A Walk in the Dark A look in to the mind of an RPG designer

      

14Feb/18Off

Ken Whitman Responds to KODTLAS Release

This may seem like an odd thing to appear here, so I think it requires a bit of an explanation...

If you're a reader of this blog or a follower of mine, odds are you know who Ken Whitman is. Let's just say that he is one of the most talked about people in the industry, and the news coverage of him hasn't been exactly balanced.

Let me be clear before I proceed: I have no stake in this game. I barely know who Ken is myself, I have never backed or even followed any of his projects, and have not followed the details on how he has acquired the reputation he apparently has. I'm am as impartial as they come on this topic.

Suffice to say, Ken's been talked about on numerous websites and blogs, some of which are dedicated almost entirely to him, and the general narrative has been - I must admit - overwhelmingly one-sided. As a result, he admittedly hasn't had a much a chance to respond himself on a venue that isn't against him in every possible way. One reasonably well known blog offered him the opportunity to post his side of the story over all this, to which Ken declined because he didn't want to drive traffic towards that site.

My offer to Ken, as posted on another blog

So that's where I came in... I offered my site as a sort of "neutral ground". Like I said above, I have no opinion of this matter, and as such agreed to post anything Ken wishes to say without commentary or counterpoint, just to get his side of the story out without any bias. And, if possible (I'm not sure how; I've never done it before), I will prevent comments from being posted because I don't want to be a full time moderator and I want to let his statement stand as it is.

So, hopefully, this will be the first of many responses... I have no idea how this is going to go, but here goes.

-=O=-

Before we continue, a little background. Yesterday, the Knights of the Dinner Table: The Live Action Series - one of the Kickstarters that Ken was involved with a while back - was apparently released to backers without Ken's involvement. The post detailing that release can be found on Jolly Blackburn's Facebook feed. As is stated in that post, "D20 Entertainment did not participate or help in this development".

I'll say again: I know little about this project. I was not a backer, and barely even know what the project is or what has been involved in it. And, in an effort to remain impartial, I have not gone out looking for such information because, as I've stated above, the information that's out there is apparently very one-sided.

In any event, Later in the day yesterday Ken contacted me through Facebook Messenger to post his response to that.

Here it is, as I received it and edited for grammar (it's the least I could do)...

About 2 years ago, I turned over the KODTLAS footage to Z.O.E. and today, both ZOE and Jolly Blackburn, announced are releasing all three Episodes of KODTLAS.

Now matter how much I may not enjoys Jolly's company personally, I can not belittle his amazing talent. Jolly is a true genius when it comes to storytelling and everyone at Kenzer was top notch to work with.

It was never my intention to take this long for people to see all three episodes, but due to a turn of events in my life, it did not allow me to financially keep working on the project. I messed up ran out of funds, and had a hard time paying for the project to continue out of my own pocket.

I could talk about the online slander/libel posed many times over the past two years about never turning over the footage, but why open old wounds, they fact is I did turn it over to ZOE.

I hope you enjoy watching them as much as I enjoyed directing them. I will continue to work on this project in my free time, hopefully finishing up the project in the near future.

To Jolly, Kenzer, the actors, the crew. It was an honor working with you.

- Ken Whitman

ETA: After confirming with Ken, he has agreed to let me turn on comments for today only, and he has agreed to respond to them through this site (whether he'll do that in the comments or post separately, I don't know yet). I am not going to be moderating the comments until late in the day (I don't have time for that during working hours), so please be civil.

-=O=-

ADDENDUM 2/14/18 @ 1:22PM:

Ben Dobyns of Zombie Orpheus Entertainment has provided a response to this. To keep everything together, I'm adding it here.

Hi, this is Ben from ZOE with a few facts regarding the KODT situation.

Several years ago Ken mailed me a hard drive that included a) all of the raw footage from Episode 1, b) some raw footage from episode 2, and c) ZERO raw footage from episode 3, along with a Final Cut X file of his work on the edit. The plan was to complete post-production for him and return the completed project for distribution to backers.

Despite repeated requests over several years, Ken did not provide the remaining footage. His reasons (on the record) have changed several times.

Ken's rights to the KODT IP and the live action series footage contractually expired on December 31st of 2017. Following that date, by mutual agreement with Kenzer ZOE set out to release the "rescued" edition to the original Kickstarter backers.

What was released to backers yesterday was cobbled together from the hard drive that Ken originally sent, SD assembly cuts from Jolly's dropbox, and so on. It is a "rescued" edition in every sense of the word.

