A little over two years ago we covered the allegations and rumors regarding comic writer Nathan Edmondson. Harassment, sexual harassment, unprofessional dealings with other creators were all recounted either first or second hand directly to us and since we ran that original article more accounts have been told to us of negative first hand dealings.

The difficulty of reporting in that original article was the second hand nature of the behavior and the first hand accounts weren’t inclined for their stories to be told or included. Things look to be changing.

Writer and editor Stephanie Cooke has stood up with her account and has gone on record with her interactions with Edmondson at a convention in North Carolina “several years back.” Those interactions can only be described as toxic and predatory.

Read her account below:

I read an article today about the timeline of sexual harassment in comics. Within the article it talks about writer Nathan Edmondson and how no one has yet come forward. And it bothered me.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

I have a few stories about being harassed in comics and I’m not ready to tell those yet and I’m barely ready to tell this one but someone should so here I am.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

While I was at a convention in NC several years back now, I kept seeing one creator over and over again. He would wave at me and say hi even though I was fairly sure I had never met him.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

Innocent enough.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

As the weekend came to an end, I was having breakfast and this person came and sat with me.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

This person was Nathan Edmondson.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

Never mind the fact that I was sitting with my then boss. He started talking to us and proceeded to tell me (after learning I lived in Toronto) that he was also going to Toronto for a work trip.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

I was offered up as a tour guide for the city which he happily agreed to.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

I didn’t really want to show him around but I felt like since I had been asked to do it, that I should. I told him to DM me on Twitter to set up a gameplan.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

I guess he was trying to impress me when he said that he didn’t normally follow just anybody and that I was very lucky to have him add me just like that.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

Never mind at the time that I had more of a following than him— he didn’t know that. He knew I was an assistant and he thought that was the way to make himself seem more powerful to me.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

He starts DMing me and not long after that, I asked him what time he wants to meet up the following day and he responds to me “3am”.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

I’m grossed out and reply something along the lines of “Uh, that’s not happening…” thinking he’ll reply and be like “Oops I meant 3pm!” or whatever.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

He doesn’t. He replies to me verbatim: “It wasn’t a request.”

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

You know why I know that specific part of the conversation word for word? Because it’s seared into my mind.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

Now I really didn’t want to show him around but I still felt obligated and I wanted to do right by the person who’d asked me to show him around in the first place.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

The following day came and I got myself up and met him anyways.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

I showed him around a bunch of comic shops and tried to stay in very public settings to fulfil my obligation but get on my way as soon as I could.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

He proceeded to parade around each of these shops finding his comics and doing impromptu signings. When the employees would say “Um what are you doing?” he would look at them like “Don’t you know who I am?”

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

Finally he said he had to go to a meeting and so I felt like my obligation was over. I walked him back to his hotel where several of his colleagues were waiting for him.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

In front of them, he told me that he’d let me be his plus one to their dinner that evening and that they had a private meeting to go to that I wasn’t welcome at in the meantime due to NDAs and such.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

Again, in front of these other creators and prominent men from comics and video games, he slides me a spare hotel key and loudly tells me to go take a nap in his room and wait for him to finish.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

Now I’m BEYOND mortified and I tell him I have to go and I turn and leave.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

He assumes that I mean that I’ll be back later and continues messaging me, trying to get my ETA for his dinner.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

I never showed up. I told him I had to go take care of my grandmother and that I couldn’t leave her.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

I didn’t have the balls to just flat out tell him that I didn’t want to or that how he treated me was gross. I didn’t know how and I wanted to keep working in comics.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

I was seeing someone in comics at the time and he was furious over the whole ordeal. Apparently he had done something similar to a close friend of his and couldn’t believe it was happening again.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

I later learned that this writer had been blacklisted from comics because so many women had complained about his behaviour and they refused to work with him.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

It didn’t stop him from getting work from them down the line once they felt working with him was more important than the safety of their editors.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

Furthermore, at the time that my specific incident happened, I also learned that he was married and that his wife was pregnant with their first child.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

Another web site wanted to out him a while back and I guess because they’d reached out for his comment on the story, he lawyered up and then started reaching out to women who were potential liabilities.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

He called me from the set of a big film where he tried to get reassurance from me that he’d never harassed me and that we were fine.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

I was so uncomfortable. Clearly he knew he’d harassed me otherwise why would he be calling?

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

I had no idea what to say or do so I just shrugged it off, especially after one of the stars of the film came into the room where he was talking to me and also started talking to me.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

I was a little flabbergasted about how to have a conversation about sexual harassment when a huge rising star was also talking to me on the phone.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

We left things at the fact that I was fine and I tried not to think about it again.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

Except the problem is that every time I think about harassment in entertainment, my own story comes up in my head and I can’t forget it.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

I wasn’t groped or forced into any sexual acts but that doesn’t mean what happened to me wasn’t degrading or harassment.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

I felt so skeeved out by the entire interaction and I had no idea how to process it aside from turning it into a funny story to tell my friends because that’s how I deal with things.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

It feels like the right time to come forward though and stop making jokes about men doing shitty things so here I am.

— Stephanie Cooke (@hellocookie) November 30, 2017

Writer Elizabeth Amber Love responded with her own encounter with Edmondson.

I thought "we" (geek ladies) did reveal him a while back, but good for you to having the heart & strength to come fwd. I hung out with him one day and he shoved me to my knees in a hotel hallway. I left. Later found out his wife was preg at home.

— 🍍FeliciaFancybottom (@elizabethamber) November 30, 2017

Both of these accounts are in line with what we’ve been told over the years and ends the hearsay and rumors with first hand accounts.

We’ve reached out to Edmondson for comment.

Update: Comic writer Joseph Keatinge corroborate’s Stephanie’s account.

This was me. I confronted Nathan about it at SDCC on the show floor, in front of other creators, and he denied even knowing who Stephanie was. When I called him on his b.s., he caved in, saying he had a problem, was going to stop going to cons and deal with his issues. He didn't. https://t.co/T7FMC7CUHQ

— Joseph Keatinge (@joekeatinge) November 30, 2017

.@hellocookie coming forward is incredibly brave and, of course, I believed and supported her then, do so now, and will continue to do so for anyone who needs support coming forward. You are not alone.

— Joseph Keatinge (@joekeatinge) November 30, 2017