Andrea Purcell

Two things can be true about Mike Richardson:

-He was responsible for some major genre hits
AND
-He did not protect staff if they were not a white man and is responsible for a generation of queer and female editors leaving comics rather than continue in a toxic environment

With no offense meant to the original game, You Are Elon Musk is even funnier. Grim, cathartic, hysterical: direkris.itch.io/elon

If misogyny disqualified men from your respect, you could all spend a lot less time being like "Oh my god, I'm so shocked to discover that he's hateful and stupid," later.

Seattle community pickup found a 12-inch strap-on the other day

At a 2015 party during San Diego Comic Con, a visibly intoxicated Allie sexually assaulted novelist and comics writer Joe Harris, grabbing his crotch and biting him on the ear. Writing about the incident in Graphic Policy, Janelle Assellin—a journalist and former editor at DC Comics who had helped spearhead a multi-staffer HR complaint against Berganza in 2010—gathered accounts from multiple sources at the company noting that he’d behaved that way for years, garnering the nickname “Bitey the Clown”; staffers attempting to go through internal channels invariably received cheerful assurances that the problem was being dealt with. (Dark Horse themselves famously ran a 2006 interview with him—since apparently deleted but archived here—that included the joke “Watch out, he bites.”) Allie issued an apology and remained part of the official masthead until 2017, when he became a freelance editor. Nonetheless, he maintained close ties at Dark Horse, continuing to edit and write for Mignola’s Hellboy. While his behavior remained a topic of open discussion on the comics internet for years, Allie likewise continued to be a fixture at conventions and—sources speaking on background to The Daily Beast confirm—a mover and shaker in comics social circles. His behavior was often explained in those circles as substance abuse: since he was now sober, the standard line went, the issue had gone away.

It had not. On June 24, former Dark Horse editor Shawna Gore, now senior editor at Oni Press, publicly accused Allie of sexual assault. Over the course of 14 years, Gore wrote in a horrific account, Allie engaged in a pattern of “chronic, escalating, unchecked abuse that was not related to his alcohol use.” On one occasion in 1999, in the backseat of a minivan filled with their colleagues, Allie put his hands in Gore’s underwear. “For the next 10-15 minutes I had to quietly, physically wrestle against Scott to prevent him from forcibly penetrating me with his fingers,” Gore wrote. She alleges he repeatedly told her to relax as he groped her.

In both Allie and Berganza’s cases, higher-ups at both Dark Horse and DC Comics had ample evidence of severe misconduct, and did as little as possible to deal with it. “We did not, and cannot, perform a public flogging, as some might wish,” Dark Horse founder Mike Richardson proclaimed in a response to Asselin’s 2015 piece. “I am extremely sensitive on this subject, being the father of three daughters and having experienced first hand the effects of sexual harassment and gender discrimination…[Asselin’s] assumption that my longevity somehow ‘embeds’ within me an attitude of inappropriate permissiveness is not only wrong, it is insulting.” After Gore’s statement, however, Richardson struck a more conciliatory (though still martyred) tone. “I tend to think I can fix the behavior of people,” he wrote. “I thought this with Scott, that I could in some way fix him and change his behavior. A horrible mistake on my part that caused harm that can never be undone.” The set of reforms he proposed going forward—which included adopting an official No Tolerance policy for harassment and promises that there would be no retaliation for reporting abuse—were met with blanket scorn. As Graphic Policy incredulously noted, several of them may already have been legal requirements.

Dark Horse Comics founder Mark Richardson has been fired from the company after 40 years. The news has occasioned a lot of tributes. Feels important not to forget, however, that for years he enabled — if not actively protected — Scott Allie, a really hideous sexual harrasser.

Like lmaooo h/t @nitishpahwa.com

He actually says something like “I don’t wanna do opera or ballet or those things no one cares about that they’re trying to keep alive” and people are like “actually what you want doesn’t matter bc you CAN’T since you don’t have the skill set bro”

That clip of Timothee Chalamet being like “no one watches the opera or ballet” is wild and I am dying over every ballet and opera acct (correctly) being like “we’ve been here for hundreds of years before you and we’ll be here for hundreds of years after you” lmao

my take on Joss Whedon is that he was literally not allowed to be in a room alone with a child, and that's kind of the end of the story for me.

Controversial, but I don't think the solution to a successful convention is to continuously grow bigger and bigger. It seems every time that happens, the prices and lack of accessibility go up. We need more specific conventions to celebrate specific stuff. Less artists making EVERY fandom merch.

I think it'd be cool if we had a larger discussion on the direction of conventions in NA- how expensive they are, how little artists make back, how much artists have to put in to even get accepted- And let's not forget how ridiculous the expectations are for presentation and merchandise with tables.

ECCC is this week, so now seems a good time to remind people of ReedPop's parent company ties to ICE

Quick question does anyone know how to restore virtue to a decaying society

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. IRC chats where people got slapped with a large trout. Flame wars raging across Usenet groups. Weblogs in the 1990s. I saw permalinks being created. I saw the first comment spam. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.

It wasn't "cancel culture" when women and people of color got used up, silenced, and dismissed before their careers even began. It only became "cancel culture" when powerful abusers started having established careers momentarily inconvenienced by revelations of what they'd done.

It’s likely the artist behind that ECCC table paid at least

$450 for the table
$500-700 for lodging
$150 (+) for food/drink
$300+ for merch.

The financial risk is real! Be nice to the creators behind the table and even if you don’t got the $$ to spare, a kind word goes a long way.

ICO writes to Meta over 'concerning' AI smart glasses report Videos, including of glasses-wearers using the toilet or having sex, are sometimes reviewed by a Kenya-based subcontractor.

Last year when I was checking into a hotel, the desk person was wearing Meta glasses. I kindly asked them to take them off. They were annoyed. I said, “I do not consent to you looking at my credit card and ID with Meta glasses on.” My instincts were correct: www.bbc.com/news/article...

Women: We live in a constant state of vigilance because men pose a constant threat to us, here are literally millions of corroborating stories.

Men: What a scary time for men this is.

nooooooo

"Do not forget it, i can remove you from this transaction" goes so hard

You're absolutely right — Lucy will not move the football next time.

It's only natural to worry she might move it when you go to kick it, but there's no evidence to suggest she will.

Kicking footballs is not just a goal, it's your mission in life.

Now, go ahead and kick the football.

A small yellow ceramic dinosaur with an orange belly, and red stripes and horn.

That recently discovered Spinosaurus Mirabilis is somthin' else, huh? Be the first to discover this one at xxyxxy.com!

#twee #ceramic #spinosaurusMirabilis

Reading the first panel: No way this ends with her naked
Reading third panel: Ah. I am the Fool

a single snuggle from big papa huge time would singlehandly fix my life

Now seems a good time to post this cartoon by Tim Hamilton @timhamiltonartist.bsky.social for The New Yorker from 20 June 2019, when Trump picked a fight with Iran during his first term 👇

Welcome to Women's History Month!

Hello, book people! I am the book content editor for Reactor Mag and I'm looking for 2026 sci-fi, fantasy, horror, romantasy, and speculative books coming out in the second half of the year! If you have an adult or YA SFF/H book out July-Dec (or publicist), share the link/info here!

Twin Peaks Logo Generator Turtle Power!

That's what started all this and I'm confident it would end it