Mistaken Identity

I've written before about why I use the Propnomicon nom de plume. I have a distinctive, if not unique, birth name and like my privacy. It isn't particularly difficult to discover my real name, but using a moniker provides a useful measure of anonymity.

Useful until now, at least.

Unfortunately, a gentleman by the name of Rick Olney happens to live in the same small upstate New York town where I do. Over the years he's managed to gain a truly amazing reputation in the world of comics. And by "amazing" I mean "horrific". Now he's taken his shenanigans to the next level. I won't go over the entire story here, but the short version is that he appears to have made off with a limited run of Indiana Jones World Maps that were the property of Lucasfilm. Bleeding Cool has a good summary of the whole bizarre affair here, here, here, and here. You can learn more about Mr. Olney's long history of dubious activities via Google.

I thought it was a bit odd when I started getting multiple emails asking about my interest in Indiana Jones props earlier this week. It wasn't until Thursday that someone was nice enough to explain what was going on. It appears some amateur sleuths connected the fact that I live in the same village as Mr. Olney (and have a street address just a short walk away from his) with my occasional posts about Indiana Jones collectibles and...tada! I was actually him.

Just for the record, I'm not Rick Olney. Anyone who has done business with me is aware of that, and equally cognizant that my reputation is absolutely impeccable.

What makes the situation particularly painful is that I had the same horrified reaction as everyone else when I discovered what was going on. If the allegations against Mr. Olney are true he's done much more than bamboozled Lucasfilm. He's used his status as a military veteran to exploit other veterans. I believe that will have some local repercussions he wasn't expecting.