I met Van Sciver in 2009 when I liked his Facebook page, which he uses to promote his work and increase his fan base. But he also picks on fans with put-down jokes, belittling comments and taunts.
He seemed like a decent guy at first, when my ex-wife and I met him in person at a convention in Atlanta in 2010. We talked for a while, and he drew a picture of the Hulk for me. He and I had previously had some political arguments online, your typical back-and-forth, but in person, everything was fine. In public, he was on his best behavior.
Here’s a screenshot below of one of many conversations we had.
It was worse than the usual internet argument - they made insulting comments and personal attacks that were not confined to Van Sciver’s page. They sent vulgar, harassing messages to personal accounts, and the barrage was relentless.
The attacks escalated into belligerence and aggression bad enough to cause me concern that these people might be dangerous.
It is a pattern that can be seen time and again on Van Sciver’s Facebook page. He starts the argument, people fire back, then the goon squad pounces, bullying in ways that are wholly inappropriate and threatening in any forum, under any circumstances.
WHO ARE THEY ?
Their names are Kevin Oakley, Mikal CG, Kevin Nehring, and Christopher Hugh Varney.
They stalked me, as they have others, by searching my internet presence and finding personal and professional information that they used to embarrass and insult for no other reason than they disagreed with me politically.
Van Sciver and the goon squad call themselves conservative, but they’re a disgrace to any honorable people who are evangelical Christians, who favor small government and low taxes, and who support an originalist interpretation of the Constitution.
Van Sciver and his gang posture themselves as tough guys who use obscene humor to attack whiny, weak liberals. The plan would work better if they were actually funny. They’re not.
Among others they have targeted are: Ian Auld, Steven Seitz and Randy Pare, who are guilty of the crime of not being conservative enough, and of having been fans of Van Sciver.
Here is a private message, sent from a time when we were still semi-friendly, where Van Sciver admits he likes to mess with Ian Auld and also admits that he knows it becomes a huge problem.
If you need any further proof that I’m not a whiner who can’t take a joke, just google “Ethan Van Sciver Internet Bully” and you’ll get about 10,000 links..
Here’s a link to a forum post titled exactly that “Artist Ethan Van Sciver: Internet Bully?” (http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/artistethanvansciverinternetbully.452504873/) ) – where Ethan vilifies a decent guy and manipulates people into physically threatening him, after already treating the guy like crap.
I didn’t mean to write a history lesson, but I do want to prove that I’m not the only person he has attacked in ways that are unconscionable.
WOMEN ARE TARGETED AND THREATENED
The worst of their attacks are directed at women.
The worst they sent me was a post describing my ex-wife being given a torture-porn facial.
After my marriage broke up, they did the same sort of thing to my girlfriend.
These “men” really like to beat up on women who have done nothing at all to deserve any sort of harassment. They have also placed vulgar, pornographic posts on the websites of my girlfriend’s family who have no idea who these people are or why they’re doing this. They did the same thing to wedding photos a friend of mine posted on his Facebook page.
They have stalked me to other groups, where they have posted insulting, harassing comments. They did the same to the Facebook page of the law firm where I work, and to a side business I run. They have created false Facebook accounts in my name and posted the same sort of things as if I were doing it.
I contacted Facebook, which did no good. It never does.
VAN SCIVER’S ROLE
Van Sciver plays the good guy in all this, saying he had nothing to do with any of it, that the attackers were just highspirited guys who sometimes go over the top. But that's the abusive way he strings you along.
He makes manipulative comments like you’re just not able to take a joke, that the goon squad really meant no harm. In my case he contacted me directly, saying he wanted to fix things.
Here’s a private message where he contacted me to get me to come back after they’d attacked me. He wants me to believe him that he’s not in on the whole thing so that I’ll come back and be the whipping boy again.
And like any abuser, he will apologize, say he’s been misunderstood and paints himself as the victim. He has had his Facebook account pulled one time for bullying, and his goons created a page called “Give Ethan Van Sciver his Facebook page back.”
Below, he admits that Michael Nehring makes fake profiles to harass people. He also indicates that he and the others discuss, and probably laugh about this bullying: he wrote “Nah, it was just Michael, seeing if you’d be super cruel if given the chance.”
All I want to do is get away from these people, and in the conversation here, I initiate the break. But he won’t leave me alone.
Ethan and his group continues to attack me over and over. Both on this page, but on my own page. One of his minions Nehring continues attacked me with some really personal insults, so I tried to ask Ethan to take it down. It didn't work.
Since that didn't work, I made a status post on my own page about how Ethan and his goons are attacking me and adding my friends to their friends list to gather information and harass us all. With his own name on the line you'll notice he is in complete control of what Nehring (and others) post about me. And the exchange ends with HIM THREATENING TO CHOKE ME.
After a year of my ignoring them, Ethan got back in touch and convinced me that all would be forgotten if I came back. He invited me to appear on his podcast “Vanscivertown.”
I agreed. It was a setup.
You'll find out more in the next post.
PART THREE: http://phenomenalfx.weebly.com/blog/harassment-isnt-comical-part-3