Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, misogyny, Tess Fowler

Tess Fowler And Modern Day Misogyny In The Comics Industry

Published Mon, 28 Oct 2013 17:00:00 -0500

Last updated Tue, 29 Oct 2013 21:18:34 -0500

Tess Fowler is a remarkably accomplished cartoonist with past work published by Zenescope and currently with upcoming graphic novel The Rascals to her name. As part of a recent discussion, she tweeted to Brandon Graham about her own experiences with misogyny in the comics industry.

Everybody's mad at @royalboiler for speaking truth. lol I wish MORE people in this industry would call out misogynistic men by name.

— TessFowler (@TessFowler) October 25, 2013

@royalboiler called out a writer who tried to get me up to his room at SDCC one year by feigning interest in my pursuit of a comic (cont)

— TessFowler (@TessFowler) October 25, 2013

@royalboiler career. The same guy who ran off my friends mid conversation to get to me, then left me with his room number and told me he'd

— TessFowler (@TessFowler) October 25, 2013

@royalboiler be waiting to get to know me better. Then the next day when I walked by the booth with friends he shouted at me in front of

— TessFowler (@TessFowler) October 25, 2013

@royalboiler crowds of pros and fans that he'd waited and waited for me and where the fuck did I go? Needless to say he was married with

— TessFowler (@TessFowler) October 25, 2013

@royalboiler a pregnant wife at the time. I was young, naive and hopeful. But not THAT naive. Later we talked on Facebook and he made

— TessFowler (@TessFowler) October 25, 2013

@royalboiler fun of my art, letting me know he had never had any interest in it to begin with. He was mad that I'd been afraid of him.

— TessFowler (@TessFowler) October 25, 2013

@royalboiler At the time I liked to costume. He told me I should be thankful he was talking to me & that he'd overlooked me dressing (cont)

— TessFowler (@TessFowler) October 25, 2013

@royalboiler up like an idiot. I look at his career and the way he's touted as a feminist and I cringe. I am not the only woman who has

— TessFowler (@TessFowler) October 25, 2013

@royalboiler had a run in with him either.

— TessFowler (@TessFowler) October 25, 2013

@royalboiler Kudos to you for speaking openly and honestly. Mad respect.

— TessFowler (@TessFowler) October 25, 2013

Tess told me in conversation.

The behavior of the man in question is considered normal in this business. And the few people who know about it consider it to be my fault for "falling for it" when he feigned interest in my work. In my pursuit of doing this work professionally I ran a gauntlet of this sort of thing. I came in with stars in my eyes and were it not for the handful of really good people who stepped in to keep me safe, I might not have made it through without being completely jaded by it. I am older now, with young impressionable followers of my own. And I do my best to help them over these kinds of hurdles when they arise. I wish more people were brave enough to speak out. But for every voice raised in protest, there are a thousand to defend the person in question. It's daunting.

And, yes, the comment thread on this article has been removed.

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