Sorry folks. We intended to record our podcast wrapping up the whole Rick Olney thing, but it got delayed. Dante’s wife Becky ended up needing a medical procedure done and was admitted to the hospital. We might get around to talking about him at a later date, as Rick anxiously hopes for. But to be honest, I really can’t see anything else that needs to be said about him. Maybe we’ll save it for when he makes the next grand Olney announcement… when he cancels his next con.

But I did say I would be sharing the plans so far for what is going on with the Indiana Jones maps we rescued from Rick’s evil clutches. The following is the highlights of the  email exchange between myself and map creator Matt Busch:

On Apr 30, 2012, drwhofan@comcast.net wrote:

I have # 28 and # 29 from Rick if you were looking to get them back to sell for the charity.

 Jeff Hartz

www.AboutHeroes.com

From: “Matt Busch” <matt@mattbusch.com>

To: drwhofan@comcast.net

Subject: Re: Indiana Jones Maps

Hi Jeff,

I just watched the video of your show on YouTube!

Let me commend you for being honest, asking tough questions, but also being professional and not badgering.  Bringing this situation to light is wonderful!

The truth is, Rick swindled his way through this from day one.  Our agreement has changed on his end so many times, that nothing he is doing now is even remotely endorsed by me, and certainly not by Lucasfilm.

Lucasfilm has assured me that Rick has been sent a C&D.  Either way, I have repeatedly asked for him to send the maps back, and he refuses, only because he has some kind of power trip.  Lucasfilm has asked me to stay out of the drama publicly, until they have this handled.

Under the impression that I’m brain-washed by other groups that have issues with him, Rick has several times told me that he wants to “teach me a lesson” and at one point said he was going to burn the maps!

Anyway- thank you for bringing this to the public eye.

Where do I stand on this?  Well, I (and Lucasfilm) are hopeful that Rick will send the maps back, so we can take the remaining maps and hopefully start a new charity fundraiser for the DAV as originally intended.  This is not out of disrespect to Rick, he has just not followed through with any of his agreement. He is doing all of this now without permission, and so we would like to move forward, but without his help.

I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place, because Lucasfilm’s lawyers have asked me to stay out of this publicly.  Otherwise, I’d be shouting out to the world what is going on and doing everything to get these maps back.  (The map itself took me 3 years to research and create.  I had an opportunity to have it mass licensed for profit, but felt this passion project would be better to help those in need.  To have this turn into a disaster like this has been just awful. I just wanted to make something great and do something good- and Rick’s lies and ego have turned it into the opposite.)

Anyway- my worry with Lucasfilm is that they may not be pushing as hard as they could because they have bigger fish to fry.  Compared to the normal multi-million dollar lawsuits they deal with, Olney is small potatoes.  And they don’t want the negative press on the maps any bigger than it already is…  The fact that it’s taken this long with no results, I’m a little skeptical of how hard they intend to pursue this, if at all.

Lucasfilm and I plan to re-offer these for charity (likely the DAV) but only if we can get most of these back.  Who knows how many Rick has already sold, or if we’ll get any back at all.

You’re offer to send them back is very kind and honorable, but at this point, I don’t know that I’d be able to do anything with them.

Please- for being so stand up about this and being honest with Rick asking the “tough questions”, please keep these as a token of my thanks, or do with them as you like.  Perhaps you could offer one on your website- and LIST which charity you’ll be donating the proceeds to!   Ha!

Thank you for your support, honesty, and kindness!

Sincerely,

Matt!

On Apr 30, 2012, drwhofan@comcast.net wrote:

Matt,

Thanks for the reply, and the kind words. The idea of raffling the maps off at the site is a great idea!

The charity I usually donate personally to is the local humane society, Stevens-Swan (http://stevens-swan.org/). If it’s okay with you, we’ll announce the raffle at either Ravenswood Comics in Utica or Cloud City Comics in Syracuse. Then when the raffle concludes, any funds collected will be given as a donation in either (or both) your name and LucasFilms. Then we can post the whole process and the thank you letter online at the site.

How does that sound?

Jeff

From: “Matt Busch” <matt@mattbusch.com> To:drwhofan@comcast.net

Awesome! That’s great! Perfect!

I can’t officially endorse your donation, but you are a gentleman for doing this.

Thank you!

Matt!
Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 30, 2012, drwhofan@comcast.net wrote:

May I have your permission to reprint excerpts from your email? Of course, the biggest question I’ve been getting is “Are you going to return the maps to Matt?” and I want to let people know we’ve spoken on the subject.

From: “Matt Busch” <matt@mattbusch.com>

To: drwhofan@comcast.net

Hi Jeff!

 I’m an open book- so I don’t mind you sharing.

 

 So with all that out of the way, I have secured permission from Janine at Ravenswood and Geoff at Cloud City Comics to place one map in each store and raffle them off.

The raffle will begin June 1st, and run throughout that month. At the end of June, Geoff and Janine will draw the winning tickets. The winners will be announced here and on Facebook. The amounts collected by the store will then be donated to the Stevens-Swan Humane Society in the name of Matt Busch, and LucasFilm, Ltd. The donated will be recorded and documented here as well. There will be 100% upfront accountability regarding these maps, unlike some “other” aspects of the saga we’ve all seen up to this point.

If anyone outside of the Utica & Syracuse areas wants to buy tickets, they can contact me directly for options on how to do this at DrWhoFan@ComCast.net and we can do it. The best option we’ve seen is to send me a PayPal personal payment and I will buy the tickets for that person and have Janine and Geoff keep track of those tickets for neutrality and accountability. Any out-of-town winners will have them shipped to them at no additional cost to them. And local winners will have the maps presented in a poster frame, also at no additional cost to them.

I thank Matt Busch for the opportunity to help a local charity with his generous donation and his hard work. These maps are a thing of beauty and you can see what a labor of love they were for him when you look at them. And I want to thank Janine and Geoff for the opportunity to use their store to host the raffles and maintain the day-to-day operations for it.

And of course, good luck to anyone who buys tickets and participates in the raffle. Rest assured, you’ll know at the end of it that your money DID ACTUALLY go to a charity and that charity appreciates you for it as much as I do.

And maybe Rick Olney might even slap down a few bucks out of that $1,000.00 he promised in the podcast to spend in Ravenswood in front of me and try his luck on a few tickets.

But I doubt it. We all know how good Rick’s word is, and much his promises are worth, don’t we?

Jeff