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Errorist Registered: 03/06/02 Posts: 27,587 Loc: To the limit! Last seen: 1 hour, 23 minutes |
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http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/?f=mike_diana_case.notes
THE MIKE DIANA/BOILED ANGEL SAGA >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The Background: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On March 31, 1994, BOILED ANGEL zine publisher Mike Diana was found guilty of publishing a "lewd and obscene" publication. He was placed in jail for three nights while he awaited his sentencing. A Pinellos County, Florida judge sentenced the 24-year-old zinester to three years probation, fined him $3,000, ordered him to take a journalism ethics course and do eight hours a week of community service work. Further, the judge ruled, Diana couldn't draw anything "obscene," even in the privacy of his bedroom. The judge ruled that a probation officer could search Diana's home -- without a warrant -- to make sure he abides by that rule. Diana is believed to be the first cartoonist ever to be jailed for his work. HOW IT BEGAN ```````````` Mike Diana checked his postal box one day last April and saw a letter from the county Clerk of Courts office. He figured it was a notice for his overdue traffic tickets; pay them and forget it, he thought. But what the envelope actually contained was a summons to appear in court to face three state charges: publishing, advertising and distributing lewd and obscene material relating to BOILED ANGEL. "I was surprised," says the droll Diana, who often speaks in quiet understatements. The 24-year-old zine publisher had little time to prepare his defense -- or even find an attorney. He was ordered to appear in court four days later. But he figured the hearing would be a quiet affair in which he could simply explain the matter away. He was wrong. Diana was stunned when he arrived at the courthouse on April 19, 1993, to find mobs of reporters and cameras waiting for him; his case was a media event in the Tampa area. There were plenty of visuals for the news broadcasts to air as picketers confronted Diana, most of them elderly women who held signs that read, "Down with Diana." At that hearing, in which Diana pleaded not guilty, both sides held informal press conferences. The prosecutor told reporters that BOILED ANGEL contributed "to the breakdown of the moral fiber of the country." He said Diana should seek help and stay away from children. Diana responded on camera with a simple, "Bull!" After the court appearance, Diana said he was puzzled by his troubles. "I thought we had freedoms. And my distribution is so small I didn't think they'd mess with me." WHO IS MIKE DIANA? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mike Diana has been fascinated with the bizarre since childhood. In a 1991 OBSCURE interview, he said he drew pictures of decapitated people as early as kindergarten. And when the class was told to sketch a family portrait, Diana -- as an elementary school student -- drew his parents and brothers and sisters without their clothes on. "They didn't like that," he said of the school's reaction to his art. "My parents got called in." His mom and dad were hardly June and Ward Cleaver imitators, though. When Diana was seven, his mother studied nursing and practiced giving enemas to her son. "I was the guinea pig," he says. The family's household resembled a Norman Rockwell painting gone twisted. "One Christmas, when I was eight, my dad went to an auction and bought two huge bags of voodoo dolls that were handmade in Haiti. We had hundreds of them so we hung a bunch of them on the Christmas tree as ornaments." And it only got worse. "When I was about 12, I had a pet hamster that was a male and my sister had a female hamster, so one night our mom called me and my sister into her room and had us each bring our hamsters. She said it was time to teach us about sex. She laid the hamsters on her bed and made me and my sister watch them mate. After the hamsters finished, she told us that that was sex was." While other kids were showing off their new toys in show-and-tell, Diana brought in things like a skull collection and dead fish to amuse his classmates. Although raised Roman Catholic, Diana never bought into church beliefs. He says that in Bible Study, he would deface pictures of Christ and in the confessional, the priest would ask if he sinned by using swear words. "I'd respond, 'Fuck no!'" he says. He began publishing comics at age 16. His zine originally was called ANGEL FUCK. He tamed the title a few issues later, but the content remained heavily blasphemous and violent. He became a legend in the publishing underground. But he ran into his first series of setbacks about three years ago when he was fired from his custodial job after he was caught using school copiers to print BOILED ANGEL. He used the machine on a Sunday and couldn't remove a jammed cover from the rollers. A secretary found it the next day and went to school officials. Diana was out; he found