5 Most Disastrous Comic-Con Panels In Recent Memory

2. Prism Comics - Long Beach Comic-Con 2013

Harassment is one thing when it comes from the rows of attendees. It's another thing entirely when it comes from a fellow panelist. MariNaomi certainly didn't have any warning. The panel should have been a safe space: it was about queer comics and included only one straight guy. However, that straight guy did about every sexually inappropriate thing we could imagine short of sending her a dick pic onstage: questioning her bisexuality, announcing he was "distracted" by his sexual attraction to her, touching her arm repeatedly, and making a crude sex joke about her microphone. He also told her, when it was time for them to pose for pictures, that her Asian features made it look like she was always smiling. She felt trapped by the professional obligation to finish the panel, and by the social pressures that always make harassed women feel trapped. Only realizing the presence of MariNaomi's husband made him apologize... to the husband. The guy in question was Scott Lobdell, still one of the highest-profile writers in comic books. Lobdell did come forward after MariNaomi had given an account that left him anonymous and issued a better apology, characterizing the whole act as a misguided attempt at humor. But whatever you think of that action, the panel itself was one of the most disgraceful single hours in comics' recent history, if only because no one else said a word to discourage Lobdell. So why isn't it #1? What could be worse? Well, how about an incident of actual violence?