ESCAPE FROM TRYPTOPHAN

My Thanksgiving weekend was wonderful, a nice respite from all the
annoying stuff I have been banging into for the past couple weeks.
I visited my parents on Thanksgiving morning, bringing them copies
of Grim Ghost #6 for the family.  Then I had a great Thanksgiving
meal with Sainted Wife Barb, our kids Eddie and Kelly, and our good
friends/neighbors Greg and Giselle. 

Barb and I did a little “Black Friday” shopping and have begun our
Christmas shopping.  We all watched the Ohio State/Michigan game,
which was exciting but also disappointing.  Given the turmoil that
has surrounded the OSU football program this year, I think the team
made a decent showing.  I wish the players and their coaches well
in the years to come.

Eddie and I also watched three Gamera movies from the late 1990s:
Gamera: Guarding of the Universe, Gamera 2: Attack of Legion, and
Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys.  We thought the first two were pretty
good and the third was a disaster.  With some online arm-twisting,
I might write an overview of the entire Gamera series from start to
finish.  We’ll see.

Kelly was a bit under the weather, but it was still fun to have her
home for a few days.  Both her and Eddie had homework.  Kelly had
a paper, which I proofread for her.  Eddie had a huge engineering
project.  Him I couldn’t help. My trying to help on an engineering
project would make as much sense as the Cleveland Cavaliers calling
on me to play center for them.

My master plan was to blame my being lazy and fairly unproductive
all weekend on all that Tryptophan newspapers articles have said is
found in turkey.  It’s supposed to make one drowsy and such.  Alas,
the Snopes Urban Legend website derailed that plan: 

Even without that turkey-centric excuse taken off the table, I have
many others.  I’m still dealing with considerable pain from dental
work that just doesn’t want to leave me alone.  Much to my dismay,
because I don’t like taking medication of any kind, I’ve needed to
take Vicodin on a regular basis.  Which makes me even grumpier than
I normally am.  I’m due back at the dentist this afternoon.  Let’s
hope this situation gets resolved.

All sorts of craziness in the real world as well.  Even beyond the
despicable Grover Norquist apparently trumping the obligations of
Republican senators to serve the American people and to follow the
Constitution. 

Closer to my Medina home...

We have Amish gangsters going around cutting the hair and beards of
Amish men who they claim have disrespected their leader, a bad egg name
of Sam Mullet, over the leader’s interpretations of Amish doctrine.
Mullet's doctrines include him sleeping with wives of followers to “purify”
them.  Amish thugs.  What next?

On a more serious note, it appears a serial killer is operating in
and around nearby Summit County, using a Craigslist “help wanted”
ad to lure unemployed men to their deaths.  A suspect and a young
accomplice are currently in custody, but the investigation is far
from over.

On an even more serious note, hardly a week goes by lately without
The Gazette, our local newspaper, reporting another case of sexual
crimes involving underage victims.  My Internet kung fu skills are
sorely lacking, so I can’t tell you if there’s nationwide increase
in such crimes or if it’s a more local phenomena.  Whichever it is,
crimes against kids sicken me more than any other kind.

Real world crimes make comics industry crimes almost laughable in
comparison, but they still affect too many people in our community.
I’m working on blogs about plagiarism and about a scam artist from
another country who has preyed upon older artists.  I’ll bring them
to you as soon as I’m satisfied with my investigations and how I’m
presenting the material. 

It would be a blessing of sorts if all comicdom scam artists were
as moronic as the justly reviled Rick Olney.  If you do a search on
Olney, you will save me the considerable time it would take for me
to summarize his history of bad behavior.  I most recently blogged
about him on August 30 and again on September 15. 
     
In case you were wondering, Olney did cancel that convention.  This
surprised no one.  Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston reported this back
on September 18 and I never got around to linking to that article
until now.  My bad.

Johnston, who covers current comics industry misconduct better than
anyone else writing online, has posted an update on Olney’s holding
on to Indiana Jones maps created by artist Matt Busch to be used as
a fundraiser for veterans organizations.  Olney has allegedly tried
to sell these maps himself and has also threatened to burn them in
retaliation for Busch ending his association with Olney and Olney’s
imaginary convention in a very public manner.  Despite being served
with a Lucasfilm cease-and-desist letter, a letter which required
Olney to immediately return the maps to Busch along with any money
collected from Olney’s unlawful sale of any maps - if, indeed, any
maps were actually sold - Olney has not complied with the terms of
the letter.  He’s currently holding the maps “ransom” unless Busch
makes a public apology and exoneration of Olney on the artist’s web
page.  Olney claims he will donate any money made from his sales of
the map to an undisclosed charity.  Given Olney’s history, I think
any number of bad scenarios are possible.  As for the present, if
you want to read Johnston’s latest Olney piece, which includes the
e-mail Olney sent to Busch and Busch’s comments on same, you should
head over to the Bleeding Cool website:

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.   

© 2011 Tony Isabella