Interest

Former Dark Horse Editor Brendan Wright Accused of Sexual Misconduct

Former Lore Olympus editor Bekah Caden accused former Starburns Industries Press (SBI) executive editor and former Dark Horse Comics editor Brendan Wright of harassment, stalking, and sexual misconduct. Caden wrote on Twitter on Thursday that she met Wright at a party thrown by Dark Horse Comics during Emerald City Comic Con. After exchanging information for potential work, Caden said Wright became "obsessed" with her and would call and text "constantly" as well as showing up at her place of employment and her apartment.

Caden wrote that Wright regularly expressed romantic and sexual interest in her which she rebuffed.

Wright worked at Dark Horse Comics for seven years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He left the company in 2015 and Caden wrote they sometimes worked together on freelance projects at that time. Caden recounted on one occasion she slept over at his apartment after drinking during a work meet-up, but felt she had to lock the bedroom door while Wright slept in another room. Caden wrote that the following morning Wright asked her why she locked the door and commented that the sweatpants he let her sleep in "smelling like p****."

Since posting her story on Twitter, readers have commented that they know other alleged victims who were made uncomfortable by Wright in the workplace. Comic book writer Jeremy Whitley, artist Kelly Williams and Pablo Maybury wrote on Twitter that they were working with Wright on upcoming publications but Wright was removed from the projects in the last 24 hours. Multiple creators in the comic book industry have since vowed not to work with Wright in light of the allegations.

Wright was the editor of Gryffen: Galaxy's Most Wanted, Invasion from Planet Wrestletopia, and Long Ago and Far Away. During his time at Dark Horse Comics he was the editor of the Planetes manga and volumes of the Archie vs. Predator and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic comics.

Anime News Network has reached out to Wright, Dark Horse Comics, and Starburns Industries Press for comment.

UPDATE: SBI staff clarified that Wright has not served as executive editor for "some time" and issued the following statement:

We familiarized ourselves with Bekah's revelations on Twitter and truth yesterday and released our opinion and action over our social media accounts.

To further clarify, Brendan has not served as Executive Editor of SBI Press for some time and we are committed fully ending our working relationship with him.

To our knowledge, every creative team that has a series with us and had worked with Brendan made the same decision to cease working with him and we certainly support those decisions and are thankful our creators are choosing to trust Bekah is being truthful and believe women. We aim to find a new executive editor to fill the vacancy when we can and aim continue our relationships with those creative teams.

We are thankful to Bekah for speaking up as her bravery and vulnerability will hopefully empower more women to speak up, define boundaries, and create awareness that behavior like she detailed from colleagues, coworkers, and collaborators has no place in comics, nor any other workplace.

Source: Bekah Caden's Twitter account