The Manara scandal was endemic of a larger problem with women in the comic book industry, one that was sadly typified with last year's allegations about Brian Wood. The writer and artist had began his career as a designer at Rockstar Games whilst self-publishing dystopian sci-fi series like Channel Zero and DMZ, which eventually caught the eyes of the Big Two. From there he was recruited into writing the recent all-female X-Men book, a current run on Moon Knight picking up from Warren Ellis, as well as a brief turn on Conan for Dark Horse Comics and continuing his best-selling Demo series with AiT/Planet Lar and later Vertigo. Tis a pity he's a huge creep. In October 2013, indie comics creator Tess Fowler with support from industry veterans like Brandon Graham came forward with stories of how Wood harassed her during a meeting at San Diego Comic Con. The crux of it was she asked for his opinion on her work, being a fan, and he offered to give her a thorough critique...if she came up to his hotel room. She declined, he pushed the issue, she felt uncomfortable, apparently it's not the first (nor the last) time he's done such things. Gross. Wood disputed her version of events but nonetheless apologised to Fowler, and she accepted his apology, but the whole thing is still very icky and one of the bigger recent scandals to blight comics.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