Unfortunately, I've lost thousands and thousands of dollars to this mess. But because my name and reputation were used by Ken in order to secure the KODT film rights (yes, I have the paper trail to prove this claim), I felt a personal responsibility to get this project released: for Kenzer, Jolly, and all of the KODT fans who pledged to support the original project.

I wish Ken the best, but my efforts to rescue this project are now complete.

Comments () Trackbacks (0)
  1. “Due to a turn in your own life…” You mean running six crowdfunding campaigns, all of which went unfulfilled? I find it more than a bit disingenuous for you to claim financial hardship when you personally ran campaigns totaling in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, fulfilling none of them resulting on you being banned from every crowdfunding website (including some I’ve never heard of and part of my job is to cover crowdfunding) that necessitated you attempting fraud by moving to the other side of the continent, changing your name, and attempting to run yet another crowdfunding campaign for a film where you categorically denied any involvement in a “student film” project while still listing yourself in the IMDB credits as director and producer, using materials stolen from The Walking Dead without permission.

    Anyway, my question: What happened to the raw footage originally shot plus behind the scenes and outtake material that you were contractually obligated to provide to Kenzer & Co. after you lost your license to use the IP due to gross negligence but never provided to the company, forcing them to work from substandard sources to cobble together something at their own expense to fulfill obligations that you yourself were required to do?

    Also, do you feel a little shame that this is the second Kickstarter backer fulfillment that Zombie Orpheus fulfilled for fans at their own expense that YOU were responsible for and have attempted to take credit for their work?

  2. A.

    #1. I have the footage on file.

    #2. Nope.

    • #1 – So, substandard footage from Jolly’s dropbox had to be used in places where you have the original footage on file?

      #2 – Why hasn’t the clean footage of those scenes been handed over?

      In response to #2 above, you should. That would be a normal human response Ken, embarrassment and shame. That said, I give you kudos for something though, an admission that I don’t think I’ve seen you make prior to today.

      “I messed up”

      Indeed you did. Had you owned up to that all those years ago instead of lying and dissembling about that, how you are viewed would likely be different (even if still not in a positive light).

      So…

      #3 – Would you like to apologize for all the times you have lied about this and your other projects? For all of the times that you swore things were about to ship, or were going to be delivered, even though that was never going to happen?

      • Why would Ken apologize for doing something wrong when in his brain he hasn’t. KennyCakes is in the right here.

    • Wait…so you’re openly admitting that you HAVE the footage and are NOT providing it intentionally despite multiple requests in breach of the contract you signed?

      Seriously?

  3. Where are the pencil dice ken? Where are the Traveler models? That still wrapped up in your financial woes as well and the longest slow boat from china?

    Finally, i want to see the unedited version of KennyCakes letter, skip the grammatical clean up give us folks a good laugh for the day.

  4. I’m not sure the comments will make most happy but they are interesting.

    I am curious to see if there will be dialogue and answers here.

    • There will be and it will be full of the most joyous amount of CTE induced typos ever.

      • “Alleged CTE” – remember, you need an autopsy to diagnose it…

        • Actually they can take spinal fluid now and check. But you know more than my doctor so please inlighten everone for us.

          • Actually Ken the test you’re writing about looks for a particular protein in spinal fluid that MAY indicate that the patient has CTE, it is in no way shape or form accepted as a diagnoses. The protein may possibly be used as ONE bio marker that MAY someday be used to diagnose CTE.

            Oh and “enlighten” not inlighten…”everyone” not everone.

          • So what your saying is my Dr., who is the leading reasercer in CTE was possibly right? And may knows stuff not published yet? Omg. Im glad youre non profesional openion was posted. Now, im here to answer questions from backers. Good by.

          • Doesn’t a person need to have a spine in order for spinal fluid to be tapped? You’re a worthless, cowardly piece of you-know-what.

        • Dear Jeff, your spine is directly related to the size of your keyboard you hide behind. At least I dont hide.

          • So, just to be clear, Ken’s Doctor is in Boston – which is where the foremost research into CTE is taking place.

  5. From here on out, I will only respond to questions from people who are backers of my project. Please state what item your were a backer of and your questions.

    Thank you.

    • Ken, I was a backer of four of your kickstarters. (KODT, Traveller, Castles & Crusades, and RPG Pencil Dice) Now that I have covered my being a backer, my questions.

