He’s been nominated for an Emmy and an Annie for his work on Cartoon Network‘s Adventure Time and his own Clarence. But Skyler Page’s career may be at a standstill after a number of colleagues spoke openly on Twitter about claims that he harassed at least one woman in his animation team.
Cartoon Brew is reporting that Cartoon Network has fired Page less than a day after colleagues in the industry came forward on Twitter to publicly allege that he harassed one of their own: Emily Partridge, a storyboard artist who worked with Page while storyboarding Adventure Time.
Comic artist Maré Odomo tweeted the allegation about Page on June 30th without naming Partridge.
Skyler Page, creator of Cartoon Network’s “Clarence”, is known to grope women without their consent. Don’t be left alone in a room with him.
— maré odomo (@mareodomo) June 30, 2014
Her tweet came a day after Partridge independently began tweeting about the assault. Both Odomo and Partridge were accused of fabricating the incident; Odomo was additionally accused of libeling Page.
The flurry of accusations leveled at Odomo prompted Partridge to name the assault perpetrator.
okay dudes, this Skyler Page Fiasco everybody is talking about happened to me, you can stop hounding my friends for “proof”
— Emily Partridge (@empartridge) July 3, 2014
the fact that twitter needs ME to speak is distressing, but I feel responsible to other women in the industry. don’t trust this guy.
— Emily Partridge (@empartridge) July 3, 2014
I had heard rumours about Skyler being “quirky” but nothing about his fucked up behaviour towards women until AFTER what happened to me
— Emily Partridge (@empartridge) July 3, 2014
if I knew what I know now, I wouldn’t have let him catch me alone or be near me. I don’t want the same thing to happen to anybody else.
— Emily Partridge (@empartridge) July 3, 2014
Before she came forward, Partridge spoke about how intimidating she found the prospect of speaking out publicly about the assault.
being harassed or assaulted by anyone is scary, feeling like the person who did it to you is somehow more likable/credible is extra scary
— Emily Partridge (@empartridge) July 1, 2014
When she finally did, however, she was joined not only by Odomo but by Regular Show storyboard artist Ryan Pequin:
1/2: Skyler Page acted frighteningly inappropriately towards someone close to me recently and I feel it’s important for people to know this.
— Ryan Pequin (@ryanpequin) July 3, 2014
2/2 and though it seems he struggles with mental illness, that’s no excuse for repeated, aggressive, bad behavior, especially towards women
— Ryan Pequin (@ryanpequin) July 3, 2014
In the wake of Partridge’s naming of her assailant, at least one person implied that they had been aware of Page’s behavior in the past:
i’ve talked to a lot of people about this. some people are saying “i thought everyone knew to stay away from him” but everyone doesn’t know.
— lamar abrams (@neo_rama) July 3, 2014
Both Partridge and Pequin stressed that she was being given support from others in the industry
to people who are saying this should have been discreetly dealt with by HR or something:
— Emily Partridge (@empartridge) July 3, 2014
a) HR is already dealing with it. b) discretion does not keep other people safe.
— Emily Partridge (@empartridge) July 3, 2014
had an interesting talk with @ryanpequin and @buenothebear about creating some kind of online safe space for women is situations like this
— Emily Partridge (@empartridge) July 3, 2014
So everyone knows, the response to all this stuff has been totally, overwhelmingly supportive.
— Ryan Pequin (@ryanpequin) July 3, 2014
Although Cartoon Network did not return the Daily Dot’s request for comment, a representative told Cartoon Brew that “Skyler Page is no longer an employee at Cartoon Network Studios.”
Meanwhile, Patrick Harpin, head of story on Clarence, took to Tumblr to urge fans not to take their anger out on the show itself:
I was Head of Story on “Clarence” from the beginning.
Obviously Skyler Page sexually assaulted a female artist at CN. Skyler’s a piece of shit, and CN should give him the boot. Emily Partridge is one bad-ass chick for standing up to a guy who a lot of people wanted to cover up for. Skyler’s asshole behavior (though not yet sexual assault) was the main reason I quit the show more than a year ago.
I can’t imagine how fans of the show are feeling right now. But the reason you like Clarence, in spite of it’s creator, is because the “creator” had very little to do with the show. Despite what it says in the credits, Skyler never wrote a single episode of Clarence. It was created by the writers (me and Spencer Rothbell) and the talented board artists (people like Charlie Gavin, Derek & Diana). We took Skyler’s idea of “a fat dumb kid” and made a character out of it. Skyler mostly “kept the couch from floating away”, and read whatever lines we gave him. There’s been enough victims of Skyler Page, don’t punish the talented crew that actually raised Clarence.
Partridge meanwhile criticized Cartoon Brew, apparently for using her photograph in their article about Page’s firing without first seeking her permission.
Photo via mustache—-cash—-stash/Tumblr