Earlier today, Bleeding Cool ran a piece in which Earthworm Jim creator Doug TenNapel blamed DC Comics and its publisher Jim Lee for his friend Sean Gordon Murphy's decision to pull his guest cover from TenNabel's crowdfunded comic book Bigfoot Bill 2.

Murphy cited previous comments made by TenNapel about trans people, that he had been made aware of by others. TenNapel framed this as the actions of DC Comics and Jim Lee forcing Murphy to pull his cover or lose his gig at DC.

Jim Lee has his job to do and I have mine. He's doing a lot better than me so I can see why he put his giant jackboot on my tiny business. https://t.co/LYSHF8l1HD — Doug TenNapel (@DougTenNapel) March 6, 2020

I have been told independently that this was not the case, it was far more that concerned friends of Murphy had let him know about those comments from his friend. DC Comics was not involved, let alone Jim Lee, and Murphy's position at DC, working on the Batman: White Knight books which he has dubbed the Murphyverse, was never up for discussion, nor threatened.

But the claim did mark a new change in DC policy – DC publisher Jim Lee putting his head above the parapet to comment on this sort of thing. And in response to TenNapel's claim, tweeting the following…

With all due respect, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about Doug. — Jim Lee (@JimLee) March 6, 2020

Was this a new approach to Jim to such criticism? Lee is known for usually keeping his counsel private, where Dan DiDio was more publicly outspoken? Is this the way things might change? But the discussion continued;

Did you talk to SGM about a tweet of mine? https://t.co/mLP6ICR84b — Doug TenNapel (@DougTenNapel) March 6, 2020

Sorry I did not. — Jim Lee (@JimLee) March 6, 2020

Sean flat out told me you did, so I apologize if it's not true. https://t.co/0eynhkk0n9 — Doug TenNapel (@DougTenNapel) March 6, 2020

But Doug's tweet disappeared, instead tweeting.

@JimLee, did you call Sean Gordon Murphy this Wednesday the 4th about doing the Bigfoot Bill 2 cover? I need clarity on this because it's my family business and my sole source of income. https://t.co/0eynhkk0n9 — Doug TenNapel (@DougTenNapel) March 6, 2020

No answer yet… but Jim did say he had no idea what Doug was talking about.