Ross Hutchinson
Week two of this column and well comic fans I wish I could say it’s been a better week than the previous one, but I would be lying…
Predators in the comics world continue to be shaken out of the industry tree as more women come forward to reveal horrific behavior by men in the industry including the resignation of
On Thursday 25 June, Shawna Gore revealed how long time Dark Horse employee Scott Allie had assaulted and harassed her while at Dark Horse Comics. This was not the first time Allie has been accused of this but it did finally galvanize Dark Horse Comics to sever all working ties with Allie. which they did in a statement posted on Twitter:
It is however exceptionally disheartening and quite frankly beyond alarming to see how reactive instead of proactive the comics industry seems to be when it comes to this behavior by men and others in the industry, looking at all the stories from people surfacing that seemed to know about Allie’s ongoing predatory behavior, the attitude seems very much to be: We will let it happen until we get caught letting it happen which quite frankly is just not good enough. It’s also a very clear indication of the kind of systemic protection predators are managing to have in comics. One can only hope that these ongoing revelations will help break this cycle of protecting predators and silencing victims so that comics becomes a safe field for woman, POC, and LGBTQIA+ people to work in.
We also lost several greats this week. Legendary inker “Joltin Joe” Sinnott passed at 93 may he rest in power. We also lost legendary designer Milton Glaser, while his name may not be synonymous with comics in most people’s minds he was responsible for some iconic symbols in the comic industry including the Legendary DC Bullet Logo. May he rest in peace.
I don’t feel like there was a clear winner anywhere in the industry in a week that felt like it was years long. I salute all the women in the industry who continue to pour their creativity and talent into a field that very clearly has a vast amount to learn about respecting women.
Woman like Mariah McCourt, Soo Lee and Pippa Bowland and the rest of the all-woman creative team who’s comic
As for losers well once again as always, there’s someone on social media that can’t read the room and makes a clown out of themselves. This week it’s another artist who decided that contributing to the conversation regarding sexual assault should include a horrifically ill-timed and tone-deaf satire like statement (deleted now after he received a roasting from several colleagues and comics professionals and then released another message to clarify) which victim-blamed, telling victims they should learn how to roundhouse kick their attackers. Not even remotely a good look for an artist currently drawing Marvel’s most popular solo X-Men character. Men in comics need to stop behaving like bros and start behaving like men.
Maybe next week this column will be able to highlight positive stuff about the industry. I certainly hope so.