ComiXology CEO David Steinberger issues a clarification to yesterday's comic book industry controversy, but I don't see Apple as off the hook:
In the last 24 hours there has been a lot of chatter about Apple banning Saga #12 from our Comics App on the Apple App Store due to depictions of gay sex. This is simply not true, and we’d like to clarify.
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.
Counter to what John Gruber implies, that ComiXology is entirely at fault here is a grossly reductive way to look at this. Had ComiXology published this comic in their iOS app, and had Apple received a volume of content-based complaints, Apple could have pulled the entire app from the App Store, including in-app purchase ability for those still with it downloaded. I'm surprised that someone like John would gloss over this or forget it was possible, and indeed, has happened.
