I can’t seem to make any progress on my drawing. So, I will try to make the world a better place.
on August 1st, 2009I drew and drew and drew and drew, and it looks like I didn’t accomplish very much the last couple of days. I don’t know how that happens, and I am a little down about it. I took in a lot of coffee to stay alert today, and now am too wired to sleep. I guess I should just keep drawing then. Maybe in a few more hours the pages will look like something got accomplished.
In the meantime, go read some links.
Rich Johnston is following the strange tale of a fraudster who has been passing himself off as various noted comics artists, taking advances on work, and running off with the dough. This scam has been going on for months and months. The story of Josh Hoopes started at Rich’s old Lying in the Gutters column, but is now continued at Bleeding Cool. (And if you missed my earlier post about fraudsters, go back and read it now.) LINK FIXED.
Impersonating comics creators is not new (it’s happened to me) but Josh Hoopes excels at this scam. You can see his face here.
Publishing companies should always do an internet search and contact creators directly before contracting with them. Almost every creator has an internet presence and it is not difficult to contact them or their official representatives.
How this dude managed to convince people he was a penniless Art Adams looking for dough, I cannot fathom. I know what Adams’s original art goes for! Man, all he has to do is a pinup or two, and he’s set! No need for Adams to be working for chump change for small publishers!
Also at Bleeding Cool, the latest on the bizarre tale of Rick Olney, who does not appear to be any closer to paying the people he owes than years ago when he originally incurred his debts to artists and writers.
For some bizarre reason, I got the weirdest mail from Olney (whom I do not personally know) about my Very Bad Publishers posts. Olney convinced himself the posts were about him and his family. Here is the entire text of the letter which came in some time ago:
Colleen,
You made a remark about my father being a ‘bad’ businessman. My father was NEVER a bad businessman. He actually had a great business and had much more than you could ever realize or be willing to give him credit for. It was not until after his brain bleed and subsequent operation saving his life back in 1995 that his life began a slow decline. Your idiotic comments about my family are something you should be proud of. I’m going to tell you once, knock it off. Talk about your worldly theories about me all you like but leave my parents out of your crap slinging. I realize that you can’t help yourself It must be tough living a life of estrogen driven, dysfunctional personality psychosis, with overtones of jealousy and insecurity.R
I have never worked with Olney, never known anyone in his family, and have not made comments about his family business, about which I know nothing. The Very Bad Publisher posts are clearly about my time at a company called Starblaze. I have no Earthly idea why this ridiculous Olney person would assume any of this material was directed at him, but then, this is not the first time some random nutter assumed I was speaking to them through the internet.
And me – jealous of Olney? Dude, what is he sniffing?
Olney followed up his bizarre email with another, alluding to the death of my cat last summer. Presumably, my talking dirt about his bad businessman father (which I did not do) resulted in the karmic backlash of the death of a 16-year-old cat.
I think my cat died of old age. He was 16 after all. And, of course, I said absolutely nothing about Olney’s father, his business, or anything else about the guy. I’ve never worked with him, Olney, or had any direct contact with anyone in his family whatsoever.
And what kind of karmic hoodoo kills an innocent animal over a blog post? Man, that’s messed up.
I used to try to be subtle on my internet postings, not naming too many names so as not to embarrass people from my past, while still writing candidly about my experiences.
It’s a wasted effort. There’s nothing I can do about Teh Crazy who thinks I am sending them secret messages through the computer, and ruining their poor little careers with my dispatches to the Sekrit Comic Book Industry Cabal.
There’s a couple more nutters out there who conflate the most tenuous connection (I spoke to them on the phone, I answered email, they met me at a show) in order to give them an ontological argument for why their lives suck: “Colleen was supposed to HELP my CAREER and now she won’t even talk to me except via SEKRIT MESSAGES on the INTERWUBZ.” Oh yeah, and I am STALKING them and out to GET them and a total HATER.
Jesus Christ. File right next to Olney and his weird karmic theory about my cat.
Fortunately, I don’t seem to have too many problems with Teh Crazy. I am not worried about this Olney person, either. But I thought you’d appreciate a direct illustration of the cognitive disconnect that occasionally darkens the corners of my happy life down on the farm.
The good news is, this sort of thing is extremely rare. With thousands of readers, I feel blessed that I have so few problems.
Count on fingers of one hand, have fingers left over.
Life is good. Really.
And I am happy to bring it to your attention so you can know what to look out for. When it comes to Very Bad Publishers, I don’t think you’re going to beat Rick Olney’s Tightlip. Do click the link and read.
There’s a part of me that feels a little better knowing I am not the only person who had to deal with a VERY bad Very Bad Publisher, while at the same time, I feel terrible for the creators who got rooked.
