

Update 4/10/13: It has now been revealed that comiXology banned the issue believing Apple wouldn’t approve it. Stranger and stranger.

Apple has refused to carry Saga #12 via any of its app-based platforms because of two small gay sex scenes, writer Brian K. Vaughan has written in a press release. The issue goes on sale tomorrow and will not be available through anything that goes through the App store. However, as Vaughan explains, the issue will still be available through Image and Android apps.

Update, I just flipped through the PDF preview of the book and couldn’t even find the scenes…unless they were removed from the PDF?

Meanwhile, just pick out the violent content that goes through Apple every day and get back to me.

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. Apologies to everyone who reads our series on iPads or iPhones, but here are your alternatives for Wednesday: 1) Head over to you friendly neighborhood comics shop and pick up a physical copy of our issue that you can have and hold forever. 2) While you’re at it, don’t forget to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which helps protect retailers who are brave enough to carry work that some in their communities might consider offensive. You can find signed copies of Saga at the CBLDF site right now. 3) Download the issue directly through sites like https://comics.imagecomics.com or on your non-Apple smartphone or tablet. 4) If all else fails, you might be able to find SAGA #12 in Apple’s iBookstore, which apparently sometimes allows more adult material to be sold than through its apps. Crazy, right? Anyway, special thanks to Eric Stephenson and everyone at Image for supporting our decision, and for always being so supportive of creators. Sorry again to readers for the inconvenience, but I hope everyone will be able to find an issue that Fiona and I are particularly proud of. And after you do, please check out PanelSyndicate.com, the new digital comics site I own with artist Marcos Martin, which remains 100% uncensored by corporate overlords.

UPDATE UPDATE: Okay, after it was explained, I did find these, but they are hard to spot but adult in nature for sure. But small.

EDIT: Click on the thumbs for the unexpurgated images.

