A North Carolina retailer has been arrested and charged with the felony of distributing obscene literature after a mother opened a bag containing a comic that was given away at Trunk or Treat, a Halloween tradition in Sunset Beach, NC.
The event took place on October 30th, and Kathleen Johnson, co-owner of of Marvelous Issues in Sunset Beach was charged and arrested by the by the Sunset Beach Police Department on the 31st. They wrote in a FB post:
This morning, Sunset Beach Police Detectives presented evidence obtained from parents to a North Carolina Magistrate regarding an incident at our annual Trunk or Treat. Probable cause was found to charge Kathleen Lincoln, Carolina Shores, NC with a violation of North Carolina General Statute § 14-190.1 Obscene literature and exhibitions, a Class G Felony.
The charges come after the department received multiple reports that inappropriate comic-style materials were handed out during the 2025 Sunset Beach Police Trunk or Treat event, held in Sunset Beach Town Park, on Thursday, October 30th, 2025.
Our investigation quickly identified Ms. Lincoln, leading to the felony charge filed this morning. We want to be clear, the safety and wellbeing of every child and family who attends our community events will always come first.
Trunk or Treat has been one of our favorite community traditions for many years. It’s supposed to be a safe, fun night for families and we are deeply disturbed by this incident. We have always trusted that the registered participants would respect the safety and well-being of our children.
If your child received something that seemed off, inappropriate, disturbing, or not consistent with a typical Sunset Beach Trunk or Treat event, please contact the Sunset Beach Police Department. No further details will be released at this time due to the ongoing nature of the investigation.
The mother objected to the content of Grendel Tales: Devil’s Hammer #1, originally published in 1994. In her own FB post she posted images from the comic which contained several instances of male frontal nudity and dark horror-themed images. We’ve covered the offending bits here but you can click here to see the original.
Other parents responded to the mother’s posts with claims that they had found other objectionable comics in the Trunk or Treat giveaways.
Screenshots of an alleged IM conversation between the mother and Lincoln were posted, in which Lincoln apologized but said that parents should be responsible for checking the content of comics their children received.
According to a report on the Charlotte Observer, the controversy has carried over to another FB post from the Sunset Beach PD, with parents taking various sides of the issue – some claiming that the images are no worse than stuff children are seeing every day in other places.
All the FB posts in question have hundreds of comments and have been shared hundreds of times, and it’s also hit TikTok, assuring that this controversy will swirl for a while.
It’s not the first time that a retailer has gotten into trouble for handing out free comics. A Georgia retailer was charged with two felonies and five misdemeanors after handing out a Free Comic Book Day issue that contained an excerpt from The Salon by Nick Bertozzi which depicted a naked George Braque in a non-sexual situation. After literally years of mistrials and other legal maneuvers, the charges were eventually dropped.
In 2021 a Long Island library accidentally gave out a sexually-themed comic on FCBD, but the consequences were some local uproar, and an apology from the library – which said it would no longer participate in Free Comic Book Day.
Marvelous Comics opened a few years ago and was then praised for being a vibrant addition to the local retail community.
Whether the Sunset Beach incident will be a local tempest in a teapot or the beginning of larger outcry remains to be seen. And Lincoln appears to have a long legal journey ahead of her.
The incident is a strong reminder that for anyone giving comics out to children, they need to be carefully vetted. History has shown this several times already.
English (US) · 