      1) Why was the original footage never handed over to ZOE?
      1a) Will you turn it over to them now? You have said above that you still have it after all.
      2) What work is left to do on getting Spinward Traveller finished?
      3) Is there a plan to get the Pencil Dice produced and out to backers?

      • 1) it was given to ZOE 2 years ago. there were 4 or 5 clips that were lost and low res footage was used.

        2) see above

        3) i am working with Marc to release the green screen edition shown at Gen Con. No date has been determined for the final.

        4) with the sucess of my store i have been able to afford two heat foil machines so i can prodyce them myself. I have placed an order from the machines coming from china,

        • In the interest of keeping facts straight, several years ago Ken mailed me a hard drive that included a) ALL of the raw footage from Episode 1, b) SOME raw footage from episode 2, and c) ZERO raw footage from episode 3.

        • Follow up on Spinward, are there plans to finish up effects or is the greenscreen as far as it is likely to go at the moment?

          Great news on the machines! I look forward to the pencils as I have a couple friends I plan to gift them to.

          • It takes mr 8hrs to edit 90 sec of greenscreen.

            I can do about 8hrs a week at best. Now that i have income, possabilties of restarting work is good. I am about 30% done.

  6. My only response here will be this.

    If you have the time or inclination simply go read the comments on KODTLAS kickstarter and updates. Read Ken’s own words on the project. If you want to save time you can read a compilation quotes/statements (with citations/sources here: http://notanotherdime.blogspot.com/p/ken-s.html). Again, Ken in his own words without editorial commentary.

    As I told Ken last night in an email, my only desire these past four years has been for the episodes backers paid for to be seen. That has now been accomplished thanks to Ben. Happily, I can close this chapter in my life and move on.

    I wish Ken luck on finishing his kickstarter projects.

    If he ever decides to release a final edit of the film project to backers, I’m sure they’d be grateful. I myself would love to see that. Especially the blooper reel and on set diaries. Or even the cast commentary that was recorded to go on the DVD.

    I encourage him to do that in fact (Although the license now having lapsed might need to be addressed).

    • The White Elephant in the room is that Jolly has had access to footage for years now, but has posted several times that he did not.

      Does he have access to the RAW files no.

      The SPIN here could be be considered lible as many belive anything was provided.

      Secondly, been had negotiated the raw files from me almost 2 years ago, this is what I didn’t have any money, and jobless, I requested that they spend $200 on a hard drive. Jolly refused to provide one saying that it was my own problem, deal with it.

      Feel free to believe whatever spin you want about me, the truth is somewhere in the middle 🙂

      • So “the truth is somewhere in the middle”…between statements made about you…and YOUR OWN statements…

        So that means you’re openly admitting that your own statements are not true?

      • Ken is referring to 480p MP4s of his assembly edits, compressed at a low bit rate and not suitable for delivery. The existence of those edits was never a secret. Ken is also neglecting to mention my offer to send a mutual friend to his then-residence in Atlanta and copy the original footage on site from his hard drive. This would have been a more secure option for everyone than sending more cash in exchange for promises of future action.

        • I agreed to let Jamie come and copy them at my place. This did not take place because Jolly wanted me to pay for the drive. I absolutly would have done this. Offer still stands.

          • Ken,

            You are only a 4 hour drive from me … I’m happy to come over and copy the original footage from the drive if you have the original footage. Ben from ZOE has stated above that he received a) ALL of the raw footage from Episode 1, b) SOME raw footage from episode 2, and c) ZERO raw footage from episode 3. If you have a drive with all the raw footage from Epsiode 2 and Episode 3 plus any of the not seen Bloopers and On Set diaries … I’d be willing to arrange a trip in March to come and get the data. Can do the work in the back of your store as long as I know what all equipment I need to bring to make the transfer happen.

          • Oh and to follow the rules … I was a backer at the $85 level

          • Tom I would wholeheartedly agree for you to do that on our behalf.

            Ben is exactly right. He offered to do exactly what Ken requested. Have a drive hand carried to his residence to have the footage put on it.

            Regardless, Ken is saying the offer is still on the table. Sure. Let’s take him at his word and make this happen.

          • No Ken. We HAVE a contract. Just follow it. No need for a new one. you making conditions and demands trying to leverage a deal has been part of the problem.

        • Lets you and me sign a contract jolly and i will start hunting down files.

