Brian Bolland and his Chicago real estate lawyer are liars

This morning I found yet another email from comic book artist Brian Bolland concerning the issue surrounding my blog post over two months ago about a sketch he did at the 2007 New York City Comic-Con. The email basically contradicts everything he has said about this matter up until now. He is now saying that the before mentioned Chicago Real Estate lawyer is his lawyer - even though he said prior that he was not.

This is what Bolland originally told me about the lawyer:

The guy you refer to is A lawyer (apparently a Chicago lawyer) but he is not MY lawyer. I’m not employing anyone. He’s a friend and a comic fan.

Brian Bolland
3 May 2007

That seemed clear to me. The Chicago real estate lawyer who represented himself as Bolland's lawyer to me and my (former) hosting provider misrepresented himself. He lied.

Evidently not.

In Bolland's most recent email to me, now sings a different tune. He said this:

Mr. Caira was duly authorized to represent me in this matter. Although he is not my regular attorney, in this case and for this specific circumstance, he was acting as my representative.

Brian Bolland
4 May 2007

What a liar.

The truth is I wrote a negative comment about a piece of art that Brian Bolland was paid $150 to do. The man is a professional artist. He ought to be willing to accept just a little bit of negative criticism every once in a while. He certainly seems more than willing to receive praise and admiration. If an artist is willing to be praised, he ought to be willing to be criticized as well. Especially if he deserves it. Otherwise, said artist comes off looking thin-skinned. He himself said that the art "was a pretty meagre drawing for the money."

He also admitted that he "shafted" the guy who commissioned the art. I'm then supposed to believe that I went too far when I wrote that he "ripped off" that same buyer?

I'm tired of getting lied to. Chicago real estate lawyer first told me that he was just a friend of Bolland's and that Bollard didn't ask him to do anything. He stated that he was not acting on Bolland's direction. When I refused to post links to eight (8) images of better-looking sketches Bolland did at the same 2007 New York City Comicon, he changed his story and claimed to be Bolland's lawyer. He then sent me the secret confidential cease & desist letter that I supposedly cannot show anyone. He also sent an email to my (former) hosting provider representing himself as Brian Bolland's lawyer and demanded that my site be taken down.

Chicago real estate lawyer emailed my hosting provider and said:

It is critical that this site and the offending content be removed before my client is damaged and my privacy rights are violated any further.

The "privacy rights" he refers is his name, his law office telephone number, and his law office fax machine number. He chose to include these things on the cease & desist letter.

Chicago real estate lawyer also went on to say:

Being that this is content in violation of the law I am notifying you of this situation before it moves to formal litigation in order to give you an opportunity to shut the site down before further damage is done to the name and reputation of Mr. Bolland by these scurrilous accusations.

The Scurrilous accusations is that I said Brian Bolland ripped off a fan for charging $150 for a three by four inch Batwoman sketch.

Chris Caira acting as Brian Bolland's lawyer threatened to sue my (former) hosting provider unless my website was shut down. Caira claims to have never said this. I think he was under the impression that my hosting provider wasn't going to share the email with me. If that's the case, he was wrong.

So what does this all mean? Well, it means that if Chris Caira was indeed representing Bolland in these matters, Bolland cannot make the claim that he did not try to get my website shut down. I was more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when he told me that Chicago real estate lawyer was not his lawyer and that he didn't ask him to do any of this.

Why would Bolland change his position on this? Most likely to protect Chris Caira. Evidently, Chris Caira shows up at every comic book convention in the United States that Bolland makes an appearance. He helps him by running the lines and managing the sketch list. He fetches food for him to eat and beverages for him to drink.

You know, typical lawyer stuff.

Yesterday a couple of people in the comment section of my blog brought up the idea that Chris Caira could get in trouble with the Illinois State Bar for claiming to represent a client when in fact he doesn't.

I'm fairly certain Chris Caira read those comments.

Not that I planned on perusing any type of complaint against Chicago real estate lawyer with the Illinois State Bar.