The trial of comic book retailer Gordon Lee, who is charged with two misdemeanor counts of distributing material harmful to minors, was supposed  to get under way in Rome, Georgia on Wednesday but was postponed because Judge Larry Salmon was ill.  No new trial date has been set for the current case, which was supposed to get underway on Monday, but was delayed at that time by a faulty air conditioner in the courthouse.

Lee could receive up to a year in jail and face fines of $1000  for each count in the case, which has attracted nationwide attention.  Stories about the case have appeared on NPR's Morning Edition, on Court TV and in New York Magazine as well as in the New York Times.

The case stems from the free distribution (on Halloween of 2004) of the free sampler (left over from Free Comic Book Day), Alternative Comics #2, a Free Comic Book Day sampler which contained an excerpt from Nick Bertozzi's graphic novel The Salon in which painter Pablo Picasso appeared in the nude.  The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has spent over $80,000 on the case so far and has managed to get the original charges reduced from two felonies and five misdemeanors to just two misdemeanor counts (see 'Another Count Dismissed').  CBLD expects to spend another $20,000 before the trial is over.