It’s never personal. Remember that. When you get involved with one of these creeps, or when you have some internet nutter railing about the Sekrit Cabal, just remember it happens to everybody in the bizz – well, the real pros anyway, as opposed to the resume-inflating wishtheywere’s who are sure the Sekrit Cabal stands between them and the riches and fame they deserve.
You did nothing to deserve Teh Crazy, and Neil Gaiman gets 437% more of this crap than you ever will.
And he seems OK.
In happier news, our good buddy Tom Stillwell has a new collection of his comic called Honor Brigade, and I have contributed a pinup. You can order Honor Brigade HERE
Also, Tom will be making a print of my pinup of Mystery Girl. The pinup will be available at Wizard World Chicago and ALL proceeds will go toward the medical costs of John Ostrander. If he makes this available via mail for some of the readers here, I will be sure to post the info. EDIT: See it here.
OK, now I have to work for 3 more hours to get this caffeine out of my system. Wish me luck.
c
PS: More trouble with the Dabel Brothers. Don’t really know much about that lot.
PPS: We are NOT hosted by WordPress, even though this blog uses WordPress software. If you want to post, you have to register here. Sorry about that.
gee, isn’t it funny how when someone has a guilty conscience, he thinks everyone’s talking about him? Just sayin.
Ahem.
And how.
As pernicious as certain people can be, perhaps you can take some solace in the fact that at the end of the day you’re living a worthwhile existence and they’re probably not.
Absolutely.
Except you might want to change “probably” to “definitely”.
I’m trying to be charitable today.
Of course, it occurs to me that charity is almost certainly wasted on some people. People, for example, who would tell you that the loss of a beloved pet is karmic punishment for an imagined slight.
Like…the health of my cat has anything to do with that goober – or even me.
How narcissistic can you get?
I am sure someone will write a weepy post about how these people are just sick, and how we all need to get together with fandom’s finest nutters and stalkers and give them a hug and sing kumbaya.
But in my humble opinion, these people’s biggest problem is not that they are sick, it’s that they have a character flaw.
Most people with mental illnesses do not lie, cheat, steal, commit fraud, or stalk.
Time for another link to the Five Geek Social Fallacies!
http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html
But in my humble opinion, these people’s biggest problem is not that they are sick, it’s that they have a character flaw.
Yeah. Some people just suck, and that’s all there is to it.
Oh, I just found the cat weird-o-gram:
It says:
“NEED MORE PROOF? I might be a moron, but it was YOUR cat that died.”
Um…OK. You’re a moron.
And my cat died.
The “Need more proof” reference goes back to his bizarre claims of Wiccan powers. My cat died, so that proves he is just brimming with the Wicca.
Because we all know how much Wiccans hate cats. Not.
Man, I’m glad I’m not livin’ the lives of these people. What mess.
Colleen, are there ever days where you just go, “Do I have a friggin’ beacon that attracts these nutjobs?”
If anything, it’s “karma” that things are happening to that lowlife for all the crud he’s pulled.
To me, it’s always aggravating when people talk trash about me, but when I stand my ground, I’m the one who’s overreacting and taking it too serious.
Why yes, Jeremy, I do have those days.
I’m occasionally annoyed that other people believe they have the right to choose for me what behavior I should accept or refuse to accept.
Keep standing your ground, Jeremy. And if people think you are overreacting to trash talk, there are 300 million people in the USA alone. You can find better friends.
Olney does not really concern me much with regard to his weird-o-grams toward me. Pretty pathetic.
He’s treated some of those writers and artists far worse than he’s ever treated me.
BTW, speaking of the Sekrit Cabal and my propensity for ruining creator’s careers with my girl artist super powers, remind me to tell you about the guy who dogged me for years because I would not give him Curt Swan’s address. It’s an epic.
He eventually went away, but not until after he had sent me many pictures of a bleeding, angry Jesus.
Sounds like a extreme form of Persecution Complex. Good Lord, the creeps you have to deal with, I don’t know how you stand it. Good luck on your drawing, I have been in a slump myself as of late, finally dug my way out and was real excited. Only to be hit by self doubt, and thus fallen back into a slump.
Thanks, Larry.
I don’t run into people like Olney often, and I have certainly been critical of his behavior toward creators. That said, how he concluded those posts were about him is a mystery.
I’m going to have to go with Arlene. Olney (and a couple of other people) obviously have very guilty consciences, and conclude my every utterance is about them, even when my every utterance is clearly not about them.
And good luck to YOU with your drawing. I hoped to get an invoice in today. Doesn’t look like I am going to make it.
Didn’t you get the memo that the universe revolves around Olney? We’re just rocks in the asteroid belt of his galaxy.
A massive ego…we can’t escape its gravitational pull.