The Four Color Media Monitor

Lobdell, whose portfolio of the past 3 decades is very mediocre, and can sometimes be really sloppy, has announced he's going to stop writing the DC title starring the resurrected Jason Todd (it's unclear if Starfire is still a cast member there), and shortly after he announced his impending departure, CBR announced that new allegations of sexual harassment came up:

Creators Tess Fowler and Alex de Campi have both shared new allegations against Lobdell on Twitter, with Fowler recalling how Lobdell was "helping" her get a start in comics when she was younger. "He also came to my work to meet/watch me without introducing himself & told me I should go to a foreign con w him so he could tie me up & abuse me," Fowler said. Meanwhile, de Campi responded to Fowler's post, saying, "Scott Lobdell tried this with me too (I shut him down) and as recently as a year ago he tried it with a young female artist I know (she approached me, said 'I think I'm being groomed', I said 'yup you are' and welcome to blocksville, population: THAT GUY)"

First off, I don't find Lobdell appealing, and at least two prior accusations leveled against him did sound credible enough. But I also tend to be wary when people like Fowler make these allegations, if only because she's said to be one of these SJWs who seeks attention and may specialize in victimology (de Campi may too). That doesn't mean what's alleged couldn't have happened, although I find it annoyingly ludicrous when these people repeatedly use words like "grooming" if the targets happened to be legally adult. It would make more sense if they said "there's a creep hitting on me". The problem is that there seems to be all these victimologists and troublemakers out there of the Orwellian variety who seem to shun love and sex with the opposite gender, and want to label all males as monsters. If anybody wonders why some supposedly don't believe women when they allege a serious offense, it's because there's man-hating victimologists indoctrinated in universities and such who're making it hard for actual victims to be believed. Especially when they don't turn to legal authorities about the issues.

That said, it's entirely possible, based on what I'd read about Lobdell in the past, that he could've been more insulting to the fairer sex than previously thought. When Comics Beat reported on the topic, they brought up a most interesting theory:

The reference to Jason Todd as “tragically flawed” and “in search of redemption” is likely a reference to Lobdell’s own past. The writer admitted to having engaged in sexual harassment back in 2013, and was accused again last year of harassment as the high-profile Flash Forward series Lobdell wrote was garnering attention. Now, in the wake of Lobdell’s announcement, new allegations have been made online, accusing the writer of grooming behavior and sexual harassment.

Wouldn't that be something, if Lobdell made Todd a stand-in for himself? Alas, don't be too sure that's what Lobdell set out to do. The site also says:

Given Lobdell’s well-known history, and the recent reckoning the comics industry has been going through with creators like Cameron Stewart, Jason Latour, and Warren Ellis all being named for sexual misconduct, it’s unclear if Lobdell’s departure from Red Hood was a preemptive move ahead of more allegations coming out against him.

The question remains now whether Bob Harras, the DC editor-in-chief who continued to employ Lobdell after harassment allegations were made public seven years ago, and who also reportedly shielded noted serial harasser Eddie Berganza for years, will face any sort of repercussions for those actions.

How fascinating they don't ask whether Dan DiDio had any accountability for shielding Berganza, recalling some of the allegations made against him date back to the early 2000s. DiDio may be gone from their employ (and if he's planning to start his own company, everyone concerned would do well to avoid investing in any such thing), but that doesn't mean he didn't have responsibility for all the trouble caused. I looked at the comments section for this article, and I noticed the following:

Thank you for reporting this Joe. As I said a little while back, I’ve met (let’s say) 100 male comic professionals at Cons. All of them were sweethearts, all of them were warm and patient, all of them were professional. I’ve been going to cons as a female fan since I was a teenager (I’m 31 now) and have had a lot of exchanges. In 15 years, I’ve only had 2 bad experiences. Scott Lobdell was one of them.

I was sixteen and my friend Jenna was 15 and we were NOT talking to Scott Lobdell, who creepily smirked at our appearance, our outfits, and asked if Jenna was “into casual S&M” because she was wearing a choker-styled necklace. He made a dick joke and was just a palpable creep. I’d be curious why Bob Harras continued to employ him. I never chimed in with a lot of this because again, so many comic pros are PROS and wonderful to fans. But Lobdell… I mean, believe people the first time when they show you who they are, right?

