeed ABSOLUTELY EVIL.

I say fuck their prissy ass morality.

I didn't get the memo (why not, I wonder), but I'd decided to restrain myself voluntarily anyway. For the telethon, I'm already doing work I wasn't otherwise going to do, in a manner that I had told myself I'd avoid: locking myself in a studio, churning out comics on a tight deadline on top of my other work. It's a small sacrifice to make.
Also note the word "try" in the quoted bit. Doesn't say what happens if you fail ;)

I have just one slightly rhetorical question...


If they know what your art is about, and what it contains, and knew their own policies about what could and couldn't be displayed; then why, pray tell, did they ask you for your art?


I think it was ridiculous to expect you to deviate from the way you express yourself. That would be like asking a cubist painter to replicate a Thomas Kinkade because their audience may be offended by modern art.

Yeah, I have to agree.

In my opinion, sometimes you just kind of have to ...for lack of a better term...well, suck it up.

If this wasen't something that was available to the public, young and old, for a good cause, i'd say fuck that. Plus..it's not like they said NO FOUL NO VIOLENCE SO EFFING BUDDY OR THAT COMIC IS GARBAGE BOUND!!! They were rather nice about it.

Ultimatly, sometimes your own agenda, no matter how important, just isn't the most important thing.

It's fuckin painful tho...self censorship(especially artistically)...under any circumstances..

I disAgree absolutely. Censorship, whether imposed by others or self-censorship is absolute evil. There is NO cause holy enough to justify censorship.

hey i'm right there with you in spirit. I understand your point completley. Honestly it's probably best to just put out a comic and see what kind of feedback he gets back.

I just think sometimes you gotta pick your battles. Trust me i'm saying this as a stinking little liberal pinko daughter of a registered communist unitarian:)

It's a tough one, but trust me i'm more on your side than not. I was just being honest about how i felt.

My thought is, produce what you think is appropriate, and send it along to them. If they think they can't use it, offer them some original art and put what you did up on Fetus-X, along with the background of why it's there instead of on the charity site. Don't make either about the the charity's guidelines. Make it about the fact that you can't write about this thing without screaming your head off.

Don't make either about the the charity's guidelines. Make it about the fact that you can't write about this thing without screaming your head off.

Nice touch, that. Well said.

This sounds right, to me. Buying into the prettification of this *shit* is only going to feed the spin machine. Don't let the spin machine eat us all!!

Well, you can still run the ones that are complete on Serializer. Why not do a new one? I'm sure you didn't exhaust everything you wanted to say in the strips you've completed. Or, if you did, you could just produce a new version, radio clean, so to speak, but do what Tina Fey does...

Tina Fey was talking about the FCC and censorship of certain words, and how it could be fun thinking up new and ridiculous terms for whatever the objectionable word is. So maybe look at it as a challenge to your creativity, how to curse and swear and fume without using the actual objectionable words?

Part of being an artist is juggling your voice and your audience's expectations. I'm sure being true to your art is a good thing. Selling one's art is ALSO a good thing. There is a happy medium, mostly because you aren't doing this for you, right? You're doing it for others. Because of that, it's not unreasonable at all for there to be guidelines when art is intended for a specific audience.

It'd be like me being asked to sing for a benefit for an athiestic society, and showing up with a program of spirituals and religious art songs. It's not that I'm having to censor myself, it's that I'm presenting a program appropriate for my venue.

That ain't censorship. It's common fucking sense. ;)

Oh man, I'm gonna have to double check what I'm sending. God people are so uptight.

Sweetie, send them what you were going to send. Hope that they understand/appreciate the context in which you are using certain words/allusions. If not, then yes; I agree with Alobar...Fuck 'em. You will have many opportunities to contribute to the relief effort over the coming months, there is no doubt. Self expression, and freedom to cater to one's inner (& outer!) FREAK, is one of the things that NOLA is all about! We are an entire community of people who wouldn't dream of whitewashing ourselves, for anybody. That's what drew us all to NOLA, and what we will be fighting so hard to build back. Don't compromise yourself for us, hon; we love you just the way you are... but Thank You for letting us know that you WOULD.

1. Know your audience

2. Find out what's important about your Message and craft it accordingly

3. Know your audience

4. It's always easier to say sorry after something has already been done -:)

Send them the comic with a note saying, in polite language, that they requested one of your comics and did not make any specifications with the initial request, so you made one and it is your donation.

If they turn it down, as Alobar said, advertise. Make noise. See what charity you can drum up with it on your own. Encourage people to do charity through an auction of the piece, then point them to other organizations.

Only thing that's more evil than censorship is self-censorship.

I found out that White Lightning Productions (A Houston Based comic publisher) is hosting An Adult Webcomics Telethon so you might want to look at getting listed with them...

For vast and inclusive values of Houston (and small and pathetic values of comic publisher), yes, Houston-based comic publisher. }:-{D

And yes, I'd post it. I'd also hope you link back to the Telethon- both of 'em, really- so we can get as many people as possible donating and bidding on eBay charity auctions.

Have to agree with alobar, here. Why should something horrific be candy-coated? Sadly, some folks within the medium are still propping up the old Comics Code attitude. I'd suggest finding a less censorial place to get your voice heard, and circumvent the Puritans altogether.