work at his dad's liquor store -- a job he holds to this day. WHY THE STATE OF FLORIDA MESSED WITH DIANA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In 1991, Florida officials were stymied by the murders of Gainesville college students. They had no leads -- until they somehow stumbled on a copy of BOILED ANGEL. They decided to check out Diana. "In December of 1991, these two agents came to my mom's house and I happened to be there. They said they had a copy of BOILED ANGEL #6 -- I had only sent out ten copies at that point -- and they said because of that I was a suspect in the Gainesville murders and they wanted me to take a blood test and get my blood type and they told me not to print anything else or they were going to press charges," recalls Diana. He asked what they could charge him with. "They said obscenity and they said they could arrest me right there for it and they asked me a lot of questions about it but I didn't answer any of them." The cops left and Diana never heard from them again. "I think it was just like the Gainesville hysteria or something," he says. But several months later, Diana got a subscription order to BOILED ANGEL that had a Largo, Florida area return address. He was puzzled because he had never gotten orders from community people before; nobody knew about his zine, as far as he knew. He didn't figure out at the time that it was the local authorities subscribing to BOILED ANGEL. Before they moved in on Diana, they got BOILED ANGEL #7 AND #ATE. The latter issue was Diana's cannibalism issue, which featured an interview with "Cannibal Killer" Ottis O'Toole. He talked about making bar-b-que sauce from little boys and rambled on about other absurdities; anybody in the zine world would laugh at the material, but the state attorney's office took it seriously and issued their summons. Diana, whose circulation never topped 300, soon became famous. DELAYS....DELAYS...DELAYS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While Diana's trial was delayed -- seemingly, again and again -- the debate over his work intensified. The Religious Right continued to badger him at hearings. In a televised exchange, some woman approached Diana. "They said they were trying to save my soul and that they were praying for me. I said, 'Oh, you're praying that I'll win?'" One woman asked Diana if he had been sexually abused as a child, suggesting that was the inspiration for his often sexually-explicit drawings. "I said, 'No, but it's none of your business anyway.' Then I asked her if she had ever been molested by a priest." The St. Petersburg Times solicited so-called experts for their views on the case. Among the responses: > From Jack Moore, chairman of the American Studies Department of the University of South Florida: "My heart is opposed to what the guy's doing; it sounds repugnant. But free speech, if it means anything, is the presentation of often repugnant material. You can't say I'm for free speech except in this one area." > From Prosector Rebecca Graham: "I can't think of any right that an individual has that isn't limited in one way or another by the laws we have all decided to live by. That's what we teach our children." > From Boise State University Professor Tom Trusky: "If a publication can drive someone to acts of violence, parts of the Bible should have been cut out long ago." > From Mike Diana Sr., the zinester's father: "You can't be arrested for the stuff in your head. He's not hurting anyone. They make him a suspect in a murder case 150 miles away because he draws comics? They've treated him like he's a mass murderer." The only blessing from the sage, in Diana's mind, was that he found a girlfriend because of his troubles. His romance even made the local papers. The woman he met had had legal problems of her own at one time. She had produced a local public access cable show called Morbid Underground. Last March, she aired some footage of the late toilet-rocker G.G. Allin doing his act, which was masturbating and defacating on stage. The cable outfit yanked her show and she felt the heat of the State Attorney's Office. After two months, the local authorities ruled that they local obscenity laws didn't cover defacation. She was freed, but the ordeal "totally messed up my life," she said. When she heard of Diana's censorship woes, she extended her support....and one thing led to another. THE END RESULT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is expected to appeal the conviction on behalf of Diana. Meanwhile, cartoonists around the country have expressed dismay, if not outrage, by the verdict. Said Pultizer-Prize winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman: "I think the Florida decision is barbaric. It seems like backwoods, Faulknerian thinking." He added that the court was confused "between the dreams and hallucinations put on paper -- which requires discipline and self-control -- and acting out those inner demons." Even Mort Walker, who draws the harmless Beetle Bailey cartoons, came to Diana's defense. He told the St. Petersburg Times that people are too