Carbondale Reporter

Marion Mayor Mike Absher said he was embarrassed, mortified and angry over a free comic book giveaway at the Marion Carnegie Public Library that included some mature comics deemed unsuitable for children.

“There was an incident that happened at the library over the weekend with the comic book giveaway, that is completely unacceptable,” Absher said, according to a YouTube recording of the Marion Council’s May 8 meeting.

Families were invited to a Free Comic Book Day event on May 6 where the library handed out more than 100 packages of free comic books. This was the library’s first year participating in the event, according to a Facebook post by the library. The library received packages of 12 to 15 titles per bundle from Fox Comics and Games, a local comic book and game store that also hosted an event at their store that same day a few blocks away.

Posts appeared on social media after a family said they received a bundle with “mature” comics inside. Fox Comics and Games posted on Facebook saying that they had given the library packages of both “All Ages” and “Mature” titles to hand out. Fox said in the post that one of the families had taken a mature package from the event, understanding that it would not be appropriate for children.

Both Fox Comics and Games and the Marion Library took responsibility for the incident.

“It was poor judgment on our part to accept the Mature titles in the first place. We did not check each title in each grouping for accuracy which is where the error occurred. We trusted the comics were packaged correctly and that mistake is ours and ours alone,” the library said on Facebook. 

Fox Comics and Games refuted any fault by the library.

“This post is to quite simply exonerate our wonderful library from ANY wrong-doing, and to set the truth out there,” the retailer’s post said. “Next year we will be providing only ‘All Ages’ comics at the library end,” Fox said in a Facebook post made on May 11 after speaking with the family who got the inappropriate comic. "We would like to take a moment to address a couple of misconceptions out there concerning the event, and our wonderful library.  We feel 2 things need to be made VERY clear; 1.  NO CHILD was given a bag with an age inappropriate comic in it by the Marion Library; 2. Our wonderful library did NOT give out a bag with “Mature” comics to any child."

The mayor is not satisfied.

“I think it was a mistake on somebody's part, but I believe it was a colossal mistake. That is unacceptable. I'm embarrassed. I'm mortified and I'm angry. And I'm not going to make a decision when I'm embarrassed, mortified and angry,” Absher said during the May 8 council meeting, according to the YouTube video. “Nor am I going to make a decision until the library board has had a chance to weigh in on this later this evening... But this is a department that’s under my commissionership. And I apologize to all of you and I apologize to the city of Marion. This is not what we’re about. It's never going to happen again. And we need to take a whole lot more care when we hand out materials like this. Shouldn't even have materials like this anywhere near the front door of that library.”