Harassment policies

This year, New York Comic-Con is taking harassment on their convention floor more seriously than ever before. Their brand-new anti-harassment policy is comprehensive and offers a great deal of protection for attendees. Still, we here at ComicsAlliance wanted to offer some tips for ensuring you and others around you have the safest, most fun convention possible.

Amy Reeder, artist of Rocket Girl from Image, announced on her blog this week that she'd been asked by the organizers of New York Comic-Con to design some posters letting people know that harassment simply won't be tolerated. The result is some really neatly designed imagery that will hopefully grab people's attention and help them understand that cosplayers should always be treated with respect and consideration.

This weekend marks the 22nd annual Heroes Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of the best-regarded pure comic cons and the convention that was my hometown con for many years. In my experience, Heroes has never published a public anti-harassment policy, but that seems to have changed for the better this year, as organizer Shelton Drum issued a policy this year in the form of a personal letter to attendees. The move makes Heroes Con just the latest comics convention to publicly address the pervasive problem of harassment -- both sexual and otherwise -- that takes place at these kinds of events.