          • A contract for what Ken? Either you are serious about offering to provide the files to someone who can come and get them or you are not. There is no need for compensation at this point. This is a pure and simple act of goodwill. So if you were serious about helping make better copies of the videos then you just need to allow someone (like me) willing to pay for the tech and take all their own time to make the copy to do so. Asking Jolly for a contract appears quite frankly as a just a ploy to get out of my offer to come and help copy the data.

          • Tom, i will talk with Dave Kenzer, then let you know. Thank you for your offer.

          • No Ken. We HAVE a contract. Just follow it. No need for a new one. you making conditions and demands trying to leverage a deal has been part of the problem.

          • The contract was the licensing agreement that allowed you to use the Knights of the Dinner Table IP in the first place. You’re already in breach of that contract by your own admission both previously and in these comments. You’re doing so fragrantly at this point by putting further conditions in meeting your contractual obligations.

            Aren’t you under investigation for fraud in one state already?

      • Also…I don’t know where you shop for hardware or what your idea of law is…but

        1) Hard drives don’t cost $200 even for ones large enough to store raw HD camera footage (unless you’re just a horrible director with a 200:1 shooting ratio).

        2) It is the responsibility of the licensee to pay for the medium and postage, not the licensor, unless otherwise specified in the contract.

      • White Elephant? Are you kidding us?

        Yeah…it’s all Jolly’s fault.

        Hmm…believe the word of a known con artist with a track record of lies, theft, fraud and general asshattery going back to the old days of his RapidPOD scheme (to which documentation and complaints can still be found to this day) and the fallout from that…we’re talking over a decade now…or believe the word of a known and respected figure, Mr. Jolly Blackburn, who to this day continues to show kindness where others would have gone thermonuclear, and whose products get made and delivered to his customers regularly, with no history of fraud…

        You are the most delusional, self-centered, egotistical sociopath I have ever laid eyes on, Ken.

        What is more plausible…that dozens and dozens of people you have swindled are all liars…every single one of them…from your RapidPOD days through all six of your Kickstarters (just hope you weren’t able to swindle people out of their cash with your fake certificates of authentication for the Walking Dead “props” you had)…or you are the liar, thief, swindler, fraudster, and con artist we all know you to be, that has left a trail of broken promises, lies and deceit a decade long and growing?

        So…either a couple of hundred people are all liars out to get you, and that every e-mail, message, forum post, document and the like are FABRICATED…or you are what you are, a person without conscience who only cares about the greenbacks he’s able to grab with each new shell game.

        Yeah…I’m going to go with “you belong behind bars, and it is only a matter of time.”

        When a person has sunk low enough to have several websites dedicated to exposing the history of fraud they perpetuate, that person may want to take a good long look in the mirror.

  7. Hey, Kenny!

    Where’s my refund for those Traveller ships? You know, the one you promised me two years ago? Now that you have your own game store, surely you can afford to make good on a promise you made.

    • Sorry, i dont know a DM, give me your real name and maybe we can talk about it.

      • Horsefeathers, Kenny.

        I’ve emailed you time and time again. all I’ve gotten from you is insults and broken promises. When you actually reply. usually, you just ignore me.

        Maybe you need to change your behavior.

        • Im sorry, i get over 100 email a day. Please let me know your name so I can help you.

          • Keep it up Kenny. I literally just emailed you. Again. I assume that you’ll reply with the $125.00 you promised me two years ago, yes?

            Here’s a clip from one of your replies:

            “And maybe if you would shut you pie hole for 60 days, i would feel compelled to pay you ahead of other people. But you don’t so you know, when i can afford to pay people, you will be last on the list. Because, you sir are an asshole.”

            Oh, and Kenny, check your email. Your mailbox at kenwhitman@kenwhitman.com is full. This is what your server sent back to me:

            “Remote server returned an error -> 552 Requested mail action aborted: exceeded storage allocation;Quota exceeded.;For explanation visit https://help.1and1.com/smtp-error-messages?ip=40.92.3.35&c=quot

        • Just post your name here and i am sure we can work somthing out.

          • You have my name an email already.

            Quit farking around, Ken, and do what you promised.

            Oh, wait. you’re Ken Whitman – the man who never keeps his promises, and who’s word is completely worthless.

            Check your email, Ken. Send me my refund.

          • I sorry, i dont know who you are DM. Please post, for all I know your are just a troll pretending. So sad.

          • Check your email, Ken. You haven’t in a long time.

