Why Salgood Sam, Kent Burles and Howie Noel are Scumbags.

For those just tuning in, back in 2007ish, Howie Noel perpetrated a media hoax within the comics industry, claiming that I had stolen his work and was publishing it without permission on Amazon. I ran a publishing company. Howie submitted a mini-series, it was approved. Within a few months it became apparent that Howie was the only comic creator I have ever heard of, getting a contract with a publisher, but also continuing to produce and sell cheaply printed bookleg versions of the same book at conventions simultaneously. Even to the point where the publisher arranged product and assistance for cons, he was letting the publisher help, and then proceeding to sell bootlegs and not the professionally printed books made available under his contract with the publisher. This and other issues of professionalism and behavior made working with Mr. Noel untenable by the time we had solicited, printed and shipped the first issue of his series. We were discussing how to handle the very delicate situation and wondering if it might all be an accident caused by inexperience, when Mr. Noeldechen requested out of his contract. It was a god-send, because it saved us a lot of hassle that wasn't worth our time and gladly let him out.

That was when he preceded to drum up a fake scandal, claiming that we had stolen his work and published without permission. In fact, we had produced the first issue under contract and printed and shipped to distributors and retailers. All legal and above board. He claimed the fact that Amazon was carrying the book and wouldn't take it down as some kind of proof of fraudulent publishing. In reality those retailers had bought and paid for books to sell in their stores with every right to sell and do business with. Mr. Noeldechen had already had royalties for those sales accounted for and paid out. Instead of walking away Mr. Noel enlisted a friend in comics "journalism" to blow open a fake scandal on @Newsarama with Mr. Noel as the victim and the narrative that his work was stolen and that he was not compensated for it, despite the fact that his contract had been breached on his part in several ways, pretty much right from the get-go. As the publisher I became the target for online harassment and shaming by fans and industry people convinced of my guilt.

The "scandal" even inspired @ChrisButcher of @thebeguiling to write about how awful I was, how much he hated me and that "my voice was like nails on a chalk board". I was taken aback, as I didn't know him that well or have that many interactions, and I was also a regular customer in his store, even after I moved out of Toronto I had still been making a special effort to visit and shop there. I did return once or twice to the store after a long absence, but it just wasn't the same any more and can't feel that excitement to go back and see all the cool indie stuff anymore. Most of my Beguiling purchases just moved online to other sources.

I really wasn't happy with all the time running the company was taking away from my own creative work, so I sold the company and went back into freelance writing and illustration, which is when Mr. Noeldechen decided to launch his media attack. I believe it was @heidimcdonald working at a senior level at @comicsbeat at the time that first informed me that the story was breaking on comic news websites all over the place and asked if I was the Mike Gagnon mentioned. I was shocked and inexperienced enough to try and reason with the hate comments online, which did nothing but cause mental stress, emotional trauma and PTSD. I was told they would have to wait and reconsider having me write for them at a later date, which was fine, I still had my magazine gigs. I had also been talking to people at @Sequential about work, after having put the fake scandal behind me by a couple months. At that time as I prepared to contribute my first piece Max Douglas a.k.a Salgood Sam informed me that they would not be using my work and that "I should have informed them of the scandal" when I sent my first query letter. Because that's what every artist does, tells a potential employer about all the false allegations made against them. *eyeroll*

Unfortunately, closeted sociopath @salgoodsam decided that this made me a target for online harassment, gaslighting and cyber-bullying which continues to this day. About 15 years in total. Whether Salgood did this at the behest of Noeldechen or on his own, is now up for federal authorities to determine. Whether my simultaneous experience of being harassed, blackmailed and gaslit with false accusations by my Program Supervisor, Kent Burles, while working at Max the Mutt College of Animation, Art, and Design, is also connected or whether I'm just lucky enough to be targeted by multiple deviant psychopaths at once will also have to be determined by the same authorities investigating the situation. It has been an ongoing and escalating situation for 15 years, and it needs to stop. There was never any truth to the claims by Noeldechen, which have a clear and demonstrable chilling effect on my own professional career since that time, provable in civil court.

I've never pushed for this to be exposed during this time because I just wanted to make comics and be left alone and let my work speak for itself. At no time have I ever wanted my name or work to get attention from being associated with this grade-school nonsense. Mr. Noeldechen is fully aware of the situation, but has never felt the need to come forward to correct the misrepresentation or apologize. Creating a situation where I had to gather evidence on my own and bring it to federal authorities who are now involved in investigating Kent Burles, Max Douglas and Howard Noeldechen for this and other suspected illegal activities. I have nothing to hide. I'm an open book. I have provided evidence and screenshots to authorities, and have no fear of the ongoing investigations now being conducted by agencies such as the RCMP, Niagara Regional Police, Toronto Police Force, Montreal Police, Federal Police Of Germany, Interpol and the FBI. There are a lot of sketchy suspects connected to sketchy things that are associated with these people.

As I've been telling people for a year, if you know something, no matter how small, or are connected to these people in anyway, it is best to get involved and say your piece before these agencies come looking for you. If you have also been the target of harassment by any of these people, please contact authorities so we can shut down the abuse, but also illegal activities that some of these suspects are believed to be connected to. As always, the main contact on the case is the RCMP National Security Division, who you can contact at 1-800-267-7685 or [email protected].

I'm tired of dealing with these wastes and to be honest, there's enough agencies involved now that I shouldn't have to. I'm just gonna go back to quietly creating art and comics while the professionals take care of these people and accomplices.

All the best to those who don't try to plot and perpetrate hate against others.

Thanks for reading,

Mike