Here are some cautionary tales for people aspiring to become comic book creators.
There is a two-week waiting period (after the termination of a role) before an example can be added. This ensures the job loss is accurately reported, actually sticks and avoids knee-jerk reactions.
Creators
- Joe Bennett, who had made a name for himself in the industry as the artist for Al Ewing's critically acclaimed series Immortal Hulk, was blacklisted from Marvel
and taken off several projects he had signed on for in 2021 after an illustration he did in 2017 advocating for controversial Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro note gained notoriety. This was likely just the final straw for Marvel, as it was the latest in a long strong of controversies over anti-semitic and transphobic imagery and statements that Bennett had made over the years. Ewing himself made a post on social media calling Bennett out prior to his blacklisting, confirming this was a long-standing issue he had with the artist and that he would never work with him again over it. - Eddie Berganza, a group editor for DC Comics since the early 90s, was known in the industry for sexually assaulting women for over a decade, which was even reported to the HR department at DC, but little action was taken other than demoting him from executive editor to group editor in 2012. The resulting bad PR from a November 2017 article about Berganza that Buzzfeed published (around the same time the Weinstein story broke, no less) is what finally got DC to drop him for good.
- Charles Brownstein, the executive director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund since 2002, faced scrutiny after his sexual assault charges from 2006, which was reported in news outlets at the time, resurfaced, forcing him to resign from his post. The fact that it took fourteen years for this to happen has not helped CBLDF's reputation much.
- Warren Ellis was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women, which resulted in DC Comics pulling his upcoming two-page story for the Dark Nights: Death Metal anthology spinoff Dark Nights: Death Metal Legends of the Dark Knights. As of July 2023, he's done no new work for Marvel or DC (although older work is being reprinted). In other media, a Hollywood Reporter article confirmed that as a result of this, he would no longer be involved in Castlevania: Nocturne, Castlevania's French Revolution-set Sequel Series.
- Steve Gerber was fired from Howard the Duck, a comic-book he created, due to his inability to meet deadlines. Years later, he was given another chance to write Howard in a guest appearance in Spider-Man Team-Up... and then he managed to get himself blacklisted from Marvel for several years when angered by reports that Howard was going to be handed over to other writers, he wrote an extremely unflattering parody of his Team-Up comic for rival Image Comics, which reportedly enraged editor Tom Brevoort, who had stuck his neck out to get Gerber the chance to write Howard again and took Gerber's parody as a personal slight.
- Comic book writer Gerard Jones, best known for his stints at DC, Marvel and Malibu as well as the English manga adaptations of Dragon Ball, Inuyasha, Maison Ikkoku, Rosario + Vampire and Ranma ½, saw his career end when he was arrested for child pornography possession in 2016 and sentenced to six years in prison nearly two years later.
- An example that tainted an entire medium: in 1954, Australian comic-book writer and artist Len Lawson was convicted of raping several models. His popular comic The Lone Avenger was given to another writer, but it was soon banned in Queensland and its publisher quickly dropped the title entirely. The resulting scandal, tied in with the influence on Australia of the US anti-comics backlash, virtually destroyed the country's home-grown comics industry except for the most inoffensive of children's publications. As a sad postscript, Lawson murdered two women shortly after his first prison sentence in 1961, and he was sent back to prison until he died in 2003.
- In June 2020, Spider-Gwen co-creator Jason Latour was accused of harassment and sexual misconduct by illustrator and designer Lauren "Lorua" Tracey, prompting Marvel Comics to confirm that they have no plans to continue working with Latour anymore.
- Comic publisher Hope Nicholson shut down her company Bedside Press in November 2019, after she admitted to sexually assaulting writer Tres Dean.
- Writer José Roberto Pereira was fired from Novas Aventuras De Megaman because the higher-ups of Capcom found out he was going to usurp the story from Mega Man with an original character called Princess.
- Numerous comic conventions and reviewers announced in 2017 they were banning indie comic creator and publisher Cody Pickrodt after multiple women came forward with accusations of rape, sexual assault, antisemitism, and failure to pay royalties for creators he published through his company Ray Ray Books.
