Our petition has two goals. Establish a Sacramento Comic Book Week while also removing a Sacramento city ordinance that imperils comics books as a medium as they are frequent targets of book bans.

We would like the City of Sacramento to declare the third week of September, beginning on Sunday, to be declared officially as Sacramento Comic Book Week.

Sacramento is home to some of the nation’s best comic book shops, to many nationally-known comic creators that have left indelible influence on the medium, to many jubilant celebrations by passionate fans across California at dozens of comic conventions and events around the city annually. 

With the establishment of Sacramento Comic Book Week, the city continues to build on a history of week-long decentralized celebrations that allow for a union of community efforts. We have Sacramento Bacon Week, A Sacramento Poetry Week, Sacramento Beer Week, and many more.

We are nominating the third week, beginning on Sunday, of every September to be declared Sacramento Comic Book Week. This year, September 21st, 2025 would be the first annual kickoff which coincides with the Crocker Art Museum's CrockerCon festival -- with many other celebrations in early planning for the week.

Celebrating comics across Sacramento will hopefully be an easy effort, but there is a dark shadow looming in the City's civic code.

Secondly, we are seeking the Mayor and City Council begin the process to 
repeal of City Code item 9.12.010  "Distributing certain "comic books."

This is clearly an antiquated city code that, in the wrong hands, could effectively become a tool for groups engaged in book ban across the country. The code specifically targets comic books and jeopardizes the operations of the libraries, book shops, conventions, and comic shops --- as well as educational tools in schools, museums, and universities --- who distribute comics to readers in our area.

The code -viewable here- prohibits the sale or distribution of any “comic book” to people under the age of eighteen (18) years in which there is prominently featured an account of crime, and which depicts, by the use of drawings or photographs, the commission or attempted commission of the crimes of arson, assault with caustic chemicals, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, kidnapping, torture, mayhem, murder, rape, robbery, theft or voluntary manslaughter. 

Virtually, every major superhero comic book could be targeted as featuring “mayhem” —every action alongside a biff, bam, pow, thwip, snikt, bamf, or boom— could be contorted into bad faith arguments seeking to ban books and limit access to even the most benign comic mischief. A perfect example is the origin story of Batman and Spiderman, both of whom hear the call to become a heroes is in the wake of the murder of their parents and guardians. Why is it okay to depict these crimes on the big screen and big budget movies, but it is unlawful for the pages of a comic book? The code is far too vague.

Let's look at an example below...

• What "crimes" do you see depicted?
• What organization might want to try and ban this book?
• What do you think the reading age is on this book?

This is one panel depicting "mayhem" of Superman saving his "kidnapped" friends from the Klan. Is this unsuitable for ages under 18? The book "Superman Smashes the Klan" was published by DC Comics in 2020 and carries recommended reading age of 12-17 from the publisher as well as Harvey and Eisner award wins. The book is carried in most comic book shops and online retailers despite multiple efforts to get the book banned.

It's no secret that bad faith actors could target comics like these for depicting crime and, thus, jeopardize the operations of the dozens of comic shops, dozens of comic conventions, the operations of cultural institutions like libraries and museums. 

Signers of this petition agree and believe comic books are for everybody and Sacramento's code is outdated, unenforceable & vague while indiscriminately targeting one whole medium. This makes it completely unnecessary.

However, at a time where nationwide efforts book bans have been specifically targeting comic books across the country, Sacramento could say no more to book bans, stand up, and deliver a preemptive and principled step to strike this down and affirm our community’s trust in comic books and the constitutional-backed rights of free speech.

The time to act is now. Just like comic books themselves, we can be fun and teach a good lesson. Let's get this done before the bad guys can strike.