If this was a plot in a comic book, I'd reject it as being contrived and ludicrous. And that's in a comic book.

So anyway, over the last month, on and off, I've been negotiating with Rob Granito's wife and manager Alison Granito over the possibility of doing an interview with Rob . She'd put $200 out there as a figure, I thought I might be able to raise that much, but Rob nixed it when he found out it was me.

Well, it turns out I was the only person who'd offered such a sum. And Alison and Rob were receiving advice and support from a third party, someone kind and considerate to them, another artist who felt he'd been wronged by me. Who told Alison that if I paid them by Paypal, I'd only get a chargeback on the money and get it all the money back. That I had also destroyed his career, as I had Rob's. The name of this man?

Josh.

My ears pricked up.

Josh Hoopes.

And here's the thing. My original article about Rob Granito, was because he's misrepresented himself to customers, giving provenance to his work that wasn't justified, conning customers out of their money, even if they didn't know they were being conned and went away happy. It was wrong, but it was small time, it was small scale.

Josh Hoopes however is the biggest con man in comics, who poses to publishers and writers as an artist using a pseudonym, using pages that aren't his own. Then poses to artists as a publisher. He gets jobs from the publisher, commissions the artists to draw pages, which he hands over, then runs off with the money. Again and again and again. He's even posed as Art Adams to reputable companies and received commissions from them as a result. And recently he posed as a talent scount for Marvel, DC, Image and Wizard, getting small time writers to pay four figure sums to hire A-list artists that never existed.

I've tried to explain this to Alison, but she seems convinced that Josh is the real deal. That I am scum. And that she will be arranging an interview with Rob Granito, that will be released to all "fair" comics news sites to publish, for free.

Presumably not Bleeding Cool then.