Brendan Wright, Comics Editor, Accused of Harassment and Stalking

It is not uncommon for someone to accuse someone else on social media of misconduct in recent years. I have covered several such revelations within the comic book industry, and they all take time. Bleeding Cool EIC Kaitlyn Booth has held the firm line that we don't repeat accusations on Bleeding Cool without the agreement of those making the claims, so as not to place a greater spotlight on them that they may not welcome. Which sometimes means we don't report the incident. As a result of this, there are stories we have run that no one else has, there are stories that we didn't run that others did, and sometimes stories run later. Comic creator and editor Bekah Caden, recently of Webtoon, has accused fellow former Dark Horse Comics editor Brendan Wright of misconduct, including stalking over a period of time. Two days ago, she posted,

Former Dark Horse Editor Brendan Wright sexually harrassed me and stalked me for over a year. We met at a DH party at ECCC and he immediately took a liking to me. I was a young editor looking to make more connections, so I said yes to exchanging contact info. He quickly became obsessed with me. Calling/texting constantly, showing up at my then day job, even showing up outside my apartment building. Brendan would remind me all the time that he knew more people than I did, that he could get me on projects if he was feeling generous, all the while telling me how much he was in love with me and how badly he wanted to f-ck me. After he quit DH we started working together freelance. Once, in a bar (I always insisted on meeting in public), while we were going over notes on a script, he again told me that he was in love with me. I asked him to stop saying that and he responded with what he considered a joke saying, "Even though I want to f-ck your face?" He laughed. Loudly.

Another time at a work meetup, I drank too much and ended up having to crashing at his place (I'm going to stop you here if you're thinking this is my fault. I drank too much. It happens. I didn't want to drive, the buses had stopped running, and this was before ridesharing). He let me sleep in his bed with him on the couch. I locked the bedroom door and was so uncomfortable that I kept waking up to check that it was still locked. In the morning he asked why I'd locked the door. I asked why he'd been trying to get into a room where an intoxicated person was sleeping. He then made another "joke" about the sweats I'd borrowed to sleep in "smelling like pussy". I allowed our acquaintance to continue because I'd convinced myself that my career was worth it. I wasn't picking up very much work at the time and he approached me with projects that were already green lit and getting published. When I finally cut contact, all of my work went with him. I didn't work for months. These are just two of many memories I have of him. Brendan Wright used his position of power to torment and harass me in an attempt to satisfy his own obsessive sexual urges.

After posting yesterday, Bekah returned to express gratitude for the messages she had received.

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone showing me support. I'm getting a ton of messages right now so I apologize if I don't respond quickly. I also want to thank all the people coming forward with their own stories of abuse. I've been thinking of writing this for a long time and seeing everyone step and do what they can to stop predators in the comics industry really got under my skin. You all rock. I really didn't expect this response. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! I'm trying to respond as much as I can, but I'm going to reach maximum burnout soon and go take a bubble bath. You may not get a response, but I've read it all. Keep elevating victims and their voices.

Brendan Wright began working as an intern at Top Shelf Productions, and a comics and cartooning instructor at the Northwest Academy before spending seven years as an editor at Dark Horse Comics from 2008 until 2015. He worked as a production manager for Amazon's Jet City Comics publisher while working as as a freelance editor on such titles as Gregory Graves (Starburns Industries Press), Mayday (Image Comics), Heroines (Space Goat Publishing), Semiautomagic (Illicit Press), GWAR (Dynamite Entertainment) and Heavenly Blues (Scout Comics). He moved to Germany to create a shared universe comic book line for New Arab Media, including Saudi Girls Revolution. In 2018, he returned to become the executive editor for Starburns Industries Press, where he was employed overseeing editorial for their books and comics arm, including training junior staff in comic book production and editorial, before going freelance again.

Since Bekah's posts, Brendan has been dropped from a number of projects. Neil Kleid, who has work acquired by Brendan for the Shots Fired benefit anthology to prevent gun violence, tweeted that "Brendan Wright has been removed as editor of SHOTS FIRED, and all contributors and backers have been notified."

White Cat Entertainment tweeted, "we have terminated our relationship with Brendan Wright, and as of now, he will no longer be working on Rise of the Kung Fu Dragon Master."

Ed Kuehnel and Matt Entin of Suspicious Behavior Productions Suspicious Behavior Productions released the following statement, "Brendan Wright was the editor on our recently completed mini-series, Invasion from Planet Wrestletopia. He was responsible for proofreading and coordinating production tasks. Today, we learned of sexual harassment accusations made against him by a former colleague, Bekah Caden. We take these allegations seriously and have ended our working relationship with Brendan as a result."

While Starburns Industries Press, who was still working with Wright, tweeted the following "We believe women. We are ending our relationship with Brendan Wright, and he will no longer be involved with any future projects at SBI Press. We want to thank Bekah Caden for her bravery and vulnerability as she came forward to reveal behavior that has no place in comics, nor any other workplace."

Brendan was also a central figure in 2015 reportage regarding Scott Allie's reported misconduct at Dark Horse Comics, which saw Allie step down as Editor-In-Chief at Dark Horse and eventually leave the company as a staffer, to go freelance. This has included working on books like Fight Club, drawn by Cameron Stewart. Notably a few days ago, when allegations regarding Cameron Stewart came to light, Wright tweeted out, now deleted,