Deniz Camp and the death threats he and his wife have received from him writing The Ultimates for Marvel Comics this year
Deniz Camp is the Brooklyn-living writer of The Ultimates for Marvel, Absolute Martian Manhunter for DC and 20th Century Men from Image Comics. He posted to social media about some of the messages he - and his wife have been receiving. And sent from a burner Proton email account. He writes, "I've gotten my fair share of death threats, & threats to rape my wife, etc since writing Ultimates. Generally, I let these things roll off my back; it's cheap to make death threats in the modern age. But this one, titled "please don't make me kill your wife" - is over the line." The message, with a photo of his wife and a gun, reads;
"Fwd: Sir Deniz Camp please don't make me kill ur wife
Please! Your comics just disgust us. I wish you could understand that! Btw, I were also in Brooklyn. I Knew how your wife looks like and her address I am serious and I am not kidding."
Deniz comments, "I'm not angry or scared. it's pathetic, and also not at all credible. I'm just saying, chill out. Go out into the world. Get a life. The gun photo is from some forum, it's not real. This is not scaring anyone. they are clearly not living in Brooklyn. It's not deep. but this is disturbed behavior. My wife is also fine, because she's a trooper."
Other comic book creators commented with their own lived experiences. Jeremy Adams wrote "Man... having dealt with this, I feel you. I'm sorry Sorry this is happening..." Tirso Cons added "I've been receiving similar emails and messages this year just for having drawn Deathstroke, (by ignoring their threats they also passed to my wife). I'm very sorry and I'm more sorry that there are people with that head. It escapes my understanding." Gregg Kurtzmann of IDW said "I'll never understand how people who claim to love superheroes can act this way. Sorry you guys are experiencing this, Deniz. Hopefully, this has been reported and can be seriously investigated." Stephanie Hans added "I will never understand what makes people want to harm artists or writers when they are unhappy about a story. These are not holy books. I am very sorry it happened to you."
Though Deniz Camp seemed to take it in his stride, saying, "My wife's main complaint is that she's getting death threats because of my work instead of her own (quite radical) activism, by the way."
'Tis the season, it seems... stay safe out there. And please, do not try to threaten someone's life today, okay? You're better than that. At least I hope you are.