"Frustrated by societys failure to protect its most vulnerable citizens, Foreskin Man has taken up the fight agains male genital mutilation.

Aided by the power of his technologically advanced plasma boots, Foreskin Man flies above the city to hunt down criminals who cut the genitals of innocent boys.

It is the dawn of a new era. Circumcisers, beware!"

By Rob Beschizza at 1:26 PM February 13, 2010

Wondering whether that collection of 'the character bio says she's 18' hentai is legal or not? Your quandary is at an end. It's illegal enough to get a custodial sentence. On one hand, jail time for owning cartoon smut is a creepy example of victimless thoughtcrime. Then again, very little is as creepy as this guy's comic collection. [Wired]

UPDATE: Neil Gaiman came away from this post thinking that I'm OK with the idea that someone should go to prison for reading the wrong comic-book. For Neil and anyone else who got that idea, let me clarify: that's not what I meant. Supporting free speech means defending the indefensible, no matter how 'creepy' a prosecutor may find it.

With this single-paragraph post, I didn't mean to be speciously even-handed, just to add some brief context to the link. Be sure to read David Kravets' reporting at Wired and Anime News Network's overview. But I'm not "ashamed of myself" for failing to make my own opinion clearer. You don't need my help to RTA and figure things out for yourselves.

Christopher Handley's only 'crime' was that some of the comics he imported contain drawings of children and animals in sexual situations. Earlier coverage describes a horrendous, Kafka-esque scenario, in which he could plead guilty or face the prospect of a life-destroying sentence. Trying to shame "the Boing Boing person" for insufficient coverage within hours of Handley's unjust sentencing won't make it any less shameful for him.

Probably the earliest depiction of a communication device resembling a laptop has been discovered in an ancient Flash Gordon comics by Mende Petreski of Prilep, Macedonia.

Browsing through his comics collection, Mr. Petreski stumbled upon a panel in Politikin Zabavnik weekly published June 14, 1974, featuring the forces of Ming the Merciless using a device which looks a lot like a laptop to talk to their leader.

This particular comics represents a Serbian translation of an episode drawn around 1937 by Alex Raymond. The title the magazine used is "Ming's Prisoners", while the contents probably covers part of the story "The Outlaws of Mongo" which the Flash Gordon Wiki attributes to Alex Raymond and Don Moore, originally published as Sunday comics from August 15, 1937 – June 5, 1938.

The Wiki mentions the spacephone as a "communication device used on Mongo," but makes no mention about the laptop-like apparatus.

The leading Macedonian portal On.net broke the news of this discovery first. It can be of interest to computer science historians and comics lovers.

 

Since 2004, Checker Book Publishing Group has been republishing the Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon comics in hardcopy edition (seven books in total).

Flash Gordon comics were a major hit in Former Yugoslavia, published by popular magazines such as Politikin Zabavnik and Stripoteka. While the former had a tradition of republishing both classic episodes and reruns, the later usually featured newer installments by Dan Barry.

Several scans from this historic episode are available bellow, courtesy of Mr. Mende Petreski.