Singapore bans Archie comic for depicting gay wedding

Singapore's state media censors are famously conservative, but they've outraged many comic book fans with this ban: the sale of an Archie comic book.

Singapore's Media Development Authority censored the comic book, which was originally published in 2012, earlier this year. But the ban has only now gained international attention, after Archie Comics announced that Archie will die taking a bullet for his friend Kevin Keller, a gay U.S. senator.

The MDA takes issue with the third installment of Archie: The Married Life, which depicts Kevin's wedding. The MDA's guidelines for imported publications ban material that depicts "alternative lifestyles or deviant sexual practices."

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The agency found the Archie installment's content "in breach of guidelines because of its depiction of the same sex marriage of two characters in the comic,” an MDA spokesperson told Time. "We thus informed the local distributor not to import or distribute the comic in retail outlets."

The news comes just days after Singapore banned a children's book that featured gay penguins. Time notes that according to the 2013 Press Freedom Index, Singapore has "the least free press of any developed economy in the world."