Several years ago, Anthony Giangregorio wrote and self-published (via his Undead Press imprint) several novels set in the world of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. These were novels featuring the same trademarked cast of characters, without the permission of George Romero or the other rights-holders. And it stopped qualifying as fan fiction the moment Giangregorio sold them via Amazon and other retail outlets.
Giangregorio resurfaced a year or so ago, attending conventions such as NECON, World Horror, and AnthoCon, where he worked hard convincing everyone that he’d turned over a new leaf. And now he’s managed to screw a bunch of new authors. Kelli Owen has all of the details here* and if you are a new writer, her Blog entry on the matter is required reading for you. It’s an ugly, frustrating situation for the authors involved.
*I’m thrilled to see Kelli tackling stories like this. I’ve done it for over 15 years (Jobs In Hell, Hail Saten, and this website), and I’m tired. I’m happy Kelli and others from her generation are taking over, so old guys like me can sleep occasionally and catch up on our writing deadlines. Bookmark her Blog.
UPDATE: Instead of responding, Giangregorio has decided to begin threatening the authors who have had the courage to speak out about him. Nick Mamatas provides the details and screen shots of one such threat here. And other authors are stepping forward with similar claims in the comments section of this Blog, Nick’s Blog, Kelli’s Blog, Mandy’s Blog, and other Blogs.
I continue to be so embarassed by their hustling attitude, their use of a character that wasn’t theirs (they had to remove the story from the anthology) that I don’t bother to list the anthology on my website. And I would never consider submitting to them again. At least my story came wasn’t messed with.
Sadly, some people can be told. Others (such as myself) people have to get burned before we believe.
I met him at AnthoCon. He really was a fascinating mixture of arrogance and stupidity in one twitchy package. He spoke with such confidence that you almost would think that he knew what he was talking about – well until you listened to the words.
I am proud that I managed to convince the kid that he was talking at to not listen to anything that he said about publishing (that kid was trying to edit his first book of octopus-related short stories – at very least I convinced him to offer payment for stories, else he was just going to end up with a worse book than he was probably going to end up with). But man, that guy was unpleasant.
I wrote about it here – http://marlowe1.livejournal.com/1979914.html – sadly he seemed to be the only one that read it (he promised to find me at the next AnthoCon and tell me off in person – that sounds like a fun premise with him trying to tell me off or doing that “tell me that to my face” and me politely telling him that he sucks.)
What a dick. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Brian. Us UNPUBs appreciate the big boys looking out for us.
Can’t we just nuke him from orbit? It’s the only way to be sure.
Hey Brian, I remember seeing him clinging onto your arm at Anthocon, trying to get you to take his copy of RATS so you could give him a blurb!! Oh dear!!
Wow! I didn’t realize that. if you’ve posted about him before the name didn’t jump out at me. But I have read a bunch of his books. I feel terrible about that now. That is terrible of him to do that to other authors.
OCCUPY UNDEAD PRESS! Is what meager me says!
Tony is a complete piece of shit. I really wish there was a way to make young and new writers understand that no matter how much they want to see their work in print, throwing their pearls before swine can never work to their advantage. Never. The swine never stop being pigs and nothing kills your enthusiasm for The Word like shoveling through pig shit. Thanks for being another place on the web with info about this man. And dog bless Mandy for telling her story. No one likes to admit to having been used and abused – kudos to her for having the guts to share her hard lesson.
Mr. Keene,
Speaking as someone who has respected your work, you need to get your facts straight before making cursory comments. I knew Giangregorio and he had only produced ONE work that infringed upon Romero’s work… not several as you stated. That was the one book that was published in Amazon.com. It should be noted that once he was notified of the infringement, he quickly retracted the work. Sadly, Giangregorio’s original motives was a homage but ignorant of copyright laws. He immediately removed the title once he was aware. On that score, he had only meant to honor the movie that inspired him.
In a strange way, Ginagregorio is like many of us who was profoundly impacted by Romero’s movies. We grew up on them. Only Giangregorio took it a bit further than the most of us and started writing. Now, his works are not Shakespearian. But his early books, up to the point of the one that infringed upon Romero’s work, were NOT a rip off of that man’s great work. It was just that one, and, knowing the guy, that was not intended as a rip off. In fact, some of those other early books showed promise. They were original and actually pretty good.
I can’t speak much after that book in question… other than to say there were no copyright infringements. I lost touch with him. And to say that was around the time Giangregorio started out on his presses. I don’t contest any complaints rooting from those presses. I don’t know the facts. Though, I will say the one author and her post that spurred your post probably does have a legitimate complaint. I won’t defend Giagregorio on that score… he’ll have to do that on his own.
However, I do take issue with your post. As an author who has sold many books and have gathered a following, your word has tremendous weight. When you post something, please make sure it’s accurate and in context. As someone with a measure of fame, you don’t have the luxury of spouting off half-cocked. Your post seems like it was jumping on the band-wagon and you saying what you want without fact-checking.
