I haven't been involved in a good old fashioned online feud since the late nineties, it's not really worth my time, and generally I find that after a few posts I grow bored…but Aman Gupta and his little HobbyStar Marketing concern have brought me all sorts of joy of late. The guy is such a huge target that it amuses me to no end to engage in a little online debate with him.
A little bit about why I am wasting my time with this fine individual;
The Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon is happening from April 28th to 30th. It's in the fourth year now, and for the last couple of years the rival convention (which happens in August) has put on a one day show called the Toronto comiCON the weekend prior to the other show.
I'm the co-owner of All New Comics, an online retailler who is making a huge impact on the comic industry by sponsoring 20 participants in the Women of Comics panel at the Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon, and who will be making our big national impact at this show.
With that said, you can probably understand with the amount of money we have invested in making our mark at the Paradise show how I could be offended and angered when someone tries to directly affect my bottom line by putting on a sabotage show. This has nothing to do with me being a shill for the competition (something Gupta has accused me of because the Paradise Show uses HeadsDown Content Management to update their award winning website), this has to do with me being angry that Hobbystar is putting my business (as well as business for dozens of other retaillers) in jeapordy because he has an axe to grind with Peter and Kevin of the Paradise show.
Gupta has been no end of amusement for me. He uses words wrong all…the…time. He called me a shill, obviously not knowing what the word means. He called me an alias for Paradise…when the man himself posts as “hsm” and I post as “Brian G” (which is my really real name).
What's really sad is that the HobbyStar show in the summer is actually a decent show, it's kind of strayed from its roots and become more of a Genre show of late with Horror, Anime, Sci-Fi and Comic portions, and it's always been in a wayyyy too small venue for the crowds it attracts, but it was a good enough show. Their website leaves a lot to be desired, and tons of people have complained about the way that they have been treated by HobbyStar staff during the event.
Gupta however has proven himself to be a real piece of work. Both in this dialogue, and in a couple of other messages on the board (as well as some messages on the CGC boards which I don't concern myself with.
It all culminated today in what I think is the funniest post I've written on the subject thus far. “The 10 rules of dealing with Aman Gupta“. I really don't think I can do better than this, so I think I'm done now.
Well, I'm done after having blogged about it of course.