            Seriously. I have to email you many many times before you reply. And when you do, you always insult me somehow. Now that you own a gamestore, you should be able to refund my money.

            Two years, Ken. You know who I am, you know you are avoiding the topic, and you know you owe me the money.

            So sad that you can’t be bothered to actually fulfill your promises. But, that’s the Ken Whitman way, isn’t it?

          • Ken:

            What email should I use this month?

            Seriously, check your email. ‘kenwhitman@kenwhitman.com’ is completely full and cannot recieve any more email.

            How can we take you seriously when you don’t even check your email?

            —-

            Diagnostic information for administrators:

            Generating server: BY2NAM01HT162.mail.protection.outlook.com
            kenwhitman@kenwhitman.com
            perfora.net
            Remote Server returned ‘550 5.0.350 Remote server returned an error -> 552 Requested mail action aborted: exceeded storage allocation;Quota exceeded.;For explanation visit https://help.1and1.com/smtp-error-messages?ip=40.92.2.13&c=quot
            Original message headers:

            DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=msn.com; s=selector1;
            h=From:Date:Subject:Message-ID:Content-Type:MIME-Version;
            bh=jTq0mTKJd+Ab6GsiYXEg/jq1nwSATwpUbeKNd3CitA0=;
            b=nSqX5FYFdf2L1oEUJce9ASpaBzDkH6GvhE9yP8TxPAt/yqLU3sXhcu2U2pkiD3aH81e8CjkBuG020m3gorsqCWl8VbsmKs7pQF/v22FO/ihwOcICXlb8A9rR9arQUgmAlMsYhSOox/t9vxi3hO88Se7VtxzD39CF987QgNQJyrEAHhIquzaSXwwsYgKFq5qV0d7enLBbT6E5R7DB6ve2IetwokKcfm7g1GfhxaAHInp8VEsIkW4nIWmPR9MkX9x6EE5ict4cIMhcab+pII5MkSFgydu24K4vagc46Z1xMWvgAhrt9bM6gRzGY8nYRwSNVsKiez1ARWCH/9sOQg+oFg==
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            (10.152.68.54) by BY2NAM01HT162.eop-nam01.prod.protection.outlook.com
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            cipher=TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384_P256) id 15.20.464.11; Thu, 15
            Feb 2018 17:49:20 +0000
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            ([fe80::30c6:34f3:709b:32a0%13]) with mapi id 15.20.0485.020; Thu, 15 Feb
            2018 17:49:20 +0000
            To: Ken
            Subject: Re: Receipt for Your Payment to Ken Whitman

  8. Also, a question:

    “Ken’s rights to the KODT IP and the live action series footage contractually expired on December 31st of 2017. ”

    Does that mean if Kenny has the actual footage (and with his loose grasp on what is uure, I cannot believe what he says), and has not turned it over to Kenzer, that Kenny cannot use the footage to finish the Kickstarter, as he does not have rights to the IP nor the footage?

    • If this is the case then his rights to make the movie and obligations on KS are now invalid. Ken Whitman is in breach of his KS contractual arrangements as he does NOT have the rights to make the material he was paid to make.

      Please tell me I’m wrong on this.

      • JD / DM,

        You are correct … but I am 100% positive that if Ken were to show a finished copy of the films to Kenzer then a license would be granted to produce them.

        • yes. very likely we would. but only as fulfillment to backers who have already paid for the files/dvd. But ultimately that’s not my call. Ken would have to talk with Dave Kenzer one on one.

          • But, since the license has expired and Ken is no longer capable of achieving the KS, the KS terms of service do kick in at this point.

            “Yes. Kickstarter’s Terms of Use require creators to fulfill all rewards of their project or refund any backer whose reward they do not or cannot fulfill. (This is what creators see before they launch.) We crafted these terms to create a legal requirement for creators to follow through on their projects, and to give backers a recourse if they don’t. We hope that backers will consider using this provision only in cases where they feel that a creator has not made a good faith effort to complete the project and fulfill.”

            As Ken cannot legally fulfill this particular KS project because of the expiration of the license, he needs to either issue refunds or be prepared to face possible litigation.

            Granted, most of this falls into the “small claims” category (unless there is a class action) and, in most cases, it probably isn’t worth the filing cost. But, if d20 entertainment was a single owner corp, things like corporate veil or even the protections of an LLC would likely not apply so there is a possibility of a judgement going after any and all assets of Ken’s.

