Originally published at: Warren Ellis reportedly returning to comics after dozens of misconduct allegations | Boing Boing
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He’s a POS but he’s free to do whatever with his talents, hopefully the people that end up working with him have the ability to turn down those gigs if they do not wish to work with him. Or at least i hope they’re conscious of his past behavior and keep track of how he interacts with them and others. For my part i just don’t read his stuff, i have no interest
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10-4, will continue to do so privately and publicly.
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Well, a man with talent must be heard, because nothign is more important… /s
Sadly, we live in a society where it’s not demanded of men who are seen as highly talented. The pleasure of the consumer far outweighs the pain of the abused, sadly.
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I mean, he came up with Spider Jerusalem. What did you expect?
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Plenty of people can write interesting and complex characters of questionable morality without being abusive dicks.
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Yeah, I can do without Ellis… Joseph Cornell on the other hand…
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This is disappointing, but not overly surprising. The comics industry does a great job of protecting folks like this, sadly.
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I’m finding the growing level of awareness in the greater comics community that his lack of addressing So Many of Us before restarting his career unacceptable as a promising sign. Its fascinating to see these social understandings develop organically.
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I’m so tired of existing while being a woman in this world, just to see serial abusers always fall upwards and being rewarded with new work while the people they abused are silenced, discarded, ejected from the same industries or drop out because of the sheer unsafety of being in the same place where people are friendly with abusers.
“oh he can do whatever he wants” NEVER applies to the people that have to live with the fucking trauma. The medical bills, the destroyed careers, the pain… If you don’t live with the pain and bear the scars it’s just SO EASY.
Dude not only didn’t regret anything but kept doing exactly the same thing after but “oh it’s between him and the people he abuses”
Fuck you, Ben Templesmith.
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Oh for fuck’s sake. Just apologize. Repeat after me: “Yes, I was an abusive and mentally manipulative jerkwad, and I’m deeply sorry for all those I hurt…”
I guess I’m glad they didn’t immediately dodge with the white male rejoinder: “I’m yet another poor, poor victim of PC liberal cancel culture, obviously, and I don’t owe anybody anything…”
Maybe?
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He likely does not feel like he did anything wrong…
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Why would he? Everything was “consensual” no manipulation at all. Just a sad, lonely man who wanted someone to talk to. If anything, people should apologize to him saying mean things that forced him to drop off the radar for a while /S
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I think the point is that Ellis’ abusive dick characters are now looking a lot like self-inserts.
The talent is optional, really. Plenty of completely mediocre dudes get this privilege, too. (And in an environment of mediocre dudes, mediocrity so often gets confused with genius so they can all feel justified in being in their positions of power.) It’s especially maddening when that privilege comes at the expense of women with actual talent.
Gods, I get so angry reading about the careers (or lack thereof) of people who weren’t white men, who clearly had amazing talent and genius that they never got to fully express, and the abusive white, male ass-hats who succeeded despite their mediocrity - and that doesn’t even account for the people who never had an opportunity to demonstrate even a glimmer of their genius. Since Ellis was targeting women with artistic aspirations, I wonder how many voices he ended up silencing. How many potential careers got aborted by a frankly over-rated comic book writer.
It may require a level of self-awareness he doesn’t possess. Or if he does then he feels like he was justified in doing what he did because he’s that self-centered.
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I was deeply disappointed and disgusted by the revelation of Ellis’ scummery. I bought and read a lot of his books and enjoyed his online forum.
I don’t know if I can go back again.
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WHOA, WEIRD TIMING:
Apparently, I’m still on a Warren Ellis email list.
This popped into my inbox two minutes ago:
I was made aware today of the So Many Of Us collective’s offer of a mediated dialogue, and have today asked their permission to enter that dialogue. Where that will take us, I’m not sure, but I know I want to make certain that I’m doing all I can to no longer be part of the problem or in any way still perpetuating the past. I hope these conversations will be ongoing and productive for all.
A year ago, I put out this statement.
In it, I did my best to respond to the many accounts of my past behavior, the harm I’d caused, and the negative effects of my poor judgments. As I have come to realize, that damage has persisted and left lasting scars for many.
In the past, I have been careless and unthinking in my personal relationships, and I again apologise without reservation. In the last year, I’ve entered therapy and taken other measures to change my behavior, and am continuing to process the help and advice I’ve received. I’ve had a lot of long, hard conversations with people who are or have been close to me, and I need to have a lot more. I’m working on change. I’ve been silent because I had a lot of work to do and still do, and have repairs still to make, and wish to proceed mindfully without causing further harm.
I have, of course, been silent and isolated for too long, and should have addressed things sooner and proceeded with more speed. I apologise.
All of this should especially have been addressed before word of a new project came out via my collaborator. That was my mistake and the book was prematurely announced without Image’s input or knowledge. I should have brought up to him beforehand that I still had work to do to address my past. I should have worked with Image to make sure they were ready and comfortable to commit publicly to the project when I still had work to do to address my past. This is another example of my lousy judgment. I now add both him, and Image, to the list of apologies I owe.
Naturally, trying to mend my errors now makes it look like the only reason I’m speaking at the moment is to serve that project. It’s not, but that’s irrelevant: this is about me trying to make things right—regardless of how it looks for me or how good or bad the timing is . So here are my thoughts:
I have had nearly a year to reflect on everything I’ve learned about how my behavior has hurt others and I am sorry. Repeating that over and over doesn’t make anything better for anybody, but, now I’ve had my time to listen and process and advance my understanding, there are a few further things I need to say.
I acknowledge that I have done wrong. Neither my intent at the time, nor my perception of it then, erases that fact. Nor does it at all obscure that the result of that behavior has clearly affected individuals for years, and may even have inspired others to perform negative behaviour.
If you are a reader who supported me, then thank you, but please don’t defend me anymore. Change doesn’t happen overnight – I’m at the start of a long road, and it’s not a road with a defined end - and it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. If you want to support me, then support efforts towards transformation of communities, industries and workplaces.
Going forward:
I’ve been in therapy now for almost a year and will remain committed to that part of the process.
I will continue to work on new projects with only the collaborators who have expressed their comfort in doing so with me. I ceased all public appearances, and I think I have a long way to go before such activities would be appropriate again. I am grateful to all my collaborators for continuing to associate with me, and for the difficult but instructive conversations we had to get to that point.
I’ve always kept my charitable donations private, but, in looking for ways to contribute to change without privileging my own voice, I’ve expanded my donations into the space of women’s support groups. Most recently, my last royalty cheque was split between funding therapy for young women and supporting women in the workplace. I hope to do more and will welcome suggestions of charities that I can build lasting support for.
I do not yet know the fate of this newsletter. I miss talking with you, but I committed to speaking less, listening more and becoming better. There are still 23,000 of you, and it would be nice to use this platform as a tool for doing some good. I’m going to keep thinking about it, take advice from friends and take regular inventory.
As I said before – I’m sorry I let you down, and I’m sorry I have failed the trust placed in me. I hope that, over time, I can earn back a little of that.
Sincerely,
Warren
This sounds like he’s trying?
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Blah blah blah blah blah and finally sorry.
Dude needs a fucking editor. And better morals.
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Oh yeah… but if the man is considered talented, then it’s a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY to CANCEL him…
Quite a lot, I’m sure…
Shut up Warren.
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