josh hoopes Archives

Okay, this is shocking. Josh Hoopes is one of the biggest con artists in comics Although to call him an artist is a bit of a joke in itself I've followed his career for a while now and he seems to have a modus operandi that he rarely deviates from. He solicits for work on varous forums,[...]

A Little Bleeder writes; Just wanted to say thanks for your articles on Josh Hoopes/Ron Runstrom Whenever I get a new artist apply I check out not only the links they send me to their portfolio but also run their name through google (and possible add a couple of other key words) to check more info[...]

We haven't heard from the Sacremento-living comics con man Josh Hoopes for quite some time But we have tracked down another of his victims Indian artist Lalit Kumar Sharma. In March 2008, when I was writing for Lying In The Gutters, I printed these pages supposedly drawn for Ibrahim Amin by Hoopes before Hoopes disappeared Ibrahim[...]

Before Josh Hoopes closed his Facebook account (though accounts from his family members are still active) he added a bunch of his comic book artwork, clearly to impress his family and friends. Much of it seems familiar, Robbi Rodriguez' Tek Jensen artwork and the like, but I reckon some of it is actually genuine That sort[...]

Wired to Peru to the name "Josh Hoopes". Shortly afterwards, a bell rang somewhere One google search later, and a closer examination of Robert's portfolio, Robert/Josh was asked to explain himself; I am trying to explain things to you, Andi, this began long ago, over a jealous rival and had nothing to do with money. Why do you[...]

One of the most frustrating aspects of the Josh Hoopes affair is his constant repeated ability to go to ground and to return, often with the same phone number, address and contact details Despite repeated attempts to pass information to the relevant authorities, he seems to act without interference All I've been able to do[...]

"The most important thing is I want people to see the work that I do" – Josh Hoopes. If you are commissioning or thinking of commissioning work from one Joseph Jenkins, think again. Bleeding Cool and Lying In the Gutters before it have run a number of articles on the notorious comics industry scam artist Josh Hoopes[...]

Before Josh Hoopes, before Pat Lee before Wowio, Rick was the poster boy for not paying comic book creators And, more importantly, while other people who owed money generally ran off and shut up, Rick didn't try to avoid the situation or hide from public scrutiny He positively revelled in it, threatening legal cases, insulting[...]

A comics scamp not involving Josh Hoopes? It feels wrong, doesn't it? Right now a man calling himself JP Silva is working his way through the comic store phone book. He calls store owners purporting to be a producer working on a series called Myths, Legends, & Supermen, to be hosted by Hugh Downs and appear on[...]

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[...]

This is your cut-out-and-keep guide to my attempts to alert the comics industry of a major scam going on in its midst. Right from the beginning, we knew Josh Hoopes had a… legally-challenged record and was accepting commissions from publishers, outsourcing the work and then not paying the artist But we never knew just how persistent[...]

I think his work is fantastic. Sadly, it seems, so did Josh Hoopes under his recent pseudonym of Ron Runstrom. A writer commissioned work from Josh, Josh sent that work to Federico, Federico supplied a series of pages, Josh supplied them to the writer who paid up in full, Josh kept all the money, Federico didn't supply[...]

Comic book conman Josh Hoopes is STILL sending out e-mails purporting to be from Art Adams Here's the latest one, with a new Wizard-related twist: Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:41:07 -0700 From: adamsarthur@rocketmail.com Subject: limited time commissions To: Hey there up and comers and Indy publishers………          I know you guys are familiar with my work[...]

Yesterday, Bleeding Cool exposed the new fake identity and scam details of Josh Hoopes, as an artist Ron Runstrom, using other people's art to gain commissions. In previous scams he has then commissioned other people to do that work, without paying them, and running off with the money. And so it appears again For one writer, "Ron"[...]

There is a young man called Josh Hoopes I think that's his real name It's hard to tell as he has been caught out using a number of names, aliases, identities, email addresses and street addresses But there enough common threads to tie them together. I first exposed Josh when he began using certain creators comic[...]