Earlier this week, it was alleged that Dynamite Entertainment CEO Nick Barrucci has been secretly working with Comicsgate, a group widely criticized by many in the industry for being a harassment campaign. Writer Gail Simone, who had a close relationship with the company and Barrucci, has released a series of tweets explaining how she was disappointed in seeing the publisher's alleged actions.
Comicsgate is an online campaign that says they are about giving comic fans what they want, while openly taking on what they perceive as "forced diversity," in the industry. The group has been criticized for associating with the alt-right and organizing harassment campaigns against marginalized creators while overpricing their books and failing on shipment dates. Earlier last week, Comicsgate leader/spokesperson Ethan Van Sciver alleged on a live stream that he was secretly working with Dynamite since 2018. This was following top talent in the industry, including Mark Russell, ending their relationship with Dynamite over openly promoting CG projects on Twitter.
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Simone, who wrote Red Sonja for Dynamite, took to Twitter to talk about the allegations levied at Barrucci and Dynamite Comics. Simone stated that she's not working with Dynamite and not moving forward with a charity book to benefit comic shops. She said the whole situation "blows" because she really trusted Barrucci and considered him "damn near family." She said she couldn't articulate "how much it sucks" to learn about the allegations and said that she cared about the publisher. She even wrote that she was so close with Dynamite, they previously offered to support her after her house was robbed (she declined). Simone said she hasn't spoken to Barrucci, despite his repeated attempts to call her. She said she didn't want Dynamite to be canceled, and for them to come out of the situation "stronger and better." Here's the full comments.
All right, I promised I would talk about Dynamite. This sucks, I'd rather not, it's extremely unpleasant and draining. I didn't post much earlier because the whole thing blows.
I know a lot of people were angry at me for not jumping on this by their timeline, but I say again, sometimes it takes me a while to fully articulate my feelings. It just does.
This is a morass for me because I considered the guy running Dynamite to be not just a publisher, not just a friend, but damn near family. I don't have a lot of biological family, so having a guy you really trust that you really like, it's like having a brother.
I believe a publisher can publish who they want. I believe if freelancers can make a choice what to do at that point. It's a personal choice. And I believe almost every publisher has made mistakes, I know most freelancers have. I CERTAINLY have.
But finding out all of these alleged connections was very disappointing to me. I know this is just going to end up being mocked on all sides, but when you have someone you care about and this happens, I really just can't articulate how much it sucks.
There's two things going on, the public and the personal. The public thing is what it is. The personal is that this was a publisher I liked, who, when my house was robbed, immediately wrote to offer to loan me money if I needed it (I didn't, but that was stand up behavior).
Second, I want there to be a path out of this kind of shit, I want to believe that there's a way people can step up and make it back into the light. I don't want publishers to fold, that just makes everything worse. I don't know what that way is. But I want it to exist.I've read a bunch of people saying, "Oh, she doesn't want to endanger her paycheck." Which, no. I am not working with Dynamite and am not going forward with a charity book to benefit comics shops we talked about.
I worked at Dynamite because I liked the people, I love the characters, I always have fun there. They have routinely asked for more work than I can do. But I don't NEED them and they certainly don't NEED me. It sucks, but it's the truth.
So for those of you who think I was being quiet for paychecks, you are mistaken. Since I have routinely commented on bigger companies that I was working for, I would think that would be pretty obvious.
I haven't spoken with Nick since all of this went down. First I was too upset and later, I didn't really know what I could say. He's called several times and I have put off answering just because even thinking about the whole situation is depressing and I don't have any answers.
I have been disappointed by comics people before, this whole thing with Warren Ellis is just intensely awful. But again, this is someone I really cared about and it just plain took the wind out of me. That's all.
As for what happens in the future, it's not for me to say. I don't see any benefit to canceling a good publisher that employs a lot of good people and produces a lot of good books. I hope Dynamite comes out of this stronger and better.
I feel like the story's still unfolding.
I know a lot of people want me to be angry. But mostly I just feel sad.
I'm an optimist by nature. I hope for the best.
That's it. Have a good day, everyone.
Actually, I will add one thing. If anyone WAS going to wash this stuff off their shoes, I would think Nick would be that guy. I mean that in a good way. PS. It was a blast to write Red Sonja. And Swords of Sorrow. And Red Sonja/Conan. And Red Sonja/Tarzan. and the rest.
It couldn't have been easy for Simone to speak out after becoming close with Barrucci and the people at Dynamite Comics. But, the fact Comicsgate has repeatedly made disparaging remarks about Simone and that one of her closest comic allies allegedly secretly participated in helping the campaign has got to be extremely difficult.
Simone's relationship with Dynamite, like an increasingly large amount of industry pros following the alleged revealed Comisgate ties, will cease for now. Whether Simone works with the company again remains to be seen.
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