Kevin Bostic
A brief row over claims of censorship saw resolution on Wednesday, with comic app Comixology taking the blame for preemptively censoring a comic featuring gay sex, clearing Apple of any such accusations in the process.
[Update] Following the uproar over the supposed banning of Saga #12, comic publishing app Comixology has stepped forward to take the blame. In a letter published by Kotaku, Comixology stated that it had preemptively held back publication of Saga #12 in anticipation that the issue's graphic content would be in violation of Apple's App Store rules.
"Given this, it should be clear that Apple did not reject Saga #12," Comixology's letter states. The issue will be available for purchase in the app in the near future.
Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' Saga released its twelfth issue this week, and contained within it are what Vaughan describes as "two postage stamp-sized images of gay sex." The postage stamp-sized images were enough to get the comic banned, though, as Vaughan noted (via Newsarama) in a letter to readers on Staples' Tumblr page.
When the issue did not show up in popular comic publishing app Comixology, observers jumped to the conclusion that Apple had censored it over its depiction of sex.
Marketed from its first issue as a title for "mature readers," Saga has never shied away from graphic depictions of sex and violence. The images in question depict a sex act between two men. Apple's App Store regulations prohibit any such depiction, and the company has barred all apps from selling the comic. Saga has in the past, though, shown rather graphic depictions of heterosexual sex acts.
Image PR director Jennifer de Guzman told The Beat that the sex in previous issues didn't show genitalia, and thus wasn't unacceptable by Apple's standards. Comics writer Matt Fraction, though, took to Twitter [Warning: links to illustrated sexual content] to note that Apple was apparently okay with the heterosexual acts depicted in issue number four of Saga.
"Heteronormative penetration in SAGA #4," reads Fraction's post, implying that Apple's issue is not with the depiction of sex, but with the genders of the illustrated persons involved.
Image representatives have suggested that readers pick up the issue directly from Image's site or from their local comic store.
This is not the first time that Apple has come under fire for alleged censorship of material involving same-sex couples. In 2010, Apple reportedly censored a gay kiss in Tom Bouden's graphic novel adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest. While the app contained no full nudity, it was initially rejected, only to be approved when resubmitted with the gay kiss covered by black blocks.
Outside the confines of the App Store, Apple appears to have no problem with same-sex relationships, having donated $100,000 to fight California's anti-same-sex marriage Proposition 8 in 2008. In February of this year, Apple joined along with other large corporations expressing support for same-sex marriage as the issue moves before the United States Supreme Court.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Oliver Haslam
William Gallagher
146 Comments
Um . . . what?
Everyone knows Apple's stance on sexually-explicit material.
This falls under that policy, whether it's "gay sex" or not.
I don't get what the fuss is about.
The odd thing is that Apple would allow such content in a film or TV show on the iTunes store.
There's far, far more sexually explicit material on iTunes than this comic.
Everybody knows that Apple is extremely conservative when it comes to sexually related kinds of things.
It's not like the CEO of Apple is a homophobe or anything like that, so these gay whiners, whining about their gay comic getting censored should just STFU.
It's also possible that they were not aware of the sex in previous issues. Who knows how they found about about the 'gay sex' in that issue. Until we have all the facts it's hard to say anything but they don't go through every item in all their stores, app internal stores etc. so it's not far fetched to wonder what they knew about the series before now. And it's not as if they have really and truly banned the issue. You can't buy it in app and in the next few days the rest might be banned for graphic sex as well now that articles have pointed out the presence. But guess what, I went to the comixology website in a Mobile Safari on my iPad bought the issue and it shows up just fine in my app. Just Iike countless other issues of all sorts of titles I've bought from the website. If Apple really wanted to ban it they would make comixology come up with a way that anyone going to the site from an Apple whatever can't see that issue and even if they figure out how to buy it off a PC it won't download to anything Apple. And it is possible due to the vastness of state laws that it might be illegal to sell that issue because some states may deem depictions of gay sex as obscene, which means Apple would be breaking a serious law. At this point they likely don't have tech in place to tell where you are and block you cause you are in one of those states so they pull the items all together.
Everybody knows that Apple is extremely conservative when it comes to sexually related kinds of things.
It's not like the CEO of Apple is a homophobe or anything like that, so these gay whiners, whining about their gay comic getting censored should just STFU.
But if you read the article, they HAVE allowed similar heterosexual scenes.
The "whine" is true. The comic WAS censored. Intentional or not (and given the hate too many people--like you--have, it could well be intentional) it did happen. It seems you'd also like to censor anyone who points out that fact? Interesting.
Hopefully this is just the bigoted decision of one reviewer, or simple mistake (either with this issue or previous ones) and like past Apple approval mistakes, can be corrected. Hopefully in a productive way.
Apple's larger issue (mirroring the US's issues as a whole!) with censoring a little nudity while allowing brutal gory violence, is still messed up. Allow both... with a proper rating so people/parents can control what they're getting. And don't treat apps differently from books/film/music. A comic is art whether it arrives through the iBooks Store or the App Store. Games too.