Derf Backderf

I've never seen one in the wild.

Current bid on heritage: $575!!

We boys would never buy a romance comic and these things are going for crazy prices now. The girls who bought them didn't obsessively collect & save them (to their credit) so not many copies exist, especially in high grade. Joke is on us.

Some of them are bonkers.

Yes, as I detail in the thread.

Oh geez.

Right? Insane. Virulently anti-gay zealots.

In the 1990s, I'd see Diana's comics regularly in comics shops. As an act of defiance, I imagine. Can't remember the last time I did. Times have changed. You don't want Moms For Liberty or some billionaire-backed rightwing commandos coming after you.

The CBLDF appealed the case all th way to SCOTUS, which refused to hear it.

Eventually Diana slipped out of FL and escaped to NYC. FL tried to get him extradited, but New York authorities refused, because it was ridiculous.

It wasn't until 2020, 26 years later, that Florida dropped the matter.

"Diana was to submit to unannounced searches of his personal papers by police and probation officers from the Salvation Army."

He was forbidden to draw any more comics! If any were found they would be seized and he'd be dragged into court for more punishment!

Diana got 3 years of supervised probation. Diana would have to pay fines, do community service, pay for a psychologist, & avoid all contact with minors.

For making comics.

Which he wouldn't be allowed to do anymore. Here's the really outrageous part.

"Judge Walter Fullerton ordered Diana held in jail until sentencing. What made it peculiar was that he ordered him held without bail–the norm for murderers and cocaine kingpins.
Diana was only convicted of misdemeanors."

The prosecutor leaned into Culture War shit, which was just a-borning then. Baggish told the jurors that Flordia didn’t have to accept “what is acceptable in the bathhouses of San Francisco and . . . the crack alleys of New York.”

Diana was convicted by a jury, and the judge lowered the boom.

If you're unfamiliar with Diana's comics-- and he's almost completely vanished from comicdom-- they were brutal. Comics with mutilated penises and breasts, depicting rape, excrement, blood, torture, sperm. Nasty stuff, highly stylized, a lot of it featuring children.

Dude was messed up.

BUT... a FL state prosecutor Stuart Baggish, sensing a sensational case that would generate headlines and boost his career, filed obscenity charges.

Comic Threat Michael Diana is not the boy next door, and his comics are brutal. But does the court have the right to throw him in jail and seize his drawings?

Diana was charged and convicted of obscenity, for making comics.

In 1992, a cop in Calif read one of his books. It reminded him of the then-unsolved Gainesville student murders. He forwarded it to Florida, where state cops interrogated Diana & took his DNA.

For comics!!!!

Diana was cleared

Playing Dirty: The State of Florida Versus Mike Diana, a new drama about a notorious comic book obscenity case - The Comics Journal About midway through The State of Florida Versus Mike Diana, the new play by Lenny Schwartz that ran recently at the Daydream Theatre Company in Providence, Rhode Island, a group of the title characte...

Interesting!

Here's a guy I haven't thought about in some time. Fascinating story. There was a documentary a few years ago, which I've been meaning to track down.

For those too young to remember 1991, Diana is one of the worst cases of comics persecution in US history.

Bezos isn't destroying the Washington Post because it isn't profitable. He's destroying the Washington Post because he's calculated that a robust free press threatens the ability of his class to warp society around their interests

Man breaks into Little Caesars, starts making and selling pizzas, NC police say The suspect kept all the money he made selling pizzas, police say

Hero.

Washington Post begins sweeping layoffs as it cuts costs Sports coverage and the paper's podcast are among those hit the hardest as the storied newspaper struggles with declining revenue.

Here, I fixed the subhed:

"...as the storied newspaper struggles with declining revenue, caused by Jeff Bezos' pathetic bootlicking."

One of the reporters already axed is Caroline O'Donovan, the beat reporter who covers Amazon. Gee. Wonder why?

> @governor.ny.gov

‘A god-tier new classic’: first reactions to Wuthering Heights praise ‘hot, horny’ Emerald Fennell adaptation The acclaimed latest version of the Emily Brontë bestseller is, however, not without controversies over race and age

Triggering PTSD in every man who was forced to read this book in 8th grade English class. My hands are shaking as I type this.

What’s your favorite song that has a long title, say at least 6 words long?

"I'm So Bored with the USA" – the Clash.

(more relevant than ever, not that the UK is much better right now).

DHS Hunts Down 67-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Who Criticized Them in Email The Department of Homeland Security is using a little-known tool to go after its critics.

Floored by this story. A man wrote a pollite email to a federal prosecutor objecting to the deportation of an Afghan seeking asylum. DHS responded with an administrative warrant to get the man's info from Google, then visited his home to intimidate him.

New fuck/marry/kill list just dropped

A lot of fantastic journalists in that building aare losing their jobs today.

Bezos can rot in hell.

Do NOT buy anything from Amazon. It's easier than you'd think.

Haha. Sure you will. One word:

Discovery.

Go ahead, Piggy. Have "some fun."

Right-wing media figures are furious at activists for using whistles during ICE activity Right-wing media figures are lashing out at community members in Minnesota for using whistles to alert others of federal immigration enforcement in the area, asserting that whistles should be “conside...

These guys two months ago: ha ha I hope there's a civil war we'll make those LIBERAL BITCHES cry for mercy

These guys now: waaaaaa they're using whistles it's not FAIR waaaaa

(You can get free community safety whistles, quantity 100 to 1000, from here:

linktr.ee/3Dwhistles

)

The textures!

There's a second series, too, Smiley's People. It's not as good as Tinker Tailor, but still well worth a watch.

Missing The Night Manager already? You have to watch this BBC le Carré adaptation The 1979 series of ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ is on iPlayer at the moment and not to be missed, says Patrick Smith – it’s the purest expression of the author’s vision ever made

Can confirm. The 1979 BBC adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a masterpiece. If you're a fan of Cold War spy stuff like me, it's the gold standard.

The moment I saw this guy's photo here, I had an immediate flashback. In his mind no doubt he's a genius, and everyone else, especially students, are morons.