"THE MIKE DIANA CENSORSHIP DEBACLE"
by Hannibal Lechter
Mike Diana is a zine and comic book artist, painter and all around fun guy who was busted in 1992 in Florida for doing a zine. The zine was called Boiled Angel and Mike zeroxed about 200 of these for his friends.
One of them fell into the hands of a local prosecutor named Stuart Baggish, who took it upon himself to make an example out of Mike. Apparently Mr. Baggish did not favor Mike's stylish renderings of hacked up bodies with crucifixes stuck through their noses. Neither did Mr. Baggish and his fundamentalist friends take kindly to Mikes zeroxed scatalogical renderings and anti-religious pencil sketches.
SO, to set things right in the community, they crucified Mike. Told him he couldnt come with 500 yards of anyone under 17. That he could not draw anymore without being thrown in jail. Fined him about 5 times more money than he had ever seen in his life. Kicked his ass, tossed him in the slammer. Made him pay for visits to a shrink.
Did the courts find these punishments excessive? No. All the way up to the highest court in the state. Because Mike's drawings were scrutinized by a bunch of respectable Christian bureaucrats, who couldn't possibly be expected to understand a piece of anti-Christian art, let alone tolerate it, Mike drawings were deemed to have 'no redeeming social value,' and these draconian sentences were upheld. All this because Mike zeroxed 200 copies of a hand drawn comic book for his friends. Were Mike's hearings held in China he probably would have received fairer treatment.
While all kinds of nasty criminals are no doubt running around in Largo Florida, Mr. Baggish and his lackeys are pooling all their efforts in a desperate struggle to once and for all, nail that scourge to society, comic book artist Mike Diana.
After a series of unsuccessful appeals in Florida state courts, Mike is now being forced to pay $3,000 worth of fines in installments. We're talking about a guy who's profession has been selling junk food and cigarettes from behind cash registers at 7-11s. Although with all the publicity this case has received, Mikes gotten to go all over the country, has appeared in magazines (nude and otherwise), has had his art shown in all kinds of galleries . . . thanks to Mr. Baggish his determined efforts in putting Mike in the limelight.
Alas, it totally sucks having heavy fines and liabilities hanging over your head, even with the newfound publicity and other opportunities. Mike deserves and needs continued support . . . as he carries his Sisyphus-like burden, doing community service work, paying fines, and getting hit up by the man on an ongoing basis. Since his case has been refused by the Supreme Court, there's no more legal avenues open to Mike. So, we say, buy the guy's artwork, help him out, if you are able to, in defiance of this sentencing.
All of this proves how wrong the flag-waving propagandists really are. The gulag CAN AND DOES HAPPEN HERE, and Mike Diana is just one of numerous examples. Read the Postering article for a close-up view of the bumbling, officially sanctioned armed garbagemen in New York City who tried unsuccessfully to stamp out free expression.
"THE MIKE DIANA CENSORSHIP DEBACLE" 
