Virtual Memories Show 405:
Jeff Trexler
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“When you think about what law has meant to comics, it isn’t just about censorship. A lot of it is about access, about personal freedom. People want to be able to express themselves, and they want their work to be out there for other people to read.”
Lawyer, ethics advisor and comics nerd Jeff Trexler joins the show to talk about his new role as Interim Executive Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. We get into his plans to help rebuild the CBLDF’s reputation and ethics code after the sexual harassment scandal of its previous director, his experiences helping people pursue their harassment claims and launching antiharassment campaigns in the fashion world, how the Fund’s role has changed over the decades, and why he’s comfortable with that interim title. We also get into his obsessions with comics and design, the broad meaning of First Amendment law (and why R Sikoryak‘s recent Constitution Illustrated should be required reading), how to learn from ethics disasters, how nonprofits can grow and how they can become sclerotic, his childhood McLuhan-inspired interpretation of the theme to the Batman TV show, how our mutual friend Tom Spurgeon was the hub of the comics industry, and what it’s been like to live without him. Give it a listen!
“One of the things that’s impressed me about the comics community is that they take law seriously.”
“People don’t trust the law when they feel the legal system is detached from them.”
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!
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About our Guest
Jeff Trexler is a long-time member of the comics community as well as an attorney and ethics advisor. He currently serves as CBLDF’s Interim Executive Director, bringing expertise that developed through his work advising nonprofit organizations, media companies, and fashion brands.
Prior to joining CBLDF, Jeff served as Associate Director of the Fashion Law Institute, where his work on ethics issues included advising government officials on sexual harassment legal reform. He is a member of the Ethics Committee at Kering Americas and also served on the board of the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art.
In addition to creating the Fashion Ethics course at Fordham Law School, Jeff has taught at Yale, SMU, Pace University, and Saint Louis University. He has also been part of dozens of panels at comic-cons and continuing legal education programs. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a Ph.D. in American Religious History from Duke University, and he is admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court and New York bars.
Jeff’s favorite comic book sequence is from the last issue of Grant Morrison’s run of The Doom Patrol: “There is another world. There is a better world. Well . . . there must be.”
You can find Jeff’s writing on comics and the law at The Beat, TCJ.com, and, via the Wayback Machine, Blog@Newsarama.
Follow Jeff on Twitter.
Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded remotely via Zencastr. I used a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone
