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I launched a new ongoing interview series ComicsAlliance today, in which I interview people about five comics throughout their career to date - from their very first project right to their current work! First up is Declan Shalvey, who started with a comic called 'Hero Killers' before moving along to books like Moon Knight and Injection... and is now writing his first Marvel story as part of Civil War 2!

I really hope to be able to do more of these, so I hope you enjoy this one!

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Just realised I never use Tumblr HEY TUMBLR!

THE DELINQUENTS: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO THE VALIANT UNIVERSE

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Harassment, Comics, and the Worst Statement Anyone Has EVER Issued

So, comics has some issues with harassment, yes? It’s been much discussed of late.  In most cases it’s still not been dealt with, but what happens when a credible source (read: another man, apparently) accuses a male editor of sexual assault?

Well, here it is: http://graphicpolicy.com/2015/10/01/enough-is-enough-dark-horses-scott-allies-assaulting-behavior/

Did you read that?  Terrible, right?  Like, really bad stuff and it seems like it’s been covered but by those around him, right?

Well, here’s the part where he apologizes.  Let me say, it’s a pretty iffy apology that does nothing to address the multitude of other occasions that are referenced within the article but only the one time that has a named person who was willing to come forward.  It is worth noting thought, that that’s more than pretty much any of the women who have been harassed in comics get.

Here’s the apology: http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/dark-horse-editor-scott-allie-apologizes-amid-accusations-of-misconduct

But of course that isn’t enough, because with the number of people who came forward and said they had seen or experienced the same things at Allie’s hands, the implications that Dark Horse was covering things up is very strong.  So, here comes Mike Richardson with an official statement from Dark Horse that is sure to clear things up, right?

Richardson’s statement: http://www.comicsbeat.com/dark-horse-president-mike-richardson-releases-statement-on-harassment/

Now, this statement is very important, because it reads quite like a list of how to not handle and issue like this.  The most glaring issue and the one that made me pull back from the computer while reading it, is right at the end:

“We at Dark Horse will renew our efforts to make sure that our company is never again mentioned with regard to this type of occurrence.”

You could have very easily said that you’ll do your best to make sure nothing like this happens again at Dark Horse, but you didn’t.  What you said is that your goal is to make sure that nobody ever talks about harassment at Dark Horse again.  When you’re being accused of ignoring or covering up dozens of issues with harassment, you should definitely not seem to say that you’ll keep people from coming forward from now on.  How do you not see that that’s problematic?

Maybe less of a wording mistake and much more offensive is taking a huffy tone when somebody comes to you with evidence that crooked shit has been going down in your company.  Especially don’t talk down to them while pointing out that they’re a woman.

“Under no circumstance is any individual “harbored.” In this particular case, action was taken immediately, though we did not, and cannot, perform a public flogging, as some might wish.”

I see where your issue might be here, figurative language.  When a ship is harbored that means that it is held in a safe place and protected from damage from a storm, for instance.  Clearly, humans can’t be harbored, right.  You can just put them in a different office away from the front of the company where your whole company won’t be under siege for something they did and then not tell anyone about the thing that they did and make sure that others don’t speak and that they are not damaged.  What you did is kind of the definition of harboring him.  And when you make snotty remarks about how you’re not going to publicly flog him, maybe think about how that makes people feel who were publicly embarrassed by him.  It’s nice that you believe in treating your harasser with more respect than the harassed.

“Ms. Asselin turns her eye toward me. I have never met or talked with Ms. Asselin. If she knew me, she would learn that I am extremely sensitive on this subject,”

Yeah, scoffing at your critic while being sure to point out that they are female is never a good look.  I’m sure the second half of this sentence will be better, right?

“being the father of three daughters and having experienced first hand the effects of sexual harassment and gender discrimination.”

Oh, you have daughters?  That’s why you’re in favor of treating women like people?  Wait, who said anything about women? Joe Harris is a man.  I’ve met him.  If this is the only case of harassment, why are you bringing women into it? Is there another case you’re not telling us about or is it because Janelle is female and therefor obviously extra sensitive to issues of harassment?  This can not possibly be understood to be anything but patting Janelle on the head and giving her a lollipop.

AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, YOU RUN A PUBLISHING COMPANY, LEARN WHAT “FIRST HAND” MEANS.  If your daughters experienced sexual harassment or discrimination, that means you experienced it “second hand”. It didn’t happen to you, it happened to them.  There’s a subtle but very important difference between experiencing a thing like, say, Joe or Janelle and knowing somebody (even a family member) who experienced a thing.  I know you feel those things very acutely, but presenting the experiences of your daughters as your own does you no favors in proving that you’re sensitive to issues of discrimination.

“Her assumption that my longevity somehow “embeds” within me an attitude of inappropriate permissiveness is not only wrong, it is insulting.”

