Posted in: Comics | Tagged: action lab, Bryan Seaton, Dan Mendoza, Dollface, ivan the pervy ghost

Action Lab Pulls "Ill-Considered" Pervy Ghost Cover, Apologizes For "Rude And Inappropriate" Tweets

Yesterday, Action Lab revealed their New York Comic Con EXCLUSIVES, which included an Ivan The Pervy Ghost one-shot that featured a cover showing the titular pervy ghost being smushed between the breasts of two cosplayers, one dressed as Princess Leia and one dressed as Harley Quinn. The cover was criticized for making light of the real-life issue of sexual harassment, a particular problem in the comics community, even more particular at comic-cons, and especially for cosplayers.

In response, the Twitter account for Action Lab's Danger Zone imprint vigorously argued with critics in defense of Action Lab's position. Some unfortunate things were said, including telling "over zealous nut jobs" to protest Action Lab for the cover. But according to Action Lab, that was the work of a hacker. 😐.

https://twitter.com/ActionLabDanger/status/914976752241451009

https://twitter.com/ActionLabDanger/status/914983549194948608

Action Lab CEO Bryan Seaton provided Bleeding Cool with a statement about the tweets yesterday, attributing them to "a malicious third party." 😐. Now, the publisher has issued a full statement in a press release, including the one given to Bleeding Cool earlier, but also addressing the inciting incident of the Ivan the Pervy Ghost cover, which the company has removed from its list of NYCC EXCLUSIVES. Read their full statement below:

Update on Action Lab's IVAN Cover and Twitter Controversy

After releasing Action Lab's exclusive NYCC covers, the IVAN THE PERVY GHOST ONE-SHOT received notable backlash. In response, Action Lab's publisher/CEO Bryan Seaton released the following statement:

"As Publisher of Action Lab Comics, it was never my or Action Lab's intention to promote or make light of cosplay consent issues. We recognize that sexual harassment of cosplayers is a very real issue and particularly that it is one some of our own creators have spoken out on in the past. In retrospect, we agree that the cover of Ivan is ill-considered, and we will be removing this cover as one of our NYCC exclusives.

As a publisher of creator-owned books, Action Lab doesn't believe in censorship – but we do believe in respecting our readers, being sensitive to issues in our community, and owning up to our mistakes. In short, we made a mistake, we did something dumb, and we sincerely apologize. As part of the comics community, we appreciate your comments and feedback and we will continue to work to get it right. When we do something wrong, please call us out. We want to be a publisher where every reader feels welcome."

In response to the Twitter controversy that spawned from the critique of the cover, Seaton went on to say:

"I would like to apologize on behalf of Action Lab and Action Lab Danger Zone for any and all rude and inappropriate tweets. We do not believe these tweets where done by any Action Lab staff but by a malicious third party. Passwords have now been changed and tweets deleted but damage has already been done and again we apologize."

As noted in their release, Action Lab deleted most of the offending tweets from its account, but they did not delete all of the tweets made during the course of the argument, leaving several responses explaining that Danger Zone is a separate imprint from Action Lab. It is unclear whether these tweets were kept because Action Lab believes they were made by Action Lab employees and not the hacker, or whether Action Lab believes the tweets were made by the hacker but decided to keep them because they were on message. 😐. We've reached out to Action Lab for clarification on this issue.

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