For years, comic book fans of Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith Fell have waited for the creators to get back to work on the famous unfinished crime series. But with Ellis now facing numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, the news of Fell’s return has sparked a massive backlash online. Now publisher Image Comics has confirmed that it will not be releasing new issues of Fell.

Image made the following statement to IGN:

“This week’s FELL announcement was neither planned nor verified, and was in fact premature. Although the end of Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith’s FELL was something we’ve been looking forward to for years, Image Comics will not be working with Warren on anything else until he has made amends to the satisfaction of everyone involved. We sincerely hope that the conversations starting now will lead to positive changes for everyone . Please visit SoManyOfUs.com. “

Ellis, the creator / writer of Netflix’s Castlevania series and comics like Planetary, Transmetropolitan and Red, was accused by several women of predatory behavior and sexual misconduct in June 2020. The SoManyOfUs.com website contains several dozen of testimonials, with many detailed incidents of Ellis sending sexually explicit messages or using her position to force them to have sex.

Ellis has largely disappeared from the public eye since the allegations surfaced, deleting his Twitter account and terminating his long-running Orbital Operations email newsletter.

In a now deleted statement, Ellis wrote: “I never considered myself famous or powerful, to the point where I made a lot of bad jokes about it for twenty years or so. He was never really me. came to mind that other people didn’t see it the same way – that I didn’t engage as an equal when I was gifted with attention, but acted from a position of power and privilege, a mistake and I admit it.

While Netflix recently released the fourth and final season of Castlevania and DC wrapped up the release of Ellis and Bryan Hitch‘s The Batman’s Grave, Fell is said to have been the writer’s first new work since these allegations came to light. However, Templesmith’s announcement of Fell’s return drew a lot of criticism online, including from other comic book creators like Nocterra writer Scott Snyder.

A year ago, when the revelations about Warren Ellis came out, we pulled him off the Death Metal books in the hopes that responsibility would be taken, changes would be made, and the comics would move forward and get better thanks to it. to a good, difficult but crucial job.

– Scott Snyder (@ Ssnyder1835) June 24, 2021

In a statement released on June 23, So Many of Us wrote:

“When we posted SoManyOfUs.com on July 13, 2020, we expressly didn’t want to ‘cancel’ author Warren Ellis. Instead, we shared constructive ways to address the all-too-common problem of abusive behavior by powerful men. challenged people to rethink past actions and examine how and why they may have facilitated harmful behaviors and environments.We called for openness, accountability and growth, offering to work with Ellis on a form of transformative justice. Since his public declaration a year ago, to the knowledge of these perpetrators, Ellis has still not taken direct responsibility for his destructive behavior or attempted to address the circumstances which allow such behavior to continue unchecked both online and offline. ”

The website updated its statement on June 24, revealing that Ellis has now contacted the group in hopes of creating “a high profile dialogue.” Ellis also released her first new newsletter in almost a year, writing: “I have, of course, been silent and isolated for too long, and I should have sorted things out sooner and done it faster. . I apologize.”

Ellis’ latest statement appears to rule out the possibility of any new work being released in the foreseeable future. Fell may return to the stands one day, but its publisher and creators have recognized that now is not the time.

Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by follow @jschedeen on Twitter.