            It also opens the door for criminal fraud investigation on this particular issue (which could constitute wire fraud). Where such an investigation would lead is another matter entirely but, now that Ken has no further protections on the matter of this kickstarter I’d say he should get AWFULLY helpful really quickly.

  9. Wow……………this guy is such a dick.

  10. Let me get this straight, after sending and posting a 30 day demand letter to Ken Whitman, and multiple emails going back months, NOW Ken says that if he had was given a hard drive, he would have turned over the raw footage, yet NEVER told me that was what he wanted/needed?

  11. d20 Entertainment and the corporate veil

    You do NOT have to worry about d20 Entertainment LLC being some kind of shield against liability for Ken Wihtman, since it never existed!

    Ken Whitman NEVER incorporated d20, he made up the name and used it to make things appear more legit.

    How do I know this is true?

    Answer, because “I” am the one that holds the name reservation for d20 Entertainment LLC in the state of KY. I renewed it on 02/12/2018 and I am listed as the one having the name reserved. That means that there has never been a d20 Entertainment LLC filed in the state!

    When Ken Whitman talks about d20 Entertainment LLC, he is completely and totally lying since the company was never filed with the state of KY.

    Enter “d20 e” to search for name reservation and you can download a PDF file showing I have the name reserved:
    https://app.sos.ky.gov/ftsearch/

  12. “I messed up ran out of funds, and had a hard time paying for the project to continue out of my own pocket.”

    I think that is the first HONEST thing that Ken has said about this, and other projects. He messed up and ran through the money and certainly has no money to continue. Now, who knows where the money actually went, but there you have it. A moment of honesty amongst all his bluster, threats, and BS.

    Now that Ken is open for real investigation and a whole world of legal pain, one would think that he’d be the first one out there trying to repair relationships, acknowledging his faults and attempting to do whatever he can to make things right…starting with handing over the rest of the footage that he was contractually bound to hand over.

    Instead he wants even more money before he hands over what he is legally obligated to hand over. That, dear friends, is breach of contract – and possibly extortion to boot. Ken just cannot help but dig deeper and deeper holes rather than act rationally and own up to things.

    Ken, if you are reading this? Yes, I find you a foul and despicable human being. You have ripped off people for more money than I can even believe you got away with. But now? Now the piper is calling. As I see it, you have two choices:

    1) Continue as you have, blustering, raging, making threats…and end up in prison on multiple counts of wire fraud, fraud, and possibly extortion

    2) Own up, admit that you’ve failed, hand EVERYTHING over immediately to the IP owners (where appropriate), and do everything in your power to make good to the people you ripped off.

    Make no mistake Ken, no matter how much you paint yourself as the victim, you are the villain of this story. Your choice is to go out as the villain or to attempt to redeem yourself, however slightly.

    I fully expect that the next time Ken sends the imaginary police to show up at my door to serve me an imaginary arrest warrant and take me to imaginary jail, that they will be joined by the imaginary FBI too…

    • I am not sure why all of a sudden Whitman is talking, except that he must be trying to deflect any blame for what he has done and the fact that he refuses to turn over a copy of the raw footage, as I demanded in my 30 day letter months ago.

  13. “4) with the sucess of my store i have been able to afford two heat foil machines so i can prodyce them myself. I have placed an order from the machines coming from china,”

    Great, post a copy of the invoice showing the order and payment dates. *IF* this is true (and I don’t think it is) I’ll give you credit for actually making some form of an effort.

    • There is some question as to if Ken really owns the store or if he is just a manager of the store. Plus one has to wonder how Ken could have made a legit purchase of the store since Ken claims he was out of money at times.

      One should also question Ken’s claim as to the current ‘the success of the store’ since the store was offered for sale last year and apparently was not doing well, to say the least.

      I have followed the progress of comic book stores for years, especially the opening of new stores and reason why existing stores close. Many comic book stores that are open are not making any money, the owner keeps the store going try to get to the end of the lease for the retail space without owing any money and retire. (In those situations there is no hope of selling the store since it is not making any money no one will buy the store as an operating business.) At any one time, at least 25% to 33% of all of the stores are on what Diamond Distributing (only distributor for comic books in the US) calls back debt; i.e. they are behind on paying the weekly invoices to Diamond, so the store is on COD for deliveries plus have added onto the bill an amount to pay the old amounts plus interest. As you can imagine, a store that is not making any money plus having interest charged on top of old invoices for inventory plus COD charges every week, is sometimes the final problem that causes a comic store to close.

