Did Pensacon's Threat Report Just Blow Up in Their Face?

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Submitted by RJ Carter on Mon, 02/18/2019 - 19:32

The tale of voice talent VIC MIGNOGNA is fascinating in and of itself. But it's one of the spin-off stories that has taken turns more bizarre than the decomposing Jussie Smollett saga.

It's seems that a Florida fan convention, PENSACON, took umbrage at fans who prepared online to stand up for Mignogna, and threatened anyone doing so verbally with arrest. This incensed several people in the fan community, who took to Twitter and YouTube with their own message of support and/or outcry. One of these was comic book artist and upstart YouTube personality ETHAN VAN SCIVER, whose statements earned replies from the convention itself, stating that they were concerned about far more than just fans saying they were going to question scheduled guest MONICA RIAL, one of those currently accusing Mignogna of sexual misconduct.

Among their greater concerns: a bomb threat.

So Pensacola received this, what definitely appears to be a bomb threat. I’m told Homeland Security is investigating this, and that’s great, but I’m sharing this shit. I’m not sure if this is genuine or not, but depriving con goers of this info is irresponsible as hell.

Here: pic.twitter.com/b2ap9YL8nC

— Ethan Van Sciver (@EthanVanSciver) February 17, 2019

Coming hot on the heels of the recent SWATting of Alterna Comics publisher, PETER SIMETI, this latest threat of physical violence in the world of geek culture was something to take more seriously than ever. According to the convention organizers, Homeland Security was already involved with seeking out the perpetrator of the threat.

Which came as a bit of a surprise to the FBI.

So I just got off the phone with an FBI agent in Pensacola regarding PensaCon, told them everything I knew about the situation and offered to provide all of the email exchanges I had with PensaCon that led to me being given the bomb threat.

Guess what? They didn't know about it.

— Ethan Van Sciver (@EthanVanSciver) February 18, 2019

How is it that a convention gets a bomb threat putting the lives of nearly 30,000 attendees at risk, and neither local law enforcement nor the Department of Homeland security thinks to involve the Federal Bureau of Investigations? That's the question many are now asking, wondering whether Pensacola police simply fumbled the ball -- or whether the threat itself was a manufactured hoax.

Van Sciver took to his YouTube channel, ComicsArtistPro Secrets, Monday afternoon for a livestream discussion of how the FBI became aware of the threat, and what his discussions were with them. We have embedded this livestream below: