Scott Allie

[rogin]

Turns out he was just the miserable scumbag I always thought he was.

https://twitter.com/ShawnaGore/status/1275921105773969410

ETA: But on the bright side, Darkhorse fired him, decades too late, but they fired him!

Comments

[beer_good_foamy]

Huh. I thought they'd fired him years ago for exactly that thing, but I guess they thought he was one of those ones who Deserved A Second Chance(TM)? Good riddance.

[rogin]

I vaguely knew that there were allegations but nothing ever came from it, apparently until now because the Hellboy creator said he would no longer work with him.

[shadowkat]

I go curious and found it: Dark Horse Finally Cuts Ties with Editor Scott Allie

Apparently they all blamed it on the drinking. It's rather interesting how people explain nasty behavior - "oh it was the booze", "oh the drugs I was on", "oh women were throwing themselves at me" - no, dude, it's you.

In 2015, after reports of multiple instances of sexual misconduct, Allie released a statement saying: “I’m deeply sorry about my behavior at San Diego Comic Con 2015 and I apologize to everyone I’ve hurt. I’m completely embarrassed by my actions and how my behavior reflects on Dark Horse Comics, my friends and family. My personal approach and decisions for managing stress were bad. Dark Horse and I have taken the matter very seriously and since this incident, we have taken steps to correct and to avoid any behavior like this in the future. Although apologies can’t undo what has happened, I’ve tried to apologize to everyone impacted by my behavior. To my family, friends, co-workers, and to the industry — please know that I am truly, truly sorry.”

At the time, Dark Horse Comics founder Mike Richardson released a statement to The Beat, which in part read, “In this particular case, action was taken immediately, though we did not, and cannot, perform a public flogging, as some might wish.” Although Richardson said action had been taken, Allie continued as an editor for Dark Horse, transitioning from editor-in-chief to the role of executive senior editor in 2015, before departing Dark Horse as a full-time employee in 2017, continuing to work with them since in a freelance capacity.

Richardson’s lengthy 2015 statement also attacked writer Janelle Asselin, whose report at Graphic Policy about the alleged incidents of Allie making sexual advances at a Boom Studios Comic-Con party prompted the statement in the first place. Richardson added that “[Asselin’s] assumption that my longevity somehow ‘embeds’ within me an attitude of inappropriate permissiveness is not only wrong, it is insulting,” before vowing then, as it does now, that Dark Horse would renew its “efforts to make sure that our company is never again mentioned with regard to this type of occurrence.”

Now, five years later, Dark Horse’s name is again mentioned in connection to Allie’s alleged abuse—which is apparently what it took for the company to oust him. On Thursday night, both Mignola and Dark Horse (once again via Mike Richardson) released extended statements on the decision to sever ties with Allie, attempting to explain why the revelations from past years did not prompt them to take meaningful punitive action sooner (many in the comics community have made their displeasure at Richardson’s inaction known).

Mignola notes in a statement posted to his official website that he’s worked with Allie for close to 25 years. “From the earliest days I heard stories of his drunken behavior at conventions—stupid stuff like jumping fully clothed into fountains. It was joked about and I was not aware that there was anything at all more serious going on. The drunken incident in 2015 made it clear that there was a much more serious problem that needed to be dealt with,” Mignola wrote. “I spoke to [Scott] about it. Others spoke to him about it. He agreed that the drinking was a problem and we were all led to believe he was getting help for that. And to the best of my knowledge he DID get help for the drinking problem.”

[beer_good_foamy]

And to the best of my knowledge he DID get help for the drinking problem.

"Surgery successful, patient dead."

[shadowkat]

Exactly. LOL!

[shapinglight]

Good riddance

Hear, hear!

[rogin]

At least at some point some of them get what they deserve.

[shadowkat]

The comics industry is almost impossible for women, it is changing now. Wish I could say this surprised me about Dark Horse, the comics industry or Allie - but it doesn't. Also, considering the slimeball in the White House did the same thing on his reality television series for years...

What I found unsettling about Shawna Gore's post though is the description of the harassment is a description that I've read in a couple of contemporary romance novels back in the early 00s, and around 2015. Except in those - the women were available and physically attracted and it was "consensual". But it is disturbingly close - making me wonder how embedded this is in our culture?

I despised Allie - in part because of how he treated many female fans online and at conventions. But it's not just Allie who needs to be taken to task for it - but the industry and culture that gave the permission to do it. Dark Horse should have fired him in 2015, when the allegations first arose - that would have helped send a clear message that this is not okay. Instead they protected him and blasted the accusers. Kind of glad haven't bought any Dark Horse comics in a while.

[rogin]

Yes, I agree. He is just one of many and the wall of silence is still holding up. But there are some dents now.

And I do like this particular dent, because he was such an ass towards the fans.

And yes, I used to think that these tropes are harmless and that everybody can distinguish between a fantasy and real relationship behavior. But in the meantime I have seen so many predetors going after very young women and girls with exactly this trope of "overwhelming" desire and "lovesickness", painting themselves as the poor guys, that I do believe that these tropes are just part of rape culture.

[shadowkat]

I wrote an essay about this several years ago that is on Ao3 now - From Clarissa to Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Sexual Violence in Fictional Narratives Written for and often (not always) by Women

I've mixed feelings. Diana Galabadon's best-selling Outlander series features rape as a major plot device. She uses it in every single novel, and every single lead character is raped at a certain point, in increasingly graphic and brutal manner. The series, show-runned by Ron Moore, is graphically depicting the rapes. I stopped reading and watching after the first book - because I don't have the stomach for sexual violence. (I know she does this and Moore did it in the show via reviews from those who read and watched. On reviewer noted that Galabadon has a thing about rape, once or twice makes sense, but every single lead character in the series gets raped to further plot and character? Really?)
And..there is a video game that was making the rounds in Asia during the early 00s where you could play the rapist. It was illegal in the US. I found out about it via an article in a metro newspaper. And was horrified.
And...I remember having a rather disturbing discussion with two video store clerks about the film Irreversible - which features a graphic and rather long rape sequence in a tunnel - so bad that people walked out on it. (I didn't see the film, they did.) And one of the two men, a young guy in his late teens early twenties had been turned on by that gang rape in the tunnel. I remember the hairs on the back of my neck standing up and how I backed up slowly, the other guy saw my reaction and tried to shift the conversation. Most likely worried he'd just lost a customer.

OTOH..sometimes the book is cathartic or a means of lessening the impact of the rape. Finding a way to handle it emotionally.

I don't know. I did examine it in some depth in that essay, if you are interested.

[rogin]

I didn't really mean the plots that are actually about rape. Although Allies total obliviousness towards the lack of agency in the space rape scene was staggering.

I meant the romantizition of unrequitted love. Lovesick guy lusting after often younger and inexperienced woman. In fiction he is often quite disempowered by his love (see Spike). Old predatory men often playact this disempowerment to flatter the younger woman or to guilt her into sex (as Allie apparently did with the woman he harrased), but in reality they are just acting on their whims and disregarding the other person and their agency completely.

[shadowkat]

Again mixed feelings. I think you need to see it as a reaction to what exists. Have you ever desperately loved someone who didn't love you back? Have you ever realized you won't find anyone who you are attracted to and is attracted to you as well - have you felt that despair? If you haven't, it may be impossible to understand the trope and why it is comforting to see Spike obtain Buffy's love, even after he screws up royally.

I mean it is complicated. Love is, romance is.

We feel pain and we express it through our art. I don't think you can blame fiction for what happens outside of it. Also, I think it is a kind of chicken before the egg argument? Emotion gives birth to fiction. Often in fiction we express our darkest desires, dreams, pain, and uncertainty.

It's not that simple.

Also there's a huge difference between Spike and Warren Mears...one who struggles with unrequited love, the other who sees women as objects to satisfy him.

Anyhow, I said most of this in that essay. I'll leave it at that.

[rogin]

Oddly enough I cannot really say that I ever felt dispair when I was in love with someone who did not love me back. I usually felt quite elated even if I was not loved back and I only felt real despair when people who I loved and had loved me back turned away from me.

But anyway I did not want to say that I don't understand the plot of desperate love. It is immensely attractive and as you know I am a huge Spuffy fan. It's just that I found the idea is less harmless than I thought. I thought people could distinguish between fantasy and reality and usually in reality if you really do not want a relationship with someone, you mean it and it is not strange supernatural obstacles and past murder attempts that keep you appart despite your attraction but actual "do not want".

And I have seen a lot of Warren Mears men, playact the Spike to get there, even though they have a complete and utter disregard for the object of their "affections".