Hodge, Crusader for Justice, has given me kind permission to post this very interesting list of tips for spotting the bad guys, the scammers, the big promise – little delivery types who waste your time and weasel your money.

It’s just plain good advice for anyone who doesn’t want to lose their shirt to a huckster…

Common Features of a Fraudster

* Dictator
* Promiser
* Bearer of gifts
* Charmer
* Entertainer
* Never there
* Excessively secretive
* Permanently short of money
* Living beyond their means
* High roller
* Bad business record
* Imply victim is stupid if asks explanation of anomalies in fraudster’s patter
* Manipulative
* Psychopath
* Believe themselves to be a victim of conspiracy

Key tips to managing a Fraud

* Manage problem
* be decisive
* Have an action plan
* What do you want to achieve?
* money?
* Identification of culprit(s)?
* Zero tolerance policy?
* Publicity?
* Principle?
* Call any advisors you have early
* Gather evidence
* bottom out problem / black hole
* Asset search
* Injunction
* Stamina
* Reality check on expectations
* The money is rarely found overnight
* Expect endless/pointless delays
* Often late instruction of lawyer / change of lawyer

DON’T

* Bury head in sand
* Sit on the problem
* think it will go away
* think it won’t get worse
* Be emotional

I’m looking at the first list, and hanging my head in shame. Yep. I have dealt with people who fit almost every single item on it. It’s like some kind of amazing light going off…entertainer, promiser, dictator, bearer of gifts, short of money, bad business record, living beyond means, high roller…etc.

Gasp! I could paint that portrait!

And I hang my head even deeper in shame because I am the person who sits on the problem, hopes it goes away, and hopes it won’t get worse.

(more…)

Dear Colleen,

Karen French

Dear Karen,

First off, let me say how kind it is of you to ask! I am so very grateful for your consideration.

I have absolutely no problem with people writing fanfic of my work. Write away! I was also a part of fandom and did lots of fanfic and fanart when growing up, so I know how much fun it is.

A lot of fan activity exists in a kind of legal grey area. Some authors and artists never want to allow fans to make fanfic or fanart of their work. In all the years I have been a pro I have only had to step in and deliver a legal warning a couple of times when the use of my work got a bit out of hand.

Technically, fanfic and fanart are derivative works. Go to FANFIC QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS for a great website which will tell you just about all the legal stuff need to know about fan activity.

I don’t mind it if you post fanfic on your blog and share it with your friends. But please don’t make commercial use of my work. I usually try to not pay close attention to any fan use of my work, because I trust the fans to do the right thing.

The best way to share your fanfic with your friends is by setting up a user group and sharing the fanfic within the mail user group.

Please don’t forget my copyright and trademark information.

As long as it stays “fannish” in nature and doesn’t stray into commercial enterprise, or as long as it doesn’t threaten the viability of my copyright and trademark interests, I will do nothing to interfere with your fun.

The only serious action I have ever taken against anyone in this area was when a former editor of A Distant Soil was found to have been writing and selling A Distant Soil fanfic some ten years after I stopped working with her. Due to the nature of the confidential information on my book to which she had had access, and the breach of professional boundaries, as well as the copyright and trademark concerns, we had to send her a cease and desist notice.

It might interest you to know that the first mainstream comics job offer I ever got was because I was working on a Legion of Superheroes fanzine when I was in high school. The fanzine was always sent to the DC offices so the pros could see it. Keith Giffen, the Legion artist, saw my work on that fanzine and called me on the phone one day!

Most pros I know support fan activity and would really prefer to NEVER take action against a fan.

It is so good and kind of you to ask, and I am glad to have this opportunity to share this information with other fans. Enjoy your writing!

c

Another tutorial from Digital Art.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have never ever been able to get the hang of computer graphics by reading text books. I have to see the process. I’ve gotten a lot of use out of Lynda.com, but they have few tutorials specifically for comics-type graphics.

The Digital Art tutorials allow you to follow along with the pros as they create their work.

Some of them may be too advanced for beginners, but this feature is easy material for newbies. If you are just starting out, get one of those short term subscriptions to Lynda.com ($25 a month for UNLIMITEd access) and back it up with a selection of Digital Art Tutorials. You could check out any terms or techniques you didn’t quite understand on the Digital discs over at Lynda. For example, when I was starting out I could not seem to get a hang of the whole idea of layers. Many art tutorials assume knowledge of this, and I’d just sit there in a mist wondering “How the hell did they do that?” So after checking terms I did not know at Lynda.com, and then reviewing the Digital Art Tutorials, I was able to get the hang of things I had spent more than a year trying to suss out without success.

BTW, I was talking with Brian Haberlin when I was at NYCC, and he swears up and down that the new CS4 Photoshop is utterly beyond utterly. OK, “utterly beyond utterly” is my term, but he swears CS4 is worth the price of the upgrade.

For my own part, I am so happy with the ease of making layers on comic art in CS3 (up from Photoshop 7), that I can hardly believe how simple the new system is. I never quite got the hang of the old system. I can only imagine how much better CS4 must be.

I’m not going to upgrade right now because I simply don’t need to: not doing a whole lot of digital art at the moment. I’m doing a bit of painting and practice for my portfolio.

Plunking down a few bucks to get Digital Art Tutorials is worth every penny. After a few hours of watching these tutorials, I walk away with knowledge and tools that save me countless hours of scrambling around on my own. I nabbed some very nice computer painting jobs with my very first samples!

This is not a paid endorsement. I was given several samples of the tutorials, and also purchased others on my own.

I know sometimes these tutorials and classes can seem expensive, but they are not nearly as expensive as the time you sink into trying to figure out things by yourself. They really are a great investment.

c