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“Spider-Gwen” Co-Creator Jason Latour Accused of Multiple Instances of Harassment

By | June 24th, 2020
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This article has been updated since its publication.

Jason Latour is the latest comic creator to be accused of harassment after artist and designer Lauren Tracey (known professionally as Lorua) shared her experience with the “Spider-Gwen” co-creator at 2017’s Thought Bubble convention. Posting on TwitLonger, Tracey described multiple instances where Latour approached her, allegedly using his status in the industry in an effort to invite Tracey to his hotel room. He then continued to proposition her throughout the convention and afterwards, offering her free comics and industry connections.

According to Tracey, the timing of her admission was in response to a statement put out by Latour regarding multiple allegations made against Cameron Stewart. In it, Latour admitted to having “been in situations where I thought the ground was level and failed to realize that in this field — level has a different definition.”

Tracey responded, “How can the ground be level when you’re approaching a young girl asking her to come to your hotel room for free comics, based solely on your name and your works?” She elaborates:

He also mentions how women want the time they invest in the comics space to be rewarding, and then goes on to say that sometimes they are looking for love, intimacy and casual sex out of it. I feel he completely missed the mark on why people have been coming forward about the problems that are happening in the comics community and is also putting the onus on women. Women aren’t coming forward right now to fight for casual sex in comics. They’re coming forward to fight for their right to be respected as equal coworkers and not to be seen as mere sexual objects to their male peers.

According to The Beat, Latour initially responded to Tracey in a series of now deleted tweets apologizing for his behavior. He then responded with another tweet explaining that he didn’t want to “distract from [her] space further.”

Several creators came forth in support of Tracey, sharing their own similar experiences with Latour, including Alex de Campi, Hannah Blumenreich, Bridgit Connell, and Rian Sygh. Writer Tres Dean also weighed in, admitting that knowledge of Latour’s behavior “was not an open secret,” and “nobody did anything about it because it was uncomfortable and he’s powerful and the transgressions were just minor enough to make you second guess if it was worth calling out.”

For Tracey, the experience was so uncomfortable and “just minor enough” that it made her feel as if “there wasn’t a place for me [in the industry]. I dropped my dream of being a comic artist shortly after and fell into a depression while I tried to figure out how I could have my future still be art related. I’ve hardly read a comic since.”

I’m not writing this with any intention to ‘cancel’ Jason or harm his career. I’m writing it to bring awareness to the fact that young girls are coming into the comics community and being treated like this by people who are more powerful than them and have more leverage in the community. There has to be a complete overhaul of this kind of behavior in comics. We need to look out for each other and put a stop to bad behavior instantly when we see it. There’s no place in comics for harassment, sexual or otherwise. And the men in comics need to shape up and take responsibility for the fact their actions have a far more negative impact on women than they realize.

In a week that has seen several comic industry professionals accused of sexual misconduct, it’s important to remember that it’s the responsibility of the entire community to speak up — even when it’s uncomfortable for us.

If you’ve been a victim of sexual assault, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673 or online.rainn.org (Español: rainn.org/es) to be connected with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.


Kerry Erlanger

Kerry Erlanger is a writer from New York whose accolades include being named Time Person of the Year 2006. She can be found on Twitter at @hellokerry.

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