While this may be hearsay, since it was posted as a comment in the reader fields, it does sound a lot more possible he could've grossed out the aforementioned girls with offensive language. This must've happened in 2005, at which time Lobdell would've been in his mid-40s. So if this has any meat to it, there were 2 teen girls going to a convention and chatting with each other, and Lobdell came strolling by and began leering at them, topping it all off with revolting jokes that women often find offensive. Though never mentioned so far by anybody, I've assumed Lobdell isn't married, and with his attitude, what lady in the right frame of mind would want to? Let's also remember this was the man who did a very poor job characterizing Starfire in the past decade, making her sound like she didn't want sex out of love.

There was also the following comment on the article page, making the same point I did:

Dan DiDio and Paul Levitz have done more to shield sexual predators than Bob Harras.

Can we make sure the blame is correctly applied?

Exactly. While there were reports Harras refused to take any action, he wasn't the only one. There's also the higher echelons in the publisher's office who have to be held responsible as well. Even the company finance managers could surely have some clout in determining whether somebody stays or walks, yet nothing was done. Just another truly shameful example of what goes on behind the scenes in some industrial offices.

I also found a few tweets posted by a lady reporter who also claims to have had an atrocious experience with Lobdell, that decidedly require some pondering:

Oh. Hey. Does anyone remember the I was running programming for a series of conventions? I had to work with Scott Lobdell and he would constantly harass me to have sex with him and be his mistress in some BDSM fantasy. It went on for months. Maybe a year?

— Meredith (@mplacko) July 1, 2020

He got my number because I was in charge of guests/panels and what not. And the dude would not quit. At first, I just deflected. I was scared because I didn't want to offend this big name guest.

— Meredith (@mplacko) July 1, 2020

Then, when I was ousted from that gig (by two female "friends" I had brought on to work with me. Another story, another day) I finally told Scott to fuck off. He thought I was being cute and it played into his whole wanting a BDSM relationship.

— Meredith (@mplacko) July 1, 2020

I eventually just blocked him.

Then, like a year and a half later, I ran into him at my veterinarians office. I guess he took his dog there too? I just stared him down and made very uncomfortable eye contact until he left.

Haven't seen him since. Haven't thought of him since.

— Meredith (@mplacko) July 1, 2020

This is just a portion of the shit so many of us women go through on the constant, especially in the fandom world. And the fact *I* was too worried to speak out about it at the time, says a lot.

We just try to deflect and move on, so we can do our jobs. And it fucking sucks.

— Meredith (@mplacko) July 1, 2020

Man, this is getting more and more disturbing by the minute. And that's why, whether or not Lobdell is guilty of the gravest insults to a woman's intellect, it's high time he retired from the industry altogether, now that he's reaching 60 years old, and spared us all further embarrassment. Indeed, when I looked around Twitter, there were already quite a few people speaking in most negative terms about him. In fact, after he posted his departure announcement on Instagram, I'd noticed at least a few angry replies, and later on, he locked off the topic; obviously, he's embarrassed now that people are catching onto his dark side. I wonder what Christian Cooper, one of his editors on the brief Alpha Flight run he scripted, what with its poor scripting, thinks now that the guy who penned the oh-so big a deal exit from the closet for Northstar has turned out to be a big embarrassment? I don't know if Lobdell's ever described himself as a male feminist, but I may have noticed that some people like him, Cameron Stewart and, most notorious of all, Harvey Weinstein, tend to be pretty big supporters of LGBT ideology, presumably because they believe, much like with men supporting feminism, that it'll cover their tracks in grimy activities. That's why realists should be wary of agenda supporters in many forms.

When Games Radar brought up Lobdell's departure, I shook my head in disbelief at how they referred to him as the "longest running" writer at DC, when there have been others working for them in the past with long runs too, like Denny O'Neil on Green Lantern, Cary Bates on the Flash, and Marv Wolfman on the Titans. However, they also note:

Lobdell has not announced a reason for his departure, but this comes shortly after his Instagram webcomics series QuaranComics was pulled from the social media platform.

It could have something to do with all the allegations leveled against him now. Who'd want to read it after all these new allegations about him anyway? I think he erased his Twitter account too, and even before that, he'd stopped using it about 2 years ago. It's clear the emerging negativity towards Lobdell has had a certain impact, one more reason he should be put out to pasture.

If memory serves, Lobdell once unsuccessfully tried working in standup comedy. His disastrous sense of humor clearly played a part in his smutty behaviour to boot.

Labels: bad editors, dc comics, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, technology