Mike Diana

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Mike Diana is an underground cartoonist and the first artist ever to be convicted of obscenity in the United States.

In the early 1990s, Mike Diana began producing the adult comic book Boiled Angel. This amateur comic contained graphic depictions of a variety of taboo and gory subjects and was distributed to only a few retailers. In 1991 while investigating a Florida murder case, a police officer discovered an issue of Boiled Angel and, desperate for clues, contacted Diana, informed him he was a suspect, and requested a blood sample. The real killer was soon apprehended, and Diana was not pursued. The officer in question, however, collected additional issues of Boiled Angel and sent them to the State’s Attorney’s office where they went on file. Two years later, the Assistant State's Attorney Stuart Baggish came across the books and sent Diana a certified letter that said he was being charged with three counts of obscenity: one for publishing, one for distributing, and one for advertising the material. At this point, Diana contacted the non-profit first amendment organization the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund which provided him several prominent defense attorneys and expert witnesses.

Diana was employed as an elementary school janitor at the time of his first notoriety. He had used the school's copier to reproduce some of his comic books representing crude, graphic drawings of sexual molestation and limb severing. Some of the material was allegedly left there, and Diana was fired.

After a brief trial, Diana was found guilty on all three counts. Diana was sentenced to a three-year probation, during which time his residence was subject to inspection to determine if he was in possession of or was creating obscene material. He was to avoid all contact with children under 18, undergo psychological testing, enroll in a journalistic ethics course, pay a $3,000 fine, and perform 1,248 hours of community service. He was not sentenced to any jail time, and in the end only spent four days in jail between the dates of the verdict and the sentencing.

To fulfill the requirement of undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, Diana was informed that the doctor whom he would see charged $100 an hour, which he would have to pay for himself, and that his evaluation would take two hours. After the evaluation, Diana was informed the session would cost $1,200 because the doctor claimed to have spent 10 hours reading Boiled Angel in preparation. Out of funds, Diana was unable to pay, and the doctor was unable to give her evaluation to the court, effectively making him in violation of his parole.

Mike Diana was published and represented by Shane Bugbee and Michael Hunt Publishing from 1993 until 2000, when MHP closed their doors after the semi-successful, swan song, "The Angry White Male Tour" of the West Coast, from Seattle to Austin TX. It was featured in numerous magazines and newspapers.

Mike Diana's legal ordeal has inspired a play by David Johnston entitled Busted Jesus Comix. The play borrows many particulars from the legal case and punishments meted out to Mike Diana, while the character of the comic artist in Busted Jesus and the background story are entirely fictional. The play has been produced on "Off-off-Broadway" and in LA, and has received very favorable reviews.