Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Comics, con man, josh hoopes, joshua hoopes

Is Josh Hoopes Back At His Old Game On DeviantArt?

Published Tue, 08 May 2012 16:00:38 -0500

Last updated Wed, 09 May 2012 17:48:12 -0500

You have to feel sorry for Lalit Kumar Sharma. An Indian comic book creator, he has a number of prestigious comic book works to his name. But he's also a victim of repeat comic book industry conman Josh Hoopes or Joshua Hoopes.

Hoopes "hired" him to draw a comic book from a script he provided. Lalit drew a numbar of pages but was never paid. It later transpired that Josh was not the writer, another creator was, who had paid Josh to draw the pages. Josh delievered the first few pages but ran off with the money. It was a tactic hw would repeat with many.

But what was worse for Lalit, was that Josh then began posing as him, trying to get people to pay him money for work that would never appear. So Lalit has found his name repeatedly bismirched.

And now it looks like Josh is doing it all again. Posing on DeviantArt as Lallit Kumal and linking to Lalit's work, he wrote;

OK So let's try this again.
I am in need of a top notch professional
penciler and inker in the western style of
John Byrne, Jim Lee or Ron Adrian ASAP for a quick turn
around.
When I say professional I mean Professional please.
Published is a plus.
Please note the pay is every 10 pages paid upon approval
of those ten pages via paypal.
Since we are paying $100 per page we expect the best.
Please include a link in your note.

And previously;

So like the title says I am looking for a top notch western style, NO MANGA comic artist, who knows what he or she is doing and able to commit to 30 plus pages at $80 per page.
Ultimately someone with a John Byrne style, Ron Adrian or even Jim Lee.
Payment is made upon approval of every ten pages via paypal.
This is a serious project so I need a serious artist.
If you have been published, that's a plus but not a deal breaker.
Please send me a not with a link to your portfolio.
If I like what I see I will e-mail you or give you my e-mail
to contact me.
Thanks and good luck.

The real Lalit has confirmed that this is not him, but that the images linked to are his. And bthat this is anothr attempt to steal his identity online.

Josh, we're on to you.

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