Gaiman on Speech

I've been to San Diego Comic-Con, and there's a lot about it I don't understand. The Naruto obsession, for instance. And the fact that thousands of people would line up for anything having to do with the weekly crapfest that is and always has been NBC's Heroes. But I do get the throbbing love so many Comic-Con geeks feel for comics writer and novelist Neil Gaiman. He's a walking god in the San Diego Convention Center and for good reason. He's charming, funny, talented, and he can rock a leather coat better than Christopher Eccleston. And he's also a rather eloquent defender of free speech. A manga collector named Chris Handley has been charged with criminal obscenity for owning copies of Japanese comics that depict underage sex, and that has inspired Gaiman to write about the necessity of a free society to defend free speech even when it's icky, horrible, or disturbing. It's a good read, and it even contains the best apology for insane genius Alan Moore's pornographic fairy tale epic Lost Girls that I've ever read. Find it here.