Brian K. Vaughn, renowned writer of c0mic books such as Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina, has released a statement saying Apple is refusing to carry tomorrow’s edition of his and Fiona Staples’s Saga on any iOS device. Apparently, two small images of gay sex in the book has prompted Apple to halt digital publication of this issue on its apps. Vaughn’s statement on Image Comics’s Tumblr blog reads as follows:
As has hopefully been clear from the first page of our first issue, SAGA is a series for the proverbial “mature reader.” Unfortunately, because of two postage stamp-sized images of gay sex, Apple is banning tomorrow’s SAGA #12 from being sold through any iOS apps. This is a drag, especially because our book has featured what I would consider much more graphic imagery in the past, but there you go. Fiona and I could always edit the images in question, but everything we put into the book is there to advance our story, not (just) to shock or titillate, so we’re not changing shit.
Vaughn goes on to list other ways you can obtain the book, both physically and digitally. The writer is a strong advocate of digitally distributing comic book stories, as is evident from his latest venture with the artist Marcos Martin on The Private Eye.
Saga has already had multiple sex scenes, plenty of visceral violence, and the series opened with a rather visual representation of a birth. To have Apple balk at the idea of publishing the comic book based on minor depictions of gay sex is unexpected and certainly unwarranted.
Cover for Saga #12.
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