Too Legit-o-mite To Quit
Remember Rob Granito? Well, he's still out there, attempting to channel the 'controversy' (read: having his art-tracing, resume-faking ass busted) into some kind of career.

At last word, he was trying to sell his story to the highest bidder, but ended up just doing a couple of email interviews with Bleeding Cool.

In the first one, he claims to have been an honest guy who just has made some mistakes.

When Dwayne McDuffie died, you states that you’d enjoyed working with him. You had never worked with him. Why did you say that, and can you see why it angered people?

Okay, I’m very glad you asked that one. I did work with Dwayne McDuffie, at least, I considered it working with him because he gave me pointers. I’ll tell you the story. A couple of years ago, at a con, I was doing fan sketches, and one fan asked for a sketch of Luke Cage, so I was like, cool. And I started it but didn’t really like it and decided to start a new one. So I ripped the other one up, and Dwayne McDuffie was going around the floor, and I had met him before, so he came up to look over my shoulder to see what I was drawing, you know, friendly and stuff. So he sees me doing this Luke Cage, and he started giving me advice, because he told me, this was such an important character to him from when he was a kid. And I was really getting off on it, you know? Because Dwayne McDuffie was such an influence on all of us. And it was so creative and so cool, we were just riffing on it together, like a real collaboration. Dwayne was telling me little subtle things, like “more gangsta” in the character’s expression, and telling me how Luke Cage was “from the streets” so he had to have this certain look in his eyes. I could tell he really enjoyed it, and it was one of the best pieces I’ve drawn, I wish I had kept it ! Actually, Dwayne told me, that was so good he wished he had it, and of course, now I regret not giving it to him. But that experience is one of my best memories and one I’m always gonna cherish, you know? That, to me, was working with Dwayne McDuffie, because he guided me and we collaborated and all I said was it was a pleasure working with him. I didn’t say we did that one show together or something. So I don’t get it. I mean, nobody can prove that didn’t happen, you know?

True, nobody can prove that it didn't happen, but they can certainly call it into question, as the follow up interview does:

Rob, I’d like to quote Kurt Busiek to you. “The idea that Dwayne McDuffie told someone to draw Luke Cage more “gangsta” is funny all by itself. And by “funny” I mean “an utter lie.” Dwayne McDuffie didn’t have a lot of love for Luke Cage, and the fact he’d use a word such as “gangsta” in a positive fashion strikes people who knew Dwayne as most unlike the man. Are you sure it was Dwayne you spoke to?

Dude, this is the kind of thing where it’s like, clearly against me because people don’t like me. So you know, whatever they say, you’re going to side with that. But tell me and I’m dead serious, what news coverage has Kurt Buseik been getting? All the sudden he wants to jump on the bandwagon and cut down every single thing he can? I met Dwayne a bunch of times, always a good dude as anybody would tell you. He always took the time to talk to people, I remember I had a Ben 10 painting and he really liked it and once again I wish I had given it to him. But I didn’t lie, he was very into that drawing, and he was explaining to me, because I’m just a comic artist man, you know, the urban thing, the “streets” thing, and how Luke Cage was the kind of character who made his rep in the hood, it was all subtle stuff, in his eyes, in his expression. That guy was like a teacher! It’s like, am I saying anything negative? No, I’m telling you positive truths. Positive truths are what I’m all about. I remember seeing Dwayne and he always had a big smile on his face when he approached my table, I remember him being so happy Blade was successful, and telling me we would work on something together one day when he wasn’t so busy. That was a big honor in my life and people like Kurt Busiek can’t take that away from me just because they’re unhappy with all the attention I’m getting, dude. It’s like, if you like me or hate me, I can’t change facts, can I?

No, Rob, I think it's that you can't face facts. But anyway. He's also asked about the number of 'paintings' he's done that were clearly painted-over photographs of model Anastasia Heonis a.k.a. Acid PopTart.

You missed a point I made before. The photographs of Anastasia that you swiped. How do you think she feels about her work being sold like that by someone who has no right to sell it? And the many people who created work that you blatantly copied. You can see lots of examples here. Do you have any apology you would like to make to people who created the original work that you copied and then sold?

Huh. You know, this was something I should have explained before too but, I really thought that girl was somebody else I used to see at different shows. Before you get all “really guy” with me about that, I mean, dude- do you know how many girls are dressing and acting like that at conventions? Looks good but is it original? I would defintely apologize, apologize sincerely, you know, tell her I’m sorry, promise it wont happen again, if it really hurt her or whatever, I’m serious, then I apologize. But at the same time, it’s like, you want to be a public figure, you obviously want attention, you claim to be a model, well, you know that’s what happens sometimes, people shoot photographs or you or sketch you, and maybe I just crossed the line but I am sorry. But that is still how I see it. I did think she was this one girl I talked to who I used to see, and who gave me permission to do some art based on her look, you know, it was very goth or whatever, so I guess I just assumed. I’m learnin, I’m learnin!

Anastasia is not amused. Indeed, she is not amused enough to finally file a lawsuit against Granito for "copyright infringement, defamation of character and loss of income." Not only did he take photographs of VooDoo Baby ("an original character which Anastasia created five years ago with the intention of eventually writing a comic series about the character") but also her pose as Alice in Wonderland which was done for a magazine spread "with a mutual copyright on the photos existing between the magazine and Heonis."

But, wait, there's more!

See, there's also another comic book scam artist out there (obviously there are a lot of them) by the name of Josh Hoopes. His shtick goes like this--he gets hired by publishers to do artwork at a discount rate, farms out the work to other artists, collects the money from the publisher and skips out on paying the artists who did the actual work.

How does he fit in this? He's contacted Rob and wants to work with him

So they're apparently launching a series of titles under the cleverly named "Bad Boy Comics" imprint and details about six of those titles have been released. They include such, um, interesting concepts as Mistress ("Mistress is a sexy sorceress, using magical powers, wiccan culture, voodoo knowledge, and other things, to battle zombies and other supernatural threats.") and They Rise ("A series about zombies rising from the grave, but with a new catch: these zombies rise with super-powers and can fly and blast energy bolts from their hands.")

Note that they're not actually printing any comics at this stage, nor are they even writing them. No, they're going to "make some prints showcasing the many characters and storylines they are dreaming up, to encite fan interest and suggestions."

This should end well. Maybe they should get Rick Olney in on the action.