Posted in: Recent Updates | Tagged: art adams, joe pruett, josh hoopes, tek jensen

Josh Hoopes: He's Not The Messiah He's A Very Naughty Boy

I've managed to tie up two strands from differing Josh Hoopes scams together.

One is that of Joe Pruett of Desperado, one of a number of well known publishers who paid "Art Adams" in advance for a book called Messiah, through the agent "Jeff Henzel." He received a cover and some sketches, but paid a substantial advance.

The other is Argentinian artist Federico Zumel, who was recently conned by "Ron Runstrom." Months ago, he was employed by a "Jeff Henzel" to draw pages from the script for Messiah. They are reproduced below. It is possible, as they are so dissimilar to Art Adams' style that "Jeff Henzel" decided not to pass them on to Joe Pruett.

The Fake "Art Adams", "Ron Runstrom" and "Jeff Henzel" are all aliases for Sacramento con artist Josh Hoopes. Federico received no money, Joe received none of Federico's art, least of all from Art Adams, and Josh ran off with the cash.

In other Hoopes-related news, it seems he attempted to scam Rod Hannah out of over $600 as "Ron Runstrom" using Robbi Rodriguez's Tek Jensen samples as previously reported, back in April. During which time, "Ron" told Rod he had "undergone a long distance relationship that resulted in his Peruvian (or was it Chilean) wife immigrating by way of marriage" and "how badly he and his family needed the money that this project would give them. He told me he had six kids…" The sketches that Josh delivered weren't in the style Ron was expecting and thankfully he hadn't paid at that time, so it went no further.

Can you identify the artist behind these sketches?

As an epilogue, Rod Hannah met Robbi Rodriguez at Heroes Con, and shared Josh Hoopes stories. As a result, Robbi offered to provide the cover art for Rod's Sovena Red title.

Look at all the people Josh Hoopes is bringing together…

I wonder if Josh is going to San Diego?

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