The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has added comics writer Amy Chu, editor Joseph Illidge, and fan fixture Pam Noles to its board of directors. Illidge and Noles will start their tenure immediately, and Chu will join the board in January 2022.
The new board members will join CBLDF board president Christina Merkler, v-p Chris Powell, secretary Dale Cendali, and current members Jen King, Bob Wayne, and Gene Luen Yang. Jeff Trexler continues to serve as the CBLDF interim executive director.
The influx of new members comes as the CBLDF continues to reexamine its mission and its operations in the wake of the departure of it’s previous executive director and several board members in 2020.
Chu is a comics and TV writer and former executive director of the Asian American Arts Alliance. She has written a number of popular comics series for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Dynamite Comics as well as young reader graphic novels for Penguin Random House. She is also a writer for the popular Netflix anime series DOTA: Dragon’s Blood.
Illidge, currently executive editor at Heavy Metal magazine, is a pioneering comics editor, writer, and a comics’ industry activist focused on diversity. He started his career at Milestone Media, the celebrated Black-owned superhero universe. He was a Batman editor at DC, and worked at Lion Forge Comics, Valiant, and A Wave Blue World.
Noles is a former reporter and columnist who is best known as a kind of super fan. She was a long-time volunteer at San Diego Comic-Con, and now works as a stage manager and costume designer in addition to performing at a wide range of storytelling events, among them Sunday Night Sex Talks, The Turbine Arts Collective, and the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
Chu said that “CBLDF has done crucial work defending the First Amendment rights of the comics community. I’ve supported CBLDF’s work in panels and events and with contributions to its publications, and I’m excited to help shape the future of the organization.”
