Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson said on his blog yesterday that the cover for Pigs #6 and an image from Glory #23 include swastikas and thus will not be featured as originally drawn in Diamond's December Previews. The catalog is distributed in Germany, where the law prohibits the "use of symbols of unconstitutional organisations," which includes the swastika if used in conjunction with Nazi idealism.

"This is nothing new," Stephenson wrote. "Swastika-laden images have been prohibited from appearing in publications sold in Germany for decades at this point. I'm not sure I understand what the point is, though. World War II did happen, and Nazis did exist. I understand not wanting to encourage modern day Neo-Nazi groups, but censorship isn't a particularly effective weapon against hate groups of any kind. Plus outlawing specific Nazi iconography seems strangely revisionist, as though it's best to just not acknowledge the impact that symbol had, or the evil associated with it."

The law Stephenson refers to is a remnant of the "Denazification" efforts in Germany by the Allies after World War II. Among other initiatives, the Allies sought to remove all symbols of Nazism, such as the swastika, from German culture. In a post written in 2009, when a swastika appeared on a cover for The Boys, German writer Marc-Oliver Frisch noted that the law has an exceptions clause, that it “shall not be applicable if the means of propaganda or the act serves to further civil enlightenment, to avert unconstitutional aims, to promote art or science, research or teaching, reporting about current historical events or similar purposes.” While The Boys issue with the swastika was not distributed in Germany, the German version of Maus, however, uses the original cover art that includes the swastika -- but convention posters that used the Maus artwork have also been known to be confiscated by German authorities.

"Now you could argue that the paragraph clearly says that one of the exceptions is a work of art, which comics clearly are," German blogger Subzero wrote in a post earlier this year. " Well, not here in Germany and I guess it's going to take a few decades till somebody here is willing to go to court on that point. In Germany comics don't have that position."

The Glory image that will appear in the catalog will not include the symbol, while the Pigs cover will be blurred out, as seen in the above image. You can find the Glory image by artist Ross Campbell, and a larger version of the uncensored Christian Ward-drawn Pigs cover, after the jump.

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