Headtrip Vol. 01, No. 01 / 1989

Headtrip (subtitled for the Tainted Intellectual) was a 20+ page photocopied fullsized 'zine which focused in on all of my interests as an 18-year old boy: bizarre forms of music, comics, movies and art. I published the first issue in September 1989 in Windsor, ON, Canada, and with it, I established myself rather quickly within the small international press 'scene'. The zine was made available locally in stores (mostly on a consignment basis), yet the majority of copies were distributed through the mail to interested parties. New issues came out periodically, and were generally met with a great response.

In June 1990, however, while I was off at (high)school, my parent's home was raided by a special division of the Windsor Police due to my involvement with publishing this project. Large amounts of my personal possessions were confiscated, and what was left behind was scattered about the floor of the room; it was a sorry sight to say the least. Apparently, a local Windsorite had filed a complaint when she found a copy of Headtrip in her son's possession. It sparked some (negative) attention and things were rolling. The detective in charge of the investigation (who had no formal training in interpreting obscenity laws) prepared a report about his thoughts on the magazine. Though he had never dealt with a case of this nature, he stated himself quite strongly; in the report he said that "...these publications appear to be material directed to the teenage anti-establishment crowd; ie., skinheads, punk rockers, ghoulies (kids dressed in black) and satanists."

Within a month charges were laid. Five counts, in fact: (i) making use of the mails for transmitting obscene matter; (ii) selling obscene matter; (iii) possession of obscene matter for the purpose of sale; (iv) making obscene matter; (v) possession of obscene matter for the purpose of distribution. Mainly, what was in question was some of my comic work ( a rather unprofound comic parody of Charles Schulz' glorious "Peanuts" strip) and a strip called "Blood And Salt" (see panel, above) I had published by a young Florida artist named Mike Diana (who later faced charges and an obscenity case of his own for his Boiled Angel zine-work; he was eventually found guilty on 3 counts of obscenity.)

I accessed legal aid, and had a local lawyer provided to me. After discussing the merits of the case, he concluded that he didn't have the body of knowledge to win a case of this nature, but found me a lawyer from Toronto named Dan Brodsky. Mr. Brodsky proved to be a godsend, and it is ultimately to him that I owe so much. He took me on as a special interest case, meaning that he would defend me for only a legal aid fee, which was way below his usual fee (he is the same lawyer, BTW, who cleared the Dayglo Abortions of their similar problem years earlier, and he has proven to be a man with a genuine concern for freedom of expression in this country.)

I'll spare you the slow details of what occured over the next two and a half years, but suffice it to say that in the end I came out on top. I'll skim the story over and explain how: (i) the first thing we had to do was educate the judge, let him know exactly what was commonly accessible to the average person; we provided him with a whole array of visual material to skim through; everything from comic books such as Faust or Heavy Metal, to samples of the Eros Comics line, to Picasso's 'Minotaur' works; (ii) The next thing we had to do was to provide an 'expert' of some sorts. Mark Askwith, a comics writer and the producer of the television show Prisoners of Gravity (a show about pop culture) came in at this point. He provided the judge with a detailed presentation on the history of comic books, asserting that they could be a legitimate adult art form. He also stated that in his professional opinion Headtrip did not step over the boundries of community standards; (iii) The final thing we had to do was show some form of community support. Many comic shop owners testified on my behalf (including a representative from The Beguiling, Toronto's best comic book store) commenting positively on the fanzine, and the role of fanzines in general.

The Crown Attorney provided equally damning evidence about the project and its effect on society in general. It was a game of point-counterpoint at the sake of taxpayers money.

After over a year of postponements, deliberation and research, the day came when the whole thing had to end. On May 29, 1992, in a 41-page written decision, Judge Saul Nosanchuk stated his many reasons for finding me not guilty of all charges, and Headtrip set a historical precident in Canada for future obscenity cases.

• For a summary of the verdict, see: R. vs Laliberte [1992] O.J. No. 1346

• Watch pre-trial news coverage (9MB / 1m09s .mov) here
• Watch the post-trial news coverage (8.7MB / 2m49s .mov) here
( ...to view these files, you need Quicktime 6 )

• Read the Comics Journal #145 article here
• Read the Globe & Mail article here
• Read the Now Magazine article here
• Read the Windsor Star articles here