- DC Comics dropped artist Josue "Justiniano" Rivera after his April 2021 arrest over possession of child pornography. Wonder Woman: Hand of the Gods, an original Graphic Novel he was illustrating at the time, was put on hold indefinitely due to the incident.
- Nick Simmons, son of KISS bassist Gene Simmons, lost his comic book career just as it started in 2009 when he released Incarnate. Right away readers noticed how much of the art was essentially stolen from places like DeviantArt and other places, the most notable one being Bleach, one of the single biggest manga/anime franchises at the time, leading to fans reaching out to the series creator Tite Kubo and places like Viz Media (the manga's North American licensor) to inform them. Kubo was playful about finding out Nick was a comic book artist and didn't make a big deal about it, but Viz stepped in and investigated the issue. After, the comic was ended within only a few months of the incident starting, Nick apologized for plagiarizing it, and the series was cancelled quickly at only three issues. While Nick would eventually find work in other fields, he never returned to comics.
- In 2004, Jim Starlin was fired from Thanos and dropped by Marvel for nearly a decade for unwittingly violating an injunction against the use of Ultraverse characters by including a brief appearance by Rune, an Ultraverse character who at the time had been the last person to use the Soul Gem. This has fueled some conspiracy theories among Starlin's fans, who believe that Tom Breevort, then the editor of Thanos and more recently the Editor-In-Chief at Marvel, fired Starlin to cover up his own negligence as an editor.
- Writer and artist Cameron Stewart, best known for his Batgirl run, saw his standing in the industry tank after artist and model Aviva Maï came forward about him sexually grooming her when she was 16 and he was in his 30s, which prompted other women to come forward about his inappropriate behavior as well, some of whom were also creators in the industry. Stewart had his social media account set to private as an enormous number of creators spoke out against him in support of the women. A few days later, he was taken off of an unnamed planned project for DC Comics and cover work for Image.
- Indonesian Marvel comics artist Ardian Syaf's career was abruptly halted in April 2017 after he decided to sneak sectarian Islamist messages into the first issue of X-Men: Gold, expressing his support for anti-Christian protests against a real-world Christian Indonesian politician and making what were interpreted as Antisemitic insinuations against the in-universe-Jewish Kitty Pryde.
- Doug TenNapel was a heavily admired cartoonist and writer between the 90s and early 2000s, having amassed a loyal cult following with videogames like Earthworm Jim and The Neverhood, along with TV shows and graphic novels like Catscratch and Gear. While Doug was already on thin ice for his opposition to the LGBT community in 2011, it was his response to editor Heather Alexandra's negative review for Earthworm Jim in 2017 and his public support for Comicsgate the year after that abruptly stopped his career momentum.note He's since been blacklisted from the entertainment industry and all of his most recent projects have been self-published works financed through crowdfunding.
- Roc Upchurch was fired from the position of the artist on Rat Queens after his November 2014 arrest for assaulting his wife. It would have been bad enough anyway, but the fact that the comic had a largely female cast and a large feminist fanbase sealed it. Upchurch was eventually succeeded by Stjepan Sejic, and then Tess Fowler.
- Ethan Van Sciver got fired from DC after a podcast appearance, where he made unprofessional, vitriolic insults aimed at various creators employed at Marvel at the time. He then became basically the face of Comicsgate and proceeded to burn all remaining bridges, openly antagonizing a huge part of the industry.
- Writer Chuck Wendig was fired from Marvel in October 2018 during the production of the Star Wars comic series Shadow of Vader (which was subsequently canceled after the first two issues), and from a yet-untitled Star Wars book; after a series of tweets (which were deemed uncivil and unprofessional) that he made in the wake of the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Comics
- A series-ending case with Vertigo Comics comic book Border Town after it came to light that writer and co-creator Eric M. Esquivel sexually abused a woman in December 2018.
- Stormwatch's first revival series Stormwatch: Team Achilles was abruptly cancelled in 2004 after it came out that writer Micah Ian Wright had lied about being a former Army Ranger Sergeant; his supposed military experience had been one of the main reasons why WildStorm had been willing to let him infuse the series with a heavy anti-war bent (at a time when much of the comic-reading public supported the War in Iraq), so the revelation that he'd lied really pissed them off.
