Apple Will Carry Saga #12

Update: Comixology has issued an apology about the issues with the explicit gay sex scene in Saga #12.

From the statement:

As a partner of Apple, we have an obligation to respect its policies for apps and the books offered in apps. Based on our understanding of those policies, we believed that Saga #12 could not be made available in our app, and so we did not release it today.

We did not interpret the content in question as involving any particular sexual orientation, and frankly that would have been a completely irrelevant consideration under any circumstance.

Given this, it should be clear that Apple did not reject Saga #12.

After hearing from Apple this morning, we can say that our interpretation of its policies was mistaken. You’ll be glad to know that Saga #12 will be available on our App Store app soon.

It sounds as if Comixology went a little too far in interpreting Apple’s standards.

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Writer Brian K. Vaughan announced on the Image website that issue #12 of the popular series, Saga, has been banned from sale on IOS devices because of ” two postage stamp-sized images of gay sex.”

From Vaughan’s statement, which included support from artist Fiona Staples:

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.

One of the mature images previously in the series featured a literal giant’s male sexual organs in a panel larger than the postage-stamp size the Vaughan mentions.

As alternatives, Vaughan suggests buying a physical copy of the book or downloading the book directly through the Image site.

Saga is one of the freshest, most original science fiction series currently being published. It’s disappointing to me that given all the previous sexual images, that ones featuring gay sex are somehow worth of being singled out.