Stopping abuse in the comics industry: not just a few bad apples

Comics' harassment crisis isn't just caused by the names you've seen in the comics news. It is enabled by an entire system of employment and fandom built on exploitation. Good thing there are some brilliant and brave people joining me to talk about what we can to do create meaningful change in the industry.

Guests:

Jay Edidin writes comics, short fiction, and narrative nonfiction; covers culture, arts, science, and gender as a journalist and essayist; edits comics, transmedia, and genre fiction; and is half of the podcast Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men. Jay was named ComicBook .com 2017 Comics Person of the Year for his investigative coverage of harassment issues at D.C. Comics and his work to foster diversity and inclusion in comics culture.

Joan Hilty is a comics editor who came up in the 90s queer comics scene as a cartoonist, then had a 15-year editorial run at DC Comics/Vertigo, and now works with many of the Top 10 comics publishers in licensed publishing at Nickelodeon. She’s taught at Maryland Institute College of Art and is currently on the Cartooning faculty at School of Visual Arts. In 2014 she wrote about her experience with harassment in the industry for the Guardian, which was later a part of Jay’s Buzzfeed reporting leading to the ouster of a top editor at DC.

Kwanza Osajyefo: Author and creator of BLACK, a comic that asks: what if only black people had superpowers. Kwanza has been a part of the comics for nearly 20 years. Beginning his career as an online producer at Marvel before moving into other media roles. He later returned to comics and launched DC Comics' digital publishing initiatives.

Referenced:

https://www.somanyofus.com/ : a website created by people targeted and manipulated by Warren Ellis.