Mark Waid
My name is Amanda. I am a 30 year old comic book fan from Scotland.
6 years ago, I ran afoul of Dan Slott and Stephen Wacker when I was critical of Slott’s take on Black Cat in Spider-Man on a message board. They began stalking me on the forum and telling me to “fuck off” or insisting that I was a 40 year old virgin guy who lives in his Mom’s basement. When I proved that claim to be false 8 individual times, their aggression quickly extended to - and wound up mostly targeting - my husband who also posted on the forum. Really, though, they were chump change, they were sad little trolls who never were able to deal with any criticism and as soon as they found out I was actually a woman, they were completely lost with how to deal with it, so they instead slandered my husband across multiple different websites and got him banned from forums. CBR, Crawlspace, Comicvine, articles and write-ups on websites I’d contributed to, comments sections… they insisted we were racists and sexists and the stuff that’s seen as the usual guff now.
They apparently got bored of it after a few months but along the way had introduced Mark Waid to us. Mark Waid spent the next 2 years taking, what had before just been an online campaign, to further levels. He had no investment or actual interaction with either me or my husband - he saw it and got involved just because he obviously liked the idea of attacking people with accusations that make him look like a moral hero. He and some followers got my husband fired from a job and me kicked out of University, only a few months before graduation, with enormous claims that we are “bigots”. He and others harassed our Facebook friends insisting they explain why the are friends with us and spreading completely unfounded claims of me and my husband being white nationalists. He would cite a false made-up example, when asked for evidence on that, he wouldn’t provide any and instead pull out an even “bigger” made-up story to draw attention away from the first.
We eventually had to nuke all our personal accounts. Both our lives were effectively ruined. My husband was unemployable and feeling like a burden attempted to kill himself three times. I had now wasted years studying, amassing student debts with no actual result, and had to work 3 different jobs at one point just to keep us going. I began routinely self-harming almost daily for 2 years. I wished to pursue action against Mark Waid but due to being in a completely different country, we flat-out couldn’t afford it and I was terrified of being swallowed up by a big corporate lawyer. Couldn’t even get a restraining order. And, did Waid give up when we were destroyed? No. Someone, I wonder who, contacted my employers and attempted to get me fired in January 2017 and again only 5 months ago (hmm, who deleted all their social media accounts and had to take a haitus from aggressively pursuing a vendetta with a YouTuber 5 months ago…).
Me and my husband had each other, that was the only thing that kept us going. We’re doing alright now, we’re both working and aren’t going to kill ourselves. I’m thankful for Diversity and Comics for an unusual reason - he actually made us feel a lot safer. We didn’t feel like we were the big target anymore. I’ve offered him evidence of this for his case but from the sounds of it, he really doesn’t need it. Loads of people have come forward with similar stories. Mark Waid ruins lives. It’s not just me or my husband. You can find all manner of examples of Waid harassing fans, bullying publishers, antagonising colleagues, lying through his teeth or having serious anger problems. This isn’t about what you think of Diversity and Comics or Antarctic Press or whatever, this is about Mark Waid who is not the victim or the hero of a story, he is an angry bully and sociopath.
But, if you have donated anything to “best-selling” Mark Waid’s “pay my legal bills” gofundme, please unfollow me. I don’t think less of you but I really don’t feel comfortable around anyone who supports Mark Waid. He is scum and, honestly, Diversity and Comics is the lesser of two evils. Waid does not deserve any support or any sympathy.
Also, gofundme don’t actually allow campaigns to pay off legal bills…