sensitive about cartoon characters these days. Comic violence should not be judged by the same standard as more realistic depictions of blood and gore, Walker said. "There's a certain license you have when you're a cartoonist to be extreme, because a cartoon is so extreme, so exaggerated. That's why it is a cartoon." ### ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The print version of OBSCURE PUBLICATIONS is $2/issue to POB 1334, Milwaukee, WI 53201. The OBSCURE "Sex Issue" (#26) is now available. Also, the latest INTERNET TIP SHEET features Netster's reactions to Madonna on Letterman's Show; there's also reactions to MTV's Kennedy's voyage into the Mindvox BBS culture; and finally, get the WELL elite's on-line comments to SPY magazine's folding. INTERNET TIP SHEET is available by sending an SASE to Jim Romenesko, POB 1334, Milwaukee, WI 53201. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From jerod23@well.sf.ca.us Sat Apr 16 18:29:05 1994 Received: from well.sf.ca.us(jerod23@well.sf.ca.us [198.93.4.10]/jerod23@well.sf.ca.us) by eff.org (8.6.8.1/8.6.8) with ESMTP id SAA09778 for ; Sat, 16 Apr 1994 18:29:03 -0400 Received: (from [Email]jerod23@localhost)[/Email] by well.sf.ca.us (8.6.8/8.6.6) id PAA10943 for [Email]mech@eff.org;[/Email] Sat, 16 Apr 1994 15:29:01 -0700 Date: Sat, 16 Apr 1994 15:29:01 -0700 From: Jerod Pore Message-Id: <199404162229.PAA10943@well.sf.ca.us> To: mech@eff.org Subject: Mike Diana Status: RO From: milmag@mindvox.phantom.com (James Romenesko) Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 22:40:10 EST Newsgroups: alt.zines Subject: Mike Diana Found Guilty Boiled Angel zine publisher Mike Diana was found guilty on Friday of publishing obscene materials. He was whisked off to jail after the Florida jury came back with its verdict. He was be sentenced on Monday; the district attorney is asking for two years in jail. Diana's zine had a circulation of 300. From: mfragass@nickel.ucs.indiana.edu (Michael Fragassi) Date: Fri, 8 Apr 1994 13:00:56 GMT Newsgroups: alt.censorship,alt.zines Subject: Re: Mike Diana case In <2nqids$hpa@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> cburian@ux4.cso.uiuc.edu (Christopher J Burian) writes: >It seems absurd to me, given the Supreme Court's interpretation of "obscenity" >wrt the First Amendment, that any drawing could be ruled obscene. One has >to ask, "how can a drawing not be art???" To rule something obscene, a court >must find the thing "without artistic merit." No matter how lewd and >offensive a drawing might be, it is nevertheless, "art," and if it is selected >for publication, presumably has *some* amount of artistic merit, else it would >not be published. I've been doing some research into the trial, and here's an extract from an article that appeared in the St. Petersburg Times. In relation to your post, this will make crystal clear the basis for the prosecution's case that Diana's work is "without artistic merit". "And by the end of the first day of testimony in Michael Diana's obscenity trial, a pair of Eckerd College professors agreed that his Boiled Angel comic book displayed neither literary or artistic merit. However, both said parts of the comic book showed skill, and one even called the 24-year-old Diana "a flawed artist." "His drawings are exuberant, wild and kind of interesting in a macabre kind of way," Eckerd art professor James Crane testified. ... Novelist and literature professor Sterling Watson testified he spent hours poring over the stories, poems and interviews that Diana published. Boil down Boiled Angel, he said, and the theme is: "Some people have seen the truth and the truth is ugly." Watson said some of the writing showed literary skill. But to be literature it should also provide readers with an affirmation of life, he said. In Steinbeck's classic novel The Grapes of Wrath, he noted, a woman whose baby is stillborn allowed a starving man to nurse at her breast. The image is shocking, he said, but it offers an affirmation of life -- something lacking in Boiled Angel. ... But Crane said Diana presented his disturbing pictures with no sense of timing: "The emotional impact is like a jackhammer -- bam! bam! bam!" That's not art, he said. Art will build to a climax and then provide the viewer with a needed sense of release." Such passes for literary criticism at "Eckerd College", whatever the hell that is. 2-year junior college? Correspondence school? One of those technical institutes that advertises on late-night tv? And then this guy Watson is a "novelist"; I wonder what kind of "art" he does. Novelizations of Barney episodes? Lord knows they're plenty life affirming, kind of like Valium. And they gently build to a climax, too. The lesson is clear: the prosecution had two alleged experts with initials after their names who were locals; the defense had an artist (Peter Kuper) and a publisher (Seth Friedman) from out of town who nobody had ever heard of before. The quotes from the psychologist expert witness were even better. Thrill to the wisdom of Sidney Merin, "psychologist", also as reported in the