Since it debuted in March 2012, the popular comic book Saga has illustrated the following: robot sex, a giant with five-story-tall sagging testicles, a child prostitution ring on a brothel planet called Sextillion, blow jobs, fisting, interspecies erotica, and enough bloody viscera to make a butcher squirm.
But none of these are why Apple banned the most recent issue of the comic book from its App Store this week. No, Saga #12 won't be available for purchase because of "two postage stamp-sized images of gay sex," according to writer Brian K. Vaughn. In a statement he released Tuesday, Vaughn explains:
As has hopefully been clear from the first page of our first issue, SAGA is a series for the proverbial "mature reader." Unfortunately, because of two postage stamp-sized images of gay sex, Apple is banning tomorrow's SAGA #12 from being sold through any iOS apps. This is a drag, especially because our book has featured what I would consider much more graphic imagery in the past, but there you go. Fiona and I could always edit the images in question, but everything we put into the book is there to advance our story, not (just) to shock or titillate, so we're not changing shit.
You don't need to read comics to recognize the foolishness of Apple's decision -- and regrettably, this isn't the first time the App Store has removed comics for sexual themes. As Comics Alliance noted, the App Store banned an adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest in 2010, only to reverse the position later, calling it a "mistake." Just last month, Apple also banned an issue of a new series, Sex, for violating its standards.