Your word does have weight and it will help to destroy Giangregorio. Perhaps his own actions will destroy him anyways… but I do know the guy if from the past. I know him enough that he doesn’t set out to hurt others… though he sometimes does have bad form in how he presents himself and yes, a degree of ignorance. But I know the guy well enough to know that he does try to make right once he realizes he’s done wrong. Only this time, given the frenzy, he won’t have the chance. He’s small potatoes by your standards. But given a chance he does try to make right in his crude way.
But you began by casting him in a certain light that is not true. Someone of your stature should know better. Someone like you should wait before weighing in and please do so with the correct facts before bloging barely a day after a firestorm has occurred. I would think someone of your position would know better.
Wow, just spent time over my morning coffee reading this and Kelli’s blog, as well as other linked info…methinks this guy should team up with Boyer to form Douchenozzle Press…kidding, and thanks for the update, Brian!
For Concerned: Because it is hard to hear a person’s “tone” when they are typing, rather than speaking face to face, I want to preface my response by saying that I’m speaking with all due mutual respect, so I hope this doesn’t come off as snarky.
I get that you are defending your friend. I’d do the same if it was one of my friends. But I do check my facts. Each and every time I post something of this nature. And the facts indicate that there were several Giangregorio-penned Dawn books at one time. I’m repeating what has already been reported by other legitimate news sources. Now, I don’t know if these were just the same book issued under different titles or perhaps an excerpt repackaged as a new book, etc. I know that after being busted for it once, he removed the book from sale, only to put it back up for free again (which invalidates the claim that It should be noted that once he was notified of the infringement, he quickly retracted the work).
Old news stories, Blog posts, message board posts, and cached comments from Giangregorio himself all indicate there was more than one Dawn of the Dead book. So I stand by my use of the word “several”. If Giangregorio wants to clarify that, he is certainly welcome to step forward and do so. He can even do it here, if he wishes.
You’ll note I didn’t mention the controversy with Giangregorio and Skipp & Spector’s Book of the Dead, nor the disparaging comments Giangregorio made about Skipp after John spoke out about it, because there aren’t as many sources for that. Nor have I commented on some of the other allegations (threatening authors, etc), because I’ve yet to see them extend beyond the rumor stage.
As for giving him a chance — I believe that’s exactly what folks have been doing for the last several years, myself included. You’ll note how he has repaid that…
Dear “concerned” (or should I say “Tony”?),
I find it disconcerting when someone doesn’t have the balls to use his real name. Could it be that you know you’re defending a scumbag, and in doing so are revealing your true colors? Quibbling over how many times he infringed on others’ copyrights is ludicrous. One was too many. Now he continues to screw people over, and you still defend him. Nice!
I’ve also contacted Anthony Giangregorio via private message as well as inviting him to respond on my blog (http://lincolncrisler.info/?p=1111). So far, you could hear a pin drop on that front.
He has, however, posted disparaging words about Mandy DeGeit on his Facebook. That’s not making it right, even by crude standards.
My personal dealings with Giangregorio, at the end of our working relationship, resulted in him threatening to blackball my name within the writing community. Why? Because I called him out on his crap and posted my experiences with Living Dead Press and Open Casket Press on the Absolute Write forums. He read what I posted and called me and left harsh voicemails. Giangregorio isn’t a person I would suggest anyone submits work to. Other writers have better working relationships with him, but I didn’t.
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And it just got worse, if such a thing were even possible.
Evidently Tony sent Alyn Day via Facebook a veiled threat to come to her house and have a talk with her later. Mamatas has the details over on his blog. http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1763027.html
And though he was just blowharding here, though he was just trying to scare Day (I hope), Tony best pray his knees off that nothing happens to Alyn Day any time soon.
Josh, amen to that! I think Brian’s been more than fair, and to be blunt, if this guy had any guts, he’d come out from behind his FB page and be a man. You got outed, dude, now deal with the ramifications of that.
Everyone who has received any communication from this creep (Anthony Giangregorio) document, document, document. If he’s making threats –which, by the way, over the Internet, interstate, is FEDERAL jurisdiction, I believe– then he is proving himself to be unstable. There’s no telling what unstable people will do. Save these things so as to build a case.
Concerned:
By not leaving your name, you display a huge lack of credibility. Or you are Giangregorio, in which case you also lack credibility. Sorry, man.
CONCERNED: how can he claim ignorance of copyright infringement laws when he sets himself up as an editor and publisher? Common sense dictates if you are in this business, you understand (or should) copyright laws. Not buying that at all.
I was approached by Mr. Giangregorio at AnthoCon in 2011, who seemed to be aware of my other publications and asked me to submit, which I did consider.
While I’m open and friendly to everyone, I was warned after the encounter not to submit to him by other writers in attendance. I’m very grateful to those writers, and therefore, I believe that when we know something, no matter how awful, we must share that privately–it’s part of our jobs as members of a community. These writers spared me much grief.
I only wish the others had been granted as much.
Dear gang –
Yowch. I was sooooo hoping Tony was really getting his shit together. Seeing him at Necon the last two years, and drinking a few beers with Tony and his wife, was humanizing and encouraging. Made me feel like he was really trying to join the larger horror community.