St. Petersburg Times: "The controversial comic book, published by 24-year-old Michael Diana, appeals only to "deviant groups," Merin testified in Diana's obscenity trial Thursday. Merin then ticked off a list of those groups: the borderline personality, the "fringe element," the marginal personality, the "bizarrely unstable" and "those who have a libertine bent in their thinking." As for the drawings Diana put in his homemade comic book, Merin told the jury, "In my opinion they are warped and profane."" Gee, I must have missed the entry for "those who have a libertine bent in their thinking" in the DSM-III-R. I also guess I forgot to fill out the mail survey that he sent out across the nation that permitted him to nail the reader demographics so darn accurately. (Both excerpts from the St. Petersburg Times, the former from 3/24/94, "Comic book lacks merit as art, experts testify", by Craig Pittman; the latter from 3/25/94, "Comic book called 'warped and profane'", also by Craig Pittman, p. 3b.) -- __________________________________________________________ Mike Fragassi mfragass@nickel.ucs.indiana.edu Psychology & Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University Dear Mr. Pore: My local newspaper, the Ft. Lauderdale _Sun-Sentinel_, ran a short article today, on page 10 A, about the _Boiled _Angel_ 'zine case you mentioned in your recent mailing. Here it is, reprinted without permission. (Please mail it to the F5-E list, if you feel that appropriate--since I'm commenting on the case, it's probably not copyright infringement.) MAN GETS PROBATION IN OBSCENITY CASE Clearwater -- A man whose comic book portraying sexual abuse, cannibalism and bestiality was deemed obscene by a jury has been sentenced to three years' probation and fined $3,000. Michael Diana, 24, the creator of the self-published comic book _Boiled Angel_, was also sentenced on Monday to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, avoid contact with anyone younger than 18 and perform eight hours of community service a week during his probation. The paper also ran a statement on the same page made at a sentencing hearing. "There is much I'd like to say, your honor, about our world and my beliefs and the destiny of man. However, I feel whatever I might have to say at this moment is overshadowed by the grief I've caused. "I regret with all my heart what my hand has done. I have taken what I cannot return. If only I could bend back the hands on that ageless clock and change the past... ah, but alas, I am not the keeper of time, only a small part of history and the legacy of mankind's fall from grace. "I'm sorry, your honor." Oh, my. I'm sorry. That wasn't Michael Diana, that was Danny Rolling. Ah, this is Florida--murder, obscenity... what's the difference? YHOS, Mitch Mitchell L. Silverman | A government that is big enough to give you all General Studies | you want is big enough to take it all away. New College of USF | - Barry Goldwater Sarasota, Florida | Extremism in the defense of extremism is no vice. silverma@virtu.sar.usf.edu | - J. R. "Bob" Dobbs, Rant Tape 16 (1980) In alt.zines you write: >Fuck. But what could we expect, anyway? >Obviously, a boycott of Florida products and services is in order, but what >else can we do. Well, for starters, I have seen extremely little publicity about Diana's troubles outside of the zine scene. I've been going around telling this story to various people I know, and the general reaction has been "what the hell? I never knew this was going on." Michael Kole's comments about the differences between rap and zines are true, but the number one difference was that the whole 2 Live Crew case was flooded in publicity; Luther Campbell couldn't just be quietly swept away into a jail cell. So even though this case will never be able to generate as much publicity as that one did automatically, it's still true that this is probably the most severe act of censorship that has taken place in the country of late; if you make some noise about it, people will notice. Especially on the net, where you have access to the ears of a highly educated bunch of people who are strongly pro-civil-liberties. What I'm getting at is, how come I only saw information about this case on alt.zines? An initial step you could take would be to take your files of correspondence about the trial, maybe condense it, and include an introductory summary, and post to alt.censorship, alt.comics.alternative, talk.politics.misc, and maybe either rec.arts.comics.misc or rec.arts.comics.info, at the least. Beyond that...here's some thoughts. I don't know how much of this you've already thought of or have already been doing; if so, sorry for repeating the obvious. First, you can encourage zines & glossier rags to do artices on the case, to spread the word and copy what information you've got. I haven't seen an issue of F5 lately, but if you haven't already dedicated some pages to the whole situation, do that. There and elsewhere (the net, correspondence, etc.), encourage people to get any friends with reporting or freelance writing jobs to take up the