The Many Lost Toys of Jim Groat

[Sechs]

Y'know, I just remembered, I think I read something a long time ago about Groat's kids being really disruptive at conventions? Like actually destroying merchandise and hitting people, something like that?

Anyone got any kind of reliable tales/leads about such, or is is just rumors and grumbling?

[threadshitter]

Y'know, I just remembered, I think I read something a long time ago about Groat's kids being really disruptive at conventions? Like actually destroying merchandise and hitting people, something like that?

Anyone got any kind of reliable tales/leads about such, or is is just rumors and grumbling?

Rebecca usually has a pretty tight lid on the kids, which is understandable, given the amount of pedophiles at any given convention.

[LordNagetiere]

Rebecca usually has a pretty tight lid on the kids

Except for the big one with the beard. He's the worst.

[Lazarian]

There was some posts on a.f.f. a long time ago where someone was complaining about Groat's kid running around a con being annoying and punching random people in the nuts. It'd be too much of a hassle to dig it up. Keyword "Groatling" may be helpful in that, but you'd probably end up slogging through all sorts of Hirtes spewing. There's no love lost between those two: Hirtes has a hate-on for Groat due to supposedly Mikey once confiding to Groat that he was on social assistance for whatever reason and Groat blabbed it to the world for lulz.

I just find the guy annoying to no end. Groat always tries to talk himself up as a stolid patriot suffering in the face of fools and all that shit: facing down rabid feminists burning flags, chasing illegal immigrants trying to steal the food off his table, the cliche'd bullshit doesn't end. His tales all just end up as being beyond believable and probably just stuff to paint himself as a victim and deserving of sympathy. It doesn't bother him in the slightest to put up wish-lists for useless crap or come out and say "yeah, it's totally ok to pay for my meals or give me money". I guess he does commissions and tries to sell stuff at cons, but seriously, who want's stuff like Red Shetland? Unless he's been working on newer, fresh projects (I can't see it in the slightest) he's not going to bring in any money from a mediocre artistic skill and obscure b&w comics that faded away in the 90's.

His antics through the years paint him as a grifter. Furry fandom is full of naive, well wishing people who are prime targets for guys like him. I don't know how much is true about Groat and the "Tuscon Mob" taking advantage of that George Klontz guy, but if any of it is, it's just disgusting.

 

[magus]

Yeah, you're probably going to have to dig back pretty deep for anything major. Worst I ever saw out of them was trying to bare-hand catch the fish in the koi pond inside the old MFF hotel.

Probably the same con where Groat had someone up against the wall and was yelling at them about some personal affront. Car repair, if I remember right. Not sure how serious that was, but it was rather over-the-line and con staff just stood around looking vaguely scared and bewildered. That's another problem with Groat: Nobody's willing to do anything in person when he steps over the line, because everyone knows he's notoriously unstable and extremely likely to be packing at any given time.

Speaking of which, supposedly there was an incident with him at one of the midwest cons (FCN I think) the other year. Anyone heard about that?

[ProvincialTwit]

If Groat finally snapped and drew on and/or shot someone at a con that would be the most amazing things ever.

[LordNagetiere]

This is true, but if Rosenotter is to be believed, he's shot himself in the leg three times so far through bumbling. It may not so much be a case of Groat gunning someone down as injuring himself and possibly someone else.

[IceCat]

His antics through the years paint him as a grifter. Furry fandom is full of naive, well wishing people who are prime targets for guys like him. I don't know how much is true about Groat and the "Tuscon Mob" taking advantage of that George Klontz guy, but if any of it is, it's just disgusting.

Speaking as someone who knows most of the "Tucson Mob", any stories you heard about them taking advantage of George, are true they told me about all of the shit they pulled on him to seperate him from his money. You see way back when George lived in this wreck of a house in El Monte, that he'd inhierated from his parents, this was 20+ years ago, so anyway he get's conned into the idea of relocating to Tucson, and sell the house he cleared about $86,000 for it. And the sharks out there circled in for the kill, You see George was a fool with his money and they took advantage of him.

[m_estrugo]

While we're still at the subject...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZvz-ZA89MM


Kinda weird to see the man in real life.

