Tom King apologizes to Jae Lee for public accusations

Writer Tom King has publicly apologized to artist Jae Lee following allegations he tweeted last week, which he now calls a mistake.

"As I have done privately, I'd like to publicly apologize to Jae Lee for my actions a few days ago," King tweets. "I should've talked with Jae before I sent a tweet about him that put his career at risk."

On Friday, July 24, King spoke out against DC's decision to hire Jae Lee to draw a variant to an upcoming title of King's due to what he presumed was the artist's previous involvement with a Comicsgate associated project, presuming Lee's tacit awareness of that fact.

"I made a critical mistake, and I am profoundly sorry," King continues. "I will do what I can to repair this with Jae, and I will do better in the future. I'm not going to offer explanations because they sound like excuses, and I'm not asking for forgiveness or understanding. I'm just saying I see what I did, and I'm going to try to make up for it. Thank you."

Following the initial allegations, Friday evening King tweeted that he had subsequently spoken with Jae and that it was a misunderstanding.

"I spoke with Jae. He's not on Twitter, didn’t know Comicsgate existed, and doesn’t support hate of any kind," King tweeted Friday evening. "We're all good. Best possible outcome."

On Sunday, July 26, Lee publicly addressed the issue for the first time, writing that the allegations harmed him and his wife/colorist June Chung.

"I'm writing this because I'm angry," Lee wrote Sunday on Instagram. "These irresponsible tweets are not harmless. They do not just go away. They have real-world consequences. They can take away your job. Your life. Your memories. June and I were robbed of a special day. So, no, we're not 'all good'."

Lee wrote he would not be addressing the issue any further.

With Tuesday's apology, King also wrote he will now take down the allegations tweets.

"I have kept the tweets up to this point in order to show that I was not hiding my actions. I will now take them down."

Newsarama has reached out to DC for comment. We will update this story if and when they respond.

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)