UPDATE 11/6/2013 1:00 PM PT: Image Comics has provided CBR News with the following statement on the matter:

"Apple is free to make whatever decisions they deem best for their business, but there's a level of inconsistency here that is difficult for the creative community to understand. In this instance, there's little difference between the content of 'Sex Criminals' #1 (which is available in the iOS Appstore) and 'Sex Criminals' #2 (which was rejected). Likewise, when you compare the standards for the iBookstore with the standards for the iOS Appstore, there's not a lot of common ground, and that makes decisions like this seem somewhat arbitrary. No real explanation is given one way or the other and we're left to guess what triggered the rejection. It's almost as if their lack of defined policy is their policy.

"'Sex Criminals' #2 is available for purchase on Comixology on the web and Android, the Image Comics website and the Apple iBookstore."

Writer Matt Fraction announced Tuesday on Twitter that Apple has officially blocked the sale of Image Comics' "Sex Criminals" #2, via comiXology's iOS app due to "objectionable" content "not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines."

The issue, by Fraction and artist Chip Zdarsky, was released on Oct. 23, and was previously "under review" from Apple. While it's not available via comiXology's iOS app, it is available on the digital distributor's website, and on the iOS iBooks store. No such objection was raised over "Sex Criminals" #1, which remains for sale on the comiXology iOS app.

"How the first book made it through and the second one didn't, I don't know," Fraction told CNET in an article published on Oct. 23. "Maybe it was the sales?"

This isn't the first conflict between Image and Apple this year. In March, "Sex" by Joe Casey and Piotr Kowalski was blocked for sale on iOS apps. A month later "Saga" #12 also didn't make it onto the comiXology iOS app, in a preemptive move on comiXology's part, based on the assumption that a sex scene wouldn't meet Apple's guidelines. The issue subsequently went on sale via the app. CBR News has reached Image Comics for comment on Apple's "Sex Criminals" #2 decision.

official: SEX CRIMINALS #2 is BANNED BY APPLE for sale via comixology on iOS. Not the iBooks store though. Because it's hilarious that way >- BUTT STUFF WEREWOLF (@mattfraction) November 5, 2013

Via apple:

"We found that one or more of your In-App Purchases contains content that many audiences would find objectionable, ...- BUTT STUFF WEREWOLF (@mattfraction) November 5, 2013

"...which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines."- BUTT STUFF WEREWOLF (@mattfraction) November 5, 2013

So there it is: Apple screws SEX CRIMINALS- BUTT STUFF WEREWOLF (@mattfraction) November 5, 2013