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Jun

7

A Warning to Filipino Comics Professionals, Re: RICK OLNEY

Filed Under General, Philippine Comics | 2 Comments

From Tony Isabella:


***********

Dear Comics Professional,


If you are approached by an individual named Rick Olney or a representative of this man, if you are approached by Olney or anyone else representing entities known as The Mighty Mini-Con, TightLip Entertainment, or ORCA, we strongly urge you to run in the other direction.

There is a very long, very well-documented history of non-payment, deceit, emotional manipulation, and fraud in connection with this man and his projects. Despite searching and publicly requesting evidence for over three months, nobody has been able to produce any evidence of any artist ever having been paid in full for their work for TightLip. Many attending professionals to his conventions were promised reimbursement of their expenses, but while some were provided with lodging, none are known to have received full compensation for travel and meal costs, and many have been the subject of vicious personal attacks as a result of having inquired about the promised reimbursement. In addition, Mr. Olney has a considerable history of erratic and unprofessional behavior on many message forums and mailing lists on the internet, several of which have banned him due to his frequently racist, sexist, and homophobic rants, as well as his willingness to hurl vicious insults in response to legitimate questions about his business practices.
As far as we can tell, nearly everyone who has ever had any professional contact with TightLip, the Mighty Mini-Con, or Rick Olney, has a “war story” to tell about being misled, cheated, and used.

You can find more details here:

http://www.unscrewedcomic.com/


Please, do not attempt to do business with Olney. In fact, please pass along this warning to any comics professionals, aspiring comics professionals, retailers, exhibitors, media guests, and fans you know.

Do business with Olney at your own risk.

We would prefer to not do this in such a public manner, but, with Olney again advertising a convention and claiming that he is still planning to publish comic books, the greater good demands we speak out.

Check out the website.

Thank you for your attention,
the Undersigned

Shelly Kennedy, Webmaster Unscrewed!
Danny Donovan, Various independent Comics, 911 Emergency Relief by Alternative Comics, Radio Free Comicks
Dave Rothe, Ant #’s 6-9 from Image Comics
Tom Stillwell, Writer/Creator of The Honor Brigade from Spinner Rack Comics
Kurt Busiek, Astro City, Superman
Paul D. Storrie, Revisionary, Gotham Girls, Robin Hood
Scott Reed, Web’s Best Comics
Tony Isabella, Black Lightning, Tony’s Tips
Chuck Dixon, DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Bongo, Wildstorm
Joanne Ellen Mutch, Rummblestrips, Potlatch, LOTR sketch card artist,
Kevin Huxford, ShotgunReviews.com/Newsarama Contributor
Timothy J Tobolski, UNSCREWED! editor-in-chief
Jim Taylor, The Wraith
Mike Bullock, Lions Tigers & Bears, The Phantom
Blake M. Petit, Comixtreme.com
Scott Shaw!, CAPTAIN CARROT, THE SIMPSONS, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG
Jeff Austin, AC Comics
James Ritchey III, Green Lama, Team Defiant!
Danielle Sylvie Taylor, Hollow
Colin McMahon, New Dimension Comics-McMurray
Wil Radcliffe, Noggle Stones
Larime Taylor, Writer/Creator of HOLLOW, Archaia Studios Press
Mercedes R Lackey, Valdemar Series, DAW Books
Larry Dixon, DAW, Baen Books
Jim MacQuarrie, MonkeySpit.net
Alice Woodside, The Daredevil Anniversary Art Quilt Project
Sean McKeever, writer
Steven D. Forbes, Writer of Bullet Time, Co-Writer of Fallen Justice, EiC of Paper Dragonz
Koben Kelly, Newsarama.com, Best Shots, ShotgunReviews.com
Sarah Beach, editor, writer – Shooting Star Comics Anthology #1, Unscrewed! anthology
Lance Boucher, Inter-Fan Productions
Colleen Doran, A Distant Soil
Nat Gertler, About Comics
Johanna Draper Carlson, Comics Worth Reading
Joe Zierman, artist – Big Bang Comics
Martin R. Oakley, formerly of Bloodstained Productions, writer/artist
Kneon Transitt, Gemstone Publishing
Gail Simone, Birds of Prey, Villains United, Gen13, Welcome to Tranquility, Atom
Frank Dirscherl, The Wraith
James A. Owen, Starchild, Mythworld, and Here, There Be Dragons
Richard Neal, Eisner winner Zeus Comics
Brian Pate, Comic Book Conventions.com
Cully Hamner, BLUE BEETLE, DC Comics
Erik Burnham, Shooting Star Comics
Scott McCullar, Shooting Star Comics, DC Comics, West End Games
Butch Guice, Marvel Artist
Brian J. Crowley, Graphic Designer DDP

********

And I would add my name at the end of that.

I would not have talked about this individual at all if not for the fact that he actually emailed me to rejoin his forum (months after telling me off angrily and saying goodbye at a forum), and said that he is currently dealing with comics people here in the Philippines.

I am posting this here as a warning to my fellow Filipino comic book professionals, publishers, retailers, etc. Please learn from the experiences of other people. A lot of people have suffered and shared their experiences so that you don’t have to go through the same thing.

Go to that website linked above, and if you feel like it, just go to this forum:
http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=156451
And see all the comic book professionals who have spoken up against Rick.

And a blog entry by a good friend of mine who talks about other people Rick has disadvantaged:
http://portaveritas.blogspot.com/2007/05/karma-really-works.html

And if you still aren’t convinced, just google his name and see what you find out.

And to Rick, I’m sure you’re bound to read this, don’t even bother commenting, because if you do, I won’t read it, and I won’t post it. I am very disappointed in you. I believed in you many years ago and I liked how optimistic your outlook for comics was. Until I found out who you really were. These people won’t rise up against you for no reason. Please look at yourself, and look at yourself very hard, and acknowledge that you have a lot of things to work out in your life. That’s pretty much the last thing I’m going to say to you.

Comments

2 Responses to “A Warning to Filipino Comics Professionals, Re: RICK OLNEY”

  1. Danny Donovan on June 14th, 2007 6:06 pm

    hey Gerry,

    Thanks for warning your readers, if you are interested please drop me an e-mail and I’ll put you on the send list for the press releases concerning Unscrewed! and perhaps you could share it with your fans and readers.

    While this individual has hurt more than his fair share of people (including myself) nothing better could have come of it than Unscrewed! helping anyone and everyone who runs into an individual like Rick.

    Thanks for the translation for the website, and thanks for your support in getting the word out about stopping a vile cancer on the face of this industry from harming another honest creator with empty promises and lies.

  2. Rainier G. Factuar on June 24th, 2007 12:24 am

    Hello Mr. Gerry,

    thank you very much for this warning. teke care of yourself from this Rick Olney freak.