Just to be clear: yeah, we had a serious run-in a couple of years back, when he named his zombie anthology BOOK OF THE DEAD: A ZOMBIE ANTHOLOGY. I said that was kinda like doing a ghost story in a haunted hotel and calling it THE SHINING. Not illegal, but not what I’d call a very good idea.
And I warned him about Richard Rubinstein, producer of DAWN OF THE DEAD, and how hard the legal hammer would come down if they got wind of his “sequel”. (When I did the first BOOK OF THE DEAD, one of the pre-conditions was that we used no characters or scenes from the films. That’s all we had to do to be cool.)
So yeah, he didn’t take that too well, and retaliated by spiking me all over the internet, and saying I was a hack who only cares about the money, and wants to crush the little guy, and a bunch of other clearly true shit.
But once the word got wide enough, he started taking down all his incendiary language. And when I met him, about a year later, we had a couple drinks and calmed things down. It was a very nice relief.
Here’s my insight with regards to Tony: I DON’T THINK HE UNDERSTANDS THAT HE’S DOING ANYTHING WRONG. In his mind, he’s just doing his thing, fighting the good fight for true zombie-loving fans.
In Hollywood, the kind of shameless rewriting he’s doing is common practice. They ALWAYS fuck with your stuff. They feel like, having paid for it, they can do whatever they want to “improve” it. It happens so constantly that if they DON’T do it, pinch yourself to see if you’re fucking dreaming.
In publishing, however, we tend to frown on this sort of behavior. You write a story, you trust that it will be left alone. And if editorial changes are required, you negotiate them out, until everybody’s happy.
Tony? THAT’S how it’s done. What you’re doing won’t fly in this community. It makes people angry. People you don’t want to anger. Then you call you an asshole in public, and YOU get angry. And then shit goes all out of control.
Anyway, that’s my perspective. I hope it’s helpful.
Yer pal,
Skipp
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Because I called him out on his crap and posted my experiences with Living Dead Press and Open Casket Press on the Absolute Write forums.
If you were the person who wrote a long account of your experiences with him being spectacularly unprofessional, and then deleted it with the weak excuse that “it’s not fair to talk about someone who can’t respond,” I imagine you might be kicking yourself in hindsight for not leaving that out there so that other people might be warned.
If you aren’t that person, no retrospective kicking necessary.
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Oh my…..Haven’t been on FB for a few days, but just happened to notice this through an email sent from a FB group. I am kinda shocked. I have never wanted so much to write, but I do love good zombie story. I do admit at one point reading Mr Gs work, I thought I was re-reading Alex Garland’s ’28 Days Later’ word for word, but I just figured he was a tad quirky. And sometimes when you are reading your own stuff over and over again, you sometimes don’t realise that you have made these mistakes – they are completely unintentional. I don’t know Anthony personally, but I had always admired his guts for making his own mark, but I have to say, it is not so much the faux pas that have been made, but it his behaviour that seems somewhat unwarranted. Was that not why he started his own press? As he was not happy with the contractual obligations laid down by other similar types of press? I am so sorry for the writers who have been mislead, my heart goes out to you. Lets hope that Mr G grows from his experience and can come down from his high horse a little more humble than he currently seems to be acting and issue an apology to all involved. I thought he was a better man than that.
“Because I called him out on his crap and posted my experiences with Living Dead Press and Open Casket Press on the Absolute Write forums.
If you were the person who wrote a long account of your experiences with him being spectacularly unprofessional, and then deleted it with the weak excuse that “it’s not fair to talk about someone who can’t respond,” I imagine you might be kicking yourself in hindsight for not leaving that out there so that other people might be warned.”
***
That was me, I’m not kicking myself. All I wanted was Tony off my back. It’s a long story of why I removed what I wrote.
JMS and Adam: I don’t think anyone is going to blame you for taking down your post, Adam. I can speak from long-learned personal experience — there are ALWAYS people who will castigate you for speaking out. (And please note, JMS – I’m not saying *you* were castigating him — I’m just saying that there are people who will and that can sometimes be a factor in these things).
Even during the Dorchester scandal, there were folks who took me to task for bringing the story to light — readers, fellow authors, and even a few friends. That’s a LOT of pressure on somebody, and it becomes very easy to start second-guessing yourself.
It’s worth noting that Nick Mamatas, Nick Kaufmann, myself, Paul Tremblay, and a few others warned people about this chuckle-head several years ago, via Shocklines. Unfortunately, as is par for the course, our warnings on Shocklines were deleted. I think there might still be a long Blog about it on either Paul or Nick’s LJ (but you’d have to go wayyyyyyy back through the archives).
I just checked out this guy’s crap on Amazon. I think he might be ripping off The Walking Dead now too. He has a book there with characters named “Laurie” and “Carl”.
http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-Apocalypse-Anthony-Giangregorio/dp/1611990483/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337264801&sr=1-3
Nick had a very exciting blog rendition of the shit that went down with me.
http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1360318.html#comments
However, as I said, Tony took down the incendiary links shortly after Nick shared them, thereby sucking all the horrible fun out of the experience, and leaving just a ghost of a whiff of how crazy it