Could you not?  There are a lot of victims here, but you’re not one of them.  Claiming victimhood because a person sees dozens of accusations surface and assumes you are present and intelligent enough to know that something was going on is not a good look.  I feel like Janelle went pretty far out of her way to prove that it’s something a lot of people know about and that if you didn’t, that seems to reflect pretty poorly on you.

“there is no “us-against-them” attitude here”

I hate to say it, but you’re wrong.  There needs to be an us versus them attitude in comics.  It needs to be “us” the people who don’t tolerate a comics community where this sort of thing is glossed over and commonplace and “them” who make it uncomfortable to be a woman, poc, woc, or god forbid a middle aged white dude who just wants to say hello and shake hands with the editor in chief of one of the five largest comic companies in the world.

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So I buy the comics for our library, and right now I’m trying very hard to get my head about DC’s Convergence event - what exactly went down? How does it impact all the series we were purchasing, and what does it mean for what I need to order going forward? This led me to various graphic novel review sites, and this AMAZING summary from Comics Alliance (I edited it a bit, but still, SPOILERS WARNING) :

Things start off scarily for the Marvel Family, as they’re menaced by a malevolent caterpillar flying inside a gigantic evil robot suit. Luckily they have a talking tiger in a biplane to help them, as well as steampunk Batman.[…]

Loads of characters you’d never heard of before fight each other in a giant crystal palace that looks like one of the final levels from Donkey Kong 64. Aquaman gets knocked out with a ship’s anchor, hopefully not for the last time, and at the end of it all [superhero] staggers off victoriously. Where does she stagger to, you ask? Comics Limbo, I guess, her home for so many years.

I wasn’t going to read this, but now I might have to because it sounds off-the-wall BANANAS. YA fiction digs into into pretty absurd plot summaries on the regular, but this is something special. I’m SOLD.

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I wrote a thumbnail for ComicsAlliance about DC confirming on Twitter - rather than in a comic - that Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are absolutely a couple, albeit a really open one

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Who created Caitlin Snow, the alter ego of Firestorm super-villain Killer Frost, who appears regularly on The Flash?

According to DC Entertainment, nobody.

That’s right. Caitlin Snow, the brilliant scientist working for Harrison Wells, fiancée of Ronnie Raymond and friend of Barry Allen, aka...

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Andy Samberg, Nick Offerman, Adam Scott, Bill Hader, Bill Murray, Paul Rudd, Megan Mullally and Amy Poehler

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Let's all read about Stacey Lee!

WIDE WEB: HOW ARTIST STACEY LEE PLAYS WITH POWER AND DISTANCE IN ‘SILK’ #1

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After Jessica Williams declared that she does not want to replace Jon Stewart, a journalist decided it to diagnose Williams with “imposter syndome” (the idea that a woman in a male dominated field doesn’t feel as if they’re not doing enough to be in said position) and this was Williams response.

http://thebillfold.com/2015/02/on-the-daily-shows-jessica-williams-the-latest-high-profile-victim-of-impostor-syndrome/

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From “The Challenge” (Dec. 1965. Archie’s Girls Betty and Veronica, Issue #120 )

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"Steph is buoyant, which is an underrated personality trait. In real life, most of the people who manage to survive against all odds have a stubborn streak of optimism that keeps them from giving up. Bryan Q. Miller’s Batgirl stories capture Steph’s resilience and humor without ever feeling frothy or insubstantial. I think that’s what appeals to Stephanie Brown fans – I know it’s what appeals to me."

ALISA KWITNEY BRINGS STEPHANIE BROWN BACK AS BATGIRL FOR ‘CONVERGENCE’ [INTERVIEW]

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DC Add 26 New Titles, Change Loads of Books Around, Cancel Several: The New 49 Begins

This week DC dominated the comics news cycle by announcing their plans for the post-Convergence landscape. After a few months of Brainiac smashing alternate realities into one another for fun (which is...

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MAIRGHREAD SCOTT BRINGS WINDBLADE SOARING BACK, JUST IN TIME FOR “TRANSFORMERS: COMBINER WARS” [INTERVIEW]

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Look what is coming out in the summer! 

And if you read the article, more on the way!

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THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE, JUST DON’T TELL THE PUBLIC: SOULE & ALBURQUERQUE COMPOSE ‘LETTER 44′ [REVIEW]

By Steve Morris

In Letter 44, new President Stephen Blades steps into office after America has suffered eight years of a substandard Presidency. Picking up a letter left by his predecessor, however, he learns that much of what went wrong in America – money being pumped into the military rather than in services at home, pointless wars which killed thousands of troops – were actually part of a longer-term plan to deal with a far bigger problem.

Specifically: aliens are out there, and they may or may not be planning to invade Earth in the near future.

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