Keeping up with the Rick Olney furor, looks like he should’ve invested in a non-imaginary legal team:
Scott Reed, of websbestcomics.com, had filed suit against Rick Olney in Florida courts, seeking monies owed for work done on webpage design for Olney.
Scott Reed’s case was filed in Florida, where Scott resides and the work was done. He gathered the documentation for the case, and took advantage of Mark Waid’s generous offer of assistance in moving forward with legal cases against Olney.The summons for this case had been served on Olney in New York by the Herkimer Sheriff’s department (documented) on January 11, 2007. Olney failed to appear in the Florida court, and failed to arrange any sort of representation to that court, and indeed failed to respond to the summons.
Scott was awarded his claim of the monies due on the invoiced work, interest on that amount, and court costs.
Reed commented in the mammoth thread over at CBR:
I won’t be publicly responding here about this, beyond this post. The reason for this is that I have already invested quite a few hours over the last several months in dealing with him via email, and monitoring his online activity in this and other forums. The stress this has caused me and my family cannot be understated. I simply want to move forward at this point and pursue collecting the debt now that the trial is over.
Later in the thread, Kurt Busiek fills in some more context:
That was apparently the second judgment against Rick in the last week or so, just the first where the winner’s posted here.
So congrats to Scott, congrats to the other winner, and a big waytogo to Mark Waid.
Rick professes not to understand why comics freelancers and fans would see it as their business when a publisher cheats and defrauds talent. It’s called “community.”
And there’s more coming…
March 1st, 2007 at 2:41 pm
So much hoody-hoo. Someone please post a brief summary of WTF this is all about? I figure some guy cheated other people of $, and I saw a whizzing match btwn. so-and-so with Quail Simone, and I think I read the article a bit ago, but I’d like some sort of nutshell explanation.
Por favor.
March 1st, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Some sort of thing about some guy not paying a bunch of creators stretching back about 10 years or so. And Crossgen or something.
Nice Captain Carrot ref.
March 1st, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Short version: Rick Olney is someone who owes many, many people money for services rendered (some for his essentially imaginary comic company Tightlip Entertainment, others for conventions he has run in the past), has consistently come up with “new” and “inventive” excuses for non-payment, and when this became public, started threatening legal action on, well, most everyone who looked at him shiftily before melting down in fairly spectacular fashion. You should start here to get a better picture of who he is.
March 1st, 2007 at 3:09 pm
As someone who has no connection what’s happened, reading Olney’s bat-^&*% crazy forum posts is entertaining. I can’t imagine how stressful reading them would be for someone who’s actually dealing with the guy and trying to get paid for their work.
March 1st, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Video Game Lingo Definition: Rick Olney produced the Phantom Game Console for the comic book set.
And yes, his posts really are ridiculously entertaining and damning from an uninvolved standpoint.
March 2nd, 2007 at 3:06 am
Back in November:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=2635
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=2642
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=2648
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:23 am
This Rick Olney guy sounds like Hart Fisher, another thief in comics publishing. He published some of my books and never fully paid me and living in Canada, I never thought I could successfully sue him in California.
Stay away from Fisher and Boneyard Press, that’s all I have to say.
June 6th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Sadly, there is so much more to this matter as it involves specific people with specific complaints. After it all splatters across the country in court jurisdictions you can get the facts. Other than that, no more smoke please.
June 14th, 2007 at 6:52 am
One of the industry’s classic deadbeats, with the added bonus of threats and abuse for the people he’s cheated.
Gail
June 14th, 2007 at 7:13 am
It’s already been in the courts multiple times Rick. Remember? You’ve lost every case so far.
June 14th, 2007 at 7:16 am
Sorry Rick, this is one instance of “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”. Olney commission’s work, whether for his unproductive “comics” endeavors, or just individual artwork pieces, and then doesn’t pay. Instead, he cajoles, threatens, berates and just plain lies to the creator, hoping to get the creator to A) shut up about being such a deadbeat, and in some cases B) amazingly asks for further work (or at least extended friendship) after totally screwing over said creator. He’s got more screws loose then an Edsel, and should be escorted away from any future attempts at being involved in comics publishing, or dealing with people in a financial way at all!
June 14th, 2007 at 8:02 am
“Sadly, there is so much more to this matter as it involves specific people with specific complaints. After it all splatters across the country in court jurisdictions you can get the facts. Other than that, no more smoke please.”
Rick Olney, ladies and germs!
Yes, there are lots of complaints against you. This is because you are a deadbeat.
No one has heard from your “leaggle teams” and you have lost at least 4 court cases by default. You are also on record stating you will not abide by the court decisions. Nice one!
Also, you have threatened me with arrest, violence, and recently the US Postal Inspectors. More crap spewing from your lips, is all it is. Or “smoke”, if you like.
You lose, Rick.
June 14th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Re your legal ” successes ” so far, Richard… Suffer in yer jocks.
June 14th, 2007 at 11:11 am
On the up-side, there is now a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting artists who have been victimized by unscrupulous publishers such as this one. Years from now, when Olney is a footnote in the industry, the punchline to an endless series of hilarious industry anecdotes, UNSCREWED! will still be here. We are currently looking at a number of cases involving other publishers who for one reason or another have not kept their obligations. We are also assisting one publisher in raising the funds to do so.
Please visit http://www.unscrewedcomic.com and see what we’re up to.