As Hollywood, politics and now comedy continue to be rocked by revelations of sexual misconduct, the first comics harasser to be named in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal has been named. Pop culture journalist Lucas Siegel has been accused by numerous women, including his ex-wife, comics editor and publisher Jannelle Asselin of serious sexual misconduct, groping and more.
Siegel is a former editor in chief at Newsarama, and was formerly a managing editor staff writer at Comicbook.com. Siegel left both positions abruptly. Most recently he was a writer for StarWars.com. However, in the wake of the allegations, his stories have been removed and his bio page has been scrubbed.
Siegel’s outing began last week with a tweet of his own.
Feeling pretty darn sad right now, guys.
— Lucas Siegel (@LucasSiegel) November 3, 2017
Which led to several devastating follow ups.
Are you feeling sad because you sexually harassed multiple women and they're starting to speak up?
— Amy Ratcliffe (@amy_geek) November 3, 2017
I was sad when you offered to sell me to a fan for sex. https://t.co/iNqzFiuhzD
— Ashley V. Robinson (@AshleyVRobinson) November 3, 2017
An apology and a promise. pic.twitter.com/dQLh6RMEfb
— Lucas Siegel (@LucasSiegel) November 4, 2017
Siegel tweeted an attempt at an apology that was still in serious denial over his alleged actions which drew even more anger.
You didn't learn this yesterday. You were let go from multiple news outlets before this because you were a harasser. You are lying.
— Wet Ass Polenta (@Lazybastid) November 5, 2017
"I am surprised to learn some women got harassed while in the vicinity of my penis. Who can say how? In conclusion, I am very important."
— Shaenon K. Garrity (@shaenongarrity) November 7, 2017
Asselin wrote a powerful post on her Patreon, So you married a serial harasser…, which included allegations of rape and more.
Lucas has a long history of crossing boundaries, going back to when I first met him in 2001. He used to say things to me — while he had a girlfriend — like “I’d like to hug you to feel your tits against me.” Once we got together, it was honestly a whirlwind of women that he groped, propositioned, harassed, and otherwise in retrospect made feel uncomfortable. This includes him groping my own sister. And pursuing my intern while I was at DC, which was the final straw for me in our marriage. I enabled this behavior for a long time, which I have beat myself up for quite a bit. I thought he was harmless. I thought it was all in good fun. He used to tell me that because I jokingly flirted with my friends that he could flirt with whoever he wanted and I couldn’t say anything about it. I feel awful that he treated my friends and acquaintances and even strangers in that way. I feel awful that I may have contributed to anyone feeling uncomfortable.
While Siegel is the first comics industry figure to be named as a harasser in the current, much needed purge, expect this to be only the start.
What a douchebag. His apology is entirely meaningless.
When you behave that way to a woman and she marries you anyway, why would you stop?
Accusations shouldn’t cost people their jobs.
While it is terrible for any person to treat anyone else in this fashion I do find it odd that Jannelle Asselin is in this story. I remember when she just let Chris Sims slide for his abhorrent behavior towards Valerie D’Orazio. He stayed with Comics Alliance until it closed and now he writes for Marvel. When she was called out on it she said that Chris apologized for his behavior. Well, so did this guy. That makes it alright since he apologized according to her logic, right?
The correct answer is no.
Please Jesus, let Dan DiDio, Joe Quesada, Axel Alonso, and all the other top-tier editorial figures at both DC and Marvel be implicated in these sex scandals.
What’s the status of the Gerard Jones child porn case?
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