Cyberbullying has already entered the comic book world with a vulgar twitter user who's been bullying the comic book community for two years now spewing racist and sexist comments with an array of "colorful" language, until a famous comic creator decided to step up to the plate and take legal action to stop him. Female comic book fans aren't as hard to find as you may think, and many of them have been getting harassed on twitter, along with several other prolific comic book fans and creators like Ron Marz. The twitter bully has been using several twitter usernames including @MisterE2009 and @JonVeee to spout vulgar thoughts, share graphic images and has even made threats. This twitter bully is not new to the interwebs of threats. According to Sue from DC Women Kicking Ass, "He's been harassing women for two years using male and female names. I have them all and if anyone wants the list I have it." And she's unfortunately speaking from personal experience as well. Thankfully, Mark Miller (Kick-Ass) has not taken this guy lying down. Never having been harassed by him but having heard from several people like Ron Marz, Mark Miller responded on his message board, reproduced on Bleeding Cool, saying: So I'm asking you guys a favour. I've managed to secure this guy's name and address, but he's stateside and I'm unsure what the next step should be. In the UK, he would be charged by the police under the Malicious Communications act, but we have a lot of smart cookies on here and I know there's several US attorneys who post here regularly. If we have his details and copies of his communication, how can he be prosecuted? If any of the pros who have been attacked here would like to make a case against him I'll personally cover the legal costs. Twitter, I would imagine, can confirm his IP address if the artists make a formal complaint to the police. Miller was answered, and later posted another message: Thank you very much, but I engaged a criminal lawyer in LA yesterday and have one of the women involved co-ordinating with the others today, hopefully. I don't want to say much more in a public forum just now as it may prejudice the case and between the details we've got and the tweets we saved the police have everything they need. Even if this doesn't go to court the guy should hopefully be publicly outed in California and the shame of this will not only stop him attacking women online, but also discourage others from trying this in future. I found out last night that this idiot had been making sexual threats to some of the women concerned for over two years now. Again, I stress that readers shouldn't try googling the names he's using as innocent parties may get targeted. He's using false names for the most part, as you might expect. His IP address is all that matters and we've nailed the clown. This is a police matter now.Take that @MisterE2009.It's sad to see that it's taken two years for this guy to get tracked down. A big thank you to creators like Mark Miller and the women and other creators who spoke out about the abuse who have, hopefully, stopped this guy for good. If you're curious to see some of these terrible tweets, I found a ton of great examples on Bleeding Cool's Comics Vs MisterE2009. Please note before burning your retinas that these are extremely racist, sexist and use some language only trolls on XboX Live would be proud of using.
An all-around nerdette, I’m a comic book connoisseur, horror aficionado, video game addict, anime enthusiast and an aspiring novelist/comic book writer. I am the head of the comic book department and the editor-in-chief of Entertainment Fuse. I also write and edit articles for Comic Frontline. I am also an intern at Action Lab Entertainment, a comic book publisher at which I edit comic book scripts, help work on images in solicitations and help with other comic book related project. My own personal website is comicmaven.com.
So I'm asking you guys a favour. I've managed to secure this guy's name and address, but he's stateside and I'm unsure what the next step should be. In the UK, he would be charged by the police under the Malicious Communications act, but we have a lot of smart cookies on here and I know there's several US attorneys who post here regularly. If we have his details and copies of his communication, how can he be prosecuted? If any of the pros who have been attacked here would like to make a case against him I'll personally cover the legal costs. Twitter, I would imagine, can confirm his IP address if the artists make a formal complaint to the police.
Miller was answered, and later posted another message:
Thank you very much, but I engaged a criminal lawyer in LA yesterday and have one of the women involved co-ordinating with the others today, hopefully. I don't want to say much more in a public forum just now as it may prejudice the case and between the details we've got and the tweets we saved the police have everything they need. Even if this doesn't go to court the guy should hopefully be publicly outed in California and the shame of this will not only stop him attacking women online, but also discourage others from trying this in future. I found out last night that this idiot had been making sexual threats to some of the women concerned for over two years now.
Again, I stress that readers shouldn't try googling the names he's using as innocent parties may get targeted. He's using false names for the most part, as you might expect. His IP address is all that matters and we've nailed the clown. This is a police matter now.
Take that @MisterE2009.
It's sad to see that it's taken two years for this guy to get tracked down. A big thank you to creators like Mark Miller and the women and other creators who spoke out about the abuse who have, hopefully, stopped this guy for good.
If you're curious to see some of these terrible tweets, I found a ton of great examples on Bleeding Cool's Comics Vs MisterE2009. Please note before burning your retinas that these are extremely racist, sexist and use some language only trolls on XboX Live would be proud of using.