story, out of the "underground" and into bigger rags and newspapers. Hell, you could possibly even interest some of the glossier music rags in covering the story, if you send them information on the case, and that you're willing to answer any questions they might have. (Great spin on the case: first rap, then Pee-Wee Herman, now this.) I don't know about trying to get someone to cover the story in Spin, Rolling Stone or Raygun -- I'm sure it would at least rankle you deeply, if not violate the whole principle of your dedication to small self-publishers -- but what the fuck, make a stink. As Keepers of the Meta-Zine Zine(tm, pat.pend.), you and Freidman (sp? sorry) are suitable for the ad hoc role of posing as "spokesmen for zinedom", at least temporarily, for trying to get something done to help Mike Diana. Please continue to post developments of the case, esp. whether the ACLU chooses to step in. For what it's worth, I'm a member, and if they don't take up the case, I intend to make as much of stink as I possibly can. That's not much, but outraged phone calls to ACLU executives from members might help to sway things. In fact, if they don't want to touch the case, I'll get some phone numbers and post them. All this, and I still haven't seen any of the comics (only a few panels in some zines). I still don't know all of the details, like what exactly the case was based upon, any specific pages or images, or what the law was, why it's not unconstitutional. I don't have tv either so I couldn't catch the kangaroo court in action. Anyway, I hope this is useful. P.S. Frankly, I think that the notion of a boycott is silly. First, get more publicity for this; then perhaps there might be some popular sympathy with the notion of a boycott. But even then, there's something odd about boycotting a state; hell, if you tell anyone you're boycotting _anything_ people nowadays tend to assume you're a wacko engaged in self-delusion about the effects of your buying power. People are too inured to hearing about yet another new boycott, it makes them blase to whatever you're concerned about. It had some good effect in Colorado, but that was sparked by a popular vote that had major national coverage from the start, with a lot of immediate sympathy towards a boycott. I hate to say it, but if you try to enlist people who aren't familiar with this case to join a boycott, then they might not take this whole issue very seriously. P.S.S. A final thought. Try asking Joe Bob Briggs to write this up in a column. He'd probably be sympathetic, and his column gets some syndication. What the hell. -- Mike. __________________________________________________________ Mike Fragassi mfragass@nickel.ucs.indiana.edu Psychology & Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University From: dr254@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Laurence C. Roberts) Date: 29 Mar 1994 01:37:19 GMT Newsgroups: alt.zines Subject: Mike Diana's sentence Just talked to Seth Friedman of Factsheet Five, who was a witness in the trial. Mike was found guilty on Friday, and the sentencing was today. The judge made Mike stay in jail over the weekend, even though Mike's sentence includes no jail time. (In this case, making him stay in jail without bail was an abuse of the justice system.) The sentence handed down today: - 3 years probation - Mike must stay away from children - Mike is not allowed to draw (!?) - Mike must attend a journalism class (!?) - $3000 fine >From what I've heard, the case was kind of mis-handled. I don't think Mike took it seriously enough. I certainly can believe the reports that he didn't follow up on getting the ACLU to represent him. The lawyer he did have only started working on getting expert witnesses a month ago, when the original araignment was a year ago. And the people doing the benefit zine were sending out redundant mailings, doing the kind of fundraiser that loses more money than it raises. It's sad isn't it. Larry-bob lroberts@bellahs.com From: milmag@mindvox.phantom.com (James Romenesko) Date: Tue, 29 Mar 94 18:24:53 EST Newsgroups: alt.zines Subject: Mike Diana Can't Draw, Says the Judge In addition to the various fines and punishments levied on BOILED ANGEL publisher Mike Diana, there was the court order that Diana couldn't sketch "obscene" drawings "even for his private use." The judge said: "The probation office can make a warrantless search to make sure that's carred out." Welcome to the New America! -------------------- Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ (•_•) <) )~ ANTIFA / \ \(•_•) ( (> SUPER / \ (•_•) <) )> SOLDIERS / \
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Satan Registered: 05/19/05 Posts: 15,571 Loc: Spahn Ranch |
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I'm definitely going to get ahold of a copy.
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Registered: 05/28/05 Posts: 2,764 Loc: Classified |
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We are both the most advanced nation, yet one of the most primitive.
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