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An Open Letter to Chris Staros
The Avoidable Demise of Top Shelf and CBLDF
This summer, Chris, you stand before the most significant crossroads of your career in the comics. As publisher of Top Shelf Productions, you've placed the culmination of a career effort behind Alan Moore's controversial Lost Girls, and stand behind it with a $200,000 printing investment, one of the largest in the history of the industry for an independent venture of this kind. Your support of this significant work is well placed. The message Alan Moore brings with it is worthy and needs to be voiced. Lost Girls is expected to encounter significant opposition from certain social sectors and your ability to defend it legally will ultimately decide whether Top Shelf will survive the pseudo-moral onslaught which awaits it. As President of the CBLDF, you also command the institution which will wage the inevitable legal struggle you'll face.
The shadow which hovers over the CBLDF, the Charles Brownstein - Taki Soma incident, threatens to destroy everything you've worked for as a publisher and president of the fund. You cannot raise a flag for freedom, truth and justice in one hand, Chris - and support a grave injustice with the other.
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The decision made by the board of directors of the CBLDF, to protect Charles Brownstein when it was believed no charges would be brought against him, was ill-fated from the beginning. Because of it, an innocent woman was compromised and a stain has been cast on this much revered organization of the comics industry. An innocent woman has been besmirched in the comics media because she came forward in order to protect potential future victims of such assaults. No one, Chris, not even yourself, can guarantee that the next time Charles Brownstein drinks one too many beers, the results of his behavior will not be far more tragic. No one should be expected to give such a guarantee when the accused himself refuses to face what he's done forthrightly - and in turn, accuses his victim of lying in order to conceal the truth about it.
In an update to his article at TCJ, Michael Dean reports that "Taki Soma has re-contacted police and, with the help of Ken Lillie-Paetz, is looking into the possibility of re-opening the investigation into Brownstein's alleged 'sexual imposition.'" Knowing you understand the sensitivity of such a situation, it should be clear to you that Taki Soma's silence in the matter, since the CBLDF decision to maintain Brownstein's position, casts an ominous cloud over the expected legal struggle the CBLDF must wage for Lost Girls. Knowing also what's at stake, I'm certain you realize that the controversy over the CBLDF supporting an accused sexual predator will not help the organization on the road ahead, in its crucial hour.
The dire concern with the way the incident was handled rests within the statement Charles Brownstein gave to the investigative team hired by the CBLDF and to the comics media outlets. Believing, as the police report had indicated, that no witnesses came forward to support Taki's claims of sexual assault, Charles testified to a dilluted version of the incident, implicating Taki with having lied about the extent of his alleged crime. The investigative team brushed off witnesses' testimony they received of Brownstein's behavior, believing no legal charges would be brought against him. Imagine, Chris, the doubt this will cast on the integrity of the CBLDF, when the truth of these events becomes known. Imagine all this coming about, coinciding with what's expected to be a highly publicized legal struggle, awaiting the CBLDF with Lost Girls.
I know it is not an easy decision you face. You're a man who wields considerable power as publisher of Top Shelf Productions and President of the CBLDF. With great power, however, comes great responsibility. Your responsibility to the comics industry which you represent, demands you clean this stain away. It demands you clean away the stain which has blemished the pages of the CBLDF and threatens the demise of everything you've worked for at Top Shelf. It's not only, however, for the sake of the comics industry, Chris; not only for the sake of the fair legal representation which Lost Girls deserves from the CBLDF; not only for the sake of the survival of Top Shelf Productions - and not only for the sake of Taki Soma, the woman of valor who suffers the injustice.
But for the sake of freedom, truth and justice, Chris - which the CBLDF and yourself stand for.
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Posted: 5:35 AM EST
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