Censorship on Religious Grounds

Rant incoming, and I don't know if it's funny or sad... don't sue me, pray at me, or unfriend me for my heathen ways.


Recently I was commissioned to do a project for a friend. The project itself was a calendar about demons, and where their myths came from (Sumerian legends, Hebrew texts, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Johann Weyer, Milton, etc).




To me this was a fun project, because I got to create characters based on these creatures of myth. I'm a character artist... making up what I think monsters look like is part of how I make my living; and I always strive to be better as an artist in that respect. I did the art, I made some characters, and I learned something: All these demons are a representation of our fears... about ourselves. Each horrific creature was representative of fears that reside within all of us. Apathy. Revenge. Vice. Hate. The fear that something (or someone) out there was working against us. Oh, the irony.





It was a fascinating subject, like all the dragons, aliens, monsters, or creatures I'm known for, but just like any other project - when it was over I moved on to the next thing without it hurting my soul, leaving me possessed, damning me to Hell, or dragging me to the depths of ruin (as far as I can tell).




The printer, however, didn't see it that way.


The printing company, who shall remain nameless, did not reach back out to the director of the calendar project (I'm just the artist) for weeks after the job was submitted. After a brief discussion and clearing the air, the director discovered that the printing company actually stalled the job and refused to print the calendar on the religious grounds that they thought the calendar was evil.


Let me say that again: In 2017 a company refused to print a wall calendar based on religious fear.


While this will never make the national news, and I know no one will care in comparison to everything else going on in our world today (and that's a good thing), I just want to point out that censorship is still very real, religious persecution of art is still very much happening, and people who are afraid of being punished by a higher power over the discussion of demonology in literature are still hiding their faces and crossing themselves in fear of eternal damnation... for talking about it or printing it... in 2017.





We found another printer and got the calendars printed, and they'll be on the way to the Kickstarter contributors soon, but I can now add to my resume that I have been censored on religious grounds for being sacrilegious.


Scratch that off my bucket-list.