      I estimate that the number of retail stores still open at currently around 2,000. While Diamond may have as many as 4,500 accounts, many of those have no retail location.

  14. So Whitman is holding the raw footage as hostage to additional demands and was lying to me when I asked him if he needed or wanted anything else.

    Since I could have easily provided hardware, software or money, Whitman must have wanted something that I could provide, others couldn’t provide; but does keep insisting that only Jolly ‘should’ or ‘could’ provide.

    Now, what could such a thing be?

    Why of course, Whitman must want a license to use KODT for his projects!

    Having KODT IP would do wonders for Whitman to extend the reach of his cons and make his schemes seem much more legit. Have IP from Jolly and company would be a lot better than his just making up company names, like he did with d20 Entertainment LLC.

  15. I am a backer.

    Since you can no longer legally deliver the contract, when can I expect my refund?

  16. I sent a text message to Whitman yesterday, since one email account will not take any more emails due to being full. The other account Whitman appears to have stopped using months ago.

    As can be expected, Whitman never replied to my text message or my posting on the comments page for the project.

    Apparently, Whitman is trying to make it look like he needs something from Jolly to finish the project but that is all a lie.

    I do not know why Whitman even bothers to say anything to anyone, since at this point nothing he says can be trusted.

    It is almost as though Whitman lies just to practice lying. I think that this point that Whitman is simply pathological with his constant lying and incapable of telling the truth about anything.

    I think his refusal to turn over the raw footage is part of that pathology; in Whitman’s mind it shows that somehow he is smarter and better than everyone else because not only did he con hundreds of people out of thousands of dollars, but on top of that he still has the raw footage and will never turn it over to anyone; all the while bragging about how smart he is.

    The only thing that Whitman did not count on was the youtube video that now has over 100K views detailing the failed Kickstarter projects.

  17. “About 2 years ago, I turned over the KODTLAS footage to Z.O.E. and today, both ZOE and Jolly Blackburn, announced are releasing all three Episodes of KODTLAS.”

    This statement by Ken Whitman is nothing but an absolute lie.

    I contacted Whitman by email April 2016 and then followed it up with a demand letter on April 13, 2016 and communicated by email from time to time since then.

    If Whitman had delivered the raw footage, why didn’t he ever tell me in the multiple emails that I had with him over the past two years?

    If Whitman really had delivered the raw footage two years ago, so that would be around Feb 2016, why didn’t he say so when I emailed him the demand letter in April 2016?

    If Whitman really had delivered the raw footage two years ago, so that would be around Feb 2016, why didn’t he say so in any of the emails I have exchanged with him since then, with the latest from Whitman being Friday, June 23, 2017 2:50 PM?

    Instead he just talks about, and I quote from Whitman’s last email to me, “how dumb you are” (you being me).

    In none of those communications did Whitman ever say he had delivered the raw footage to ZOE, as Whitman is obligated to under the terms of the project, and even kept posting updates online that he was continuing to work on making the promised DVDs!

    If Whitman had delivered the raw foot 2 years ago, and ZOE was going to deliver the DVDs, why did Whitman keep posting that he was still working on the project, with the most recent assertion that he had purchase a machine from China to work on the project? Why would he need to keep working on the project all these months if ZOE had the raw footage and ZOE supposed to be making them.

  18. I am glad to report that Whitman finally did communicate with me several times over the past few days by text messages from his cell phone.

    I was hurt at first because Whitman did not seem to know who I was, even though I put it in my first text to him, and expected that since I always put my name in my emails and letters to him with my full name, address, phone number and email address; that he would have remembered me.

    After having no response from Whitman to my more recent emails, with one email account full and not accepting any more emails and the other seemed to be no longer in use, I sent my first text message 02/20/2018 at 12:06pm. After getting nothing back I sent a follow up message on 02/23/2018 14:14 and accused him of lying about turning over the raw footage to ZOE ever.

    Whitman replied back at 14:20:
    “How is ZOE editing the footage?”

    and at 14:22:
    “I am work8ng on DvDs.”
    (I assume work8ng is mis spelled and should be working.)

    And in typical classy ‘Whitman style’, as our conversation continued, when I inquired when Whitman would to start stealing from Marus (guy that Whitman either bought his store from or guy that Whitman runs the store for)

    Whitman texted me at 14:47
    “Have not started stealing from marcus. Too busy having sex with your mom.”


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