Michael Christopher Diana (born 1969) is an American underground cartoonist. His work, which is largely self-published, deals with themes including sexuality, violence, and religion. He is the first person to receive a criminal conviction in the United States for artistic obscenity for his comic Boiled Angel. During his childhood and teen years, Diana took an interest in creating art that others found disturbing. Living in Florida as an adult, he began publishing his comics in zines, which he primarily distributed through the mail. His work came to the attention of the FBI during their investigation of serial killings in another Florida city, and they forwarded it to Diana's local police after ruling him out as a suspect. In 1992, after he sent copies of his work to an undercover police officer, Diana was charged under Florida law with obscenity. The jury found him guilty, and his sentence included supervised probation, during which any art or writings he produced were subject to unannounced, warrantless searches and seizure by the police. Two of the three counts of obscenity were upheld on appeal, and an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied. Meanwhile, Diana had moved to New York, which declined to extradite him to Florida, and he completed his probation there. Early life Mike Diana was born in 1969 in New York City. He, his younger sister, and younger brother Matt were baptized Catholic. His mother placed him in an after school art program where, for one assignment, his class was to collect seashells on the beach and incorporate them into a collage made with plaster of Paris. Diana instead incorporated the garbage and a dead fish he had found, referring to the beach pollution that was the topic of contemporary news stories. Diana later related this story during his obscenity trial to illustrate his point of view that "art can be ugly and convey a message." In 1979, when nine-year-old Diana was in the middle of fourth grade, he and his family moved from Geneva, New York to Largo, Florida. Though Diana received barely passing or failing grades, he received As in art classes. Amateur publishing career Diana began drawing comics in high school, influenced by macabre subject matter such as Topps Ugly stickers, Wacky Packages and Creature Feature cards. Publications that he drew inspiration from included Heavy Metal, Creepy, Eerie, Basil Wolverton's Plop!, Bernie Wrightson's run on Swamp Thing,