[Lazarian]

Out of sheer boredom I dug up some old stuff about the Red Shetland buyout thing. It's far too much to quote, but the three FA journals by Roy Calbeck paints the picture pretty well. In order...

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/117773/

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/149414/

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/150938/

There exists the possibility that Groat simply couldn't sell the rights as well along with his backstock, seeing that Richard Konkle is probably co-owner to the rights as well.

But enough of that. Now for some more wacky zaniness from the mind of the Groat...

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1651247/

You know, I could have believed it. Really. He could have hit any model of car on the road, and I could have read it and have some empathy for him going through a terrible ordeal which cost him his job.

But NO. It had to be a Toyota PRIUS! You know, one of those ECONAZI FLAG BURNING PRIUS FREAKS! Just like the Prius driver who got him fined for idling his truck. He's even got people bashing Prius owners in that thread, too.

It's at the point that nothing the guy posts is believable. Maybe stuff like that really happened, or the sugar-in-the-gas-tank ordeals. But I can't bring myself to see it as anything else other than bullshit to suck sympathy by yanking on gut-emotion strings or to obscure real reasons why shit really happened.

Honestly, I've never met the guy. He could be an awesome person to know and hang out with. Looking at the video where he gets his hair cut off for charity says that he's an allright guy. But for all the shenanigans and bullshit that has surrounded him through the years...I dunno.

(Oh, and Hi to m_estrugo. Good to see you around, and Alice Otter is an awesome comic    

[Sechs]

But NO. It had to be a Toyota PRIUS! You know, one of those ECONAZI FLAG BURNING PRIUS FREAKS! Just like the Prius driver who got him fined for idling his truck. He's even got people bashing Prius owners in that thread, too.

"Hey! Did you knoooow... that if you are driving a Prius, and you stick your hand out the window... the car will turn?!"

[IceCat]

It's at the point that nothing the guy posts is believable. Maybe stuff like that really happened, or the sugar-in-the-gas-tank ordeals. But I can't bring myself to see it as anything else other than bullshit to suck sympathy by yanking on gut-emotion strings or to obscure real reasons why shit really happened.

Read that one too, and your dead on about Groat, I stopped having any sympathy for anything bad that happens to him, at best I get a feeling of Schadenfreude and have a chuckle about his latest misfortune.

[threadshitter]

But NO. It had to be a Toyota PRIUS! You know, one of those ECONAZI FLAG BURNING PRIUS FREAKS! Just like the Prius driver who got him fined for idling his truck. He's even got people bashing Prius owners in that thread, too.

I'm ok with the Prius bashing. There are many more fuel-efficient gasoline or diesel cars out there that out-pace the mileage savings of the prius, are faster and have way more cargo space, and don't inspire nearly the amount of smugness that seems to leak out of the owners of these hybrid go-karts.

Plus I dare you to try to Hoon a Prius. I'll be laughing the entire time.

[SuperBarrioBrothers]

Y'know, I just remembered, I think I read something a long time ago about Groat's kids being really disruptive at conventions? Like actually destroying merchandise and hitting people, something like that?

Anyone got any kind of reliable tales/leads about such, or is is just rumors and grumbling?

After Rebekah left Midwest Furfest staff and Candace King abandoned the kids track to play a chubby bottle-ginger Alice from the Brady Bunch in consuite, there was no babysitting for their kids. Both Groat's kid and the King kids ran rampant. I think one year, the con tried to make them gophers, door watching, and it didn't end well.

I remember Rebekah pulling away from cons for a long time, keeping the kids while Jim pretended he was the D-list comics star from 1987 at cons. I've not seen either of his kids at cons since.

[SuperBarrioBrothers]

This is true, but if Rosenotter is to be believed, he's shot himself in the leg three times so far through bumbling. It may not so much be a case of Groat gunning someone down as injuring himself and possibly someone else.

Rosen isn't selling and bartering animal piss from a backpack at cons still, is he?

[SDAC]

I know this is severe thread necromancy, but if this LJ post is to believed, Rebekah/Hakeber is going to seek a divorce.

Why it took her 18 years though is anyone's guess.