Comixology Banning Take Two: 56 Comics Pulled from iOS App

Adhering to Apple’s strict App Store policies, Comixology have removed 56 digital comics from their iOS app.

While still available for purchase on the Comixology website, past and present titles like Sex, The Boys: Herogasm, and Chester 5000 are now unavailable for iOS users. Comixology’s VP of Marketing, Chip Mosher, addressed the sudden and extravagant removal of these digital comics on the company’s blog:

In order to comply with the Apple App Store guidelines regarding adult or inappropriate content, some new releases were rejected for our iOS app this week. In addition, certain previously released titles that fall outside of these guidelines were also rejected and will be removed from sale. As always, these books are available on comixology.com, where you can download and sync to your device for reading anytime, anywhere.

It was only last month that Comixology faced public scrutiny for banning Saga #12 with no explanation as to why other than Apple told us to. With the issue featuring images of gay oral sex, many believed Apple were censoring the acclaimed Image book by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples for homophobic reasons. It was later revealed Comixology only removed Saga #12 because of Apple’s past censorship and uploaded the book back on their iOS app.

As of now it’s unclear if Comixology is once again misinterpreting Apple’s guidelines, but here’s the full listing of the banned books. What’s more disheartening is that risqué titles that fought hard for re-approval like Black Kiss II, XXXombies and Sex #1 are again removed from the Apple App store. And with gay-centric books such as the Eisner-nominated No Straight Lines or the Yaoi manga Again Tomorrow gone from iOS devices, accusations of homophobia are bound to resume.

Near the end of his post, Mosher reminds customers that 35,000 comic book titles are still available on Comixology. However, this repeated censorship from Comixology and Apple raised the important question on who really own these digital books: the company or the paying customer? A question that needs answering for the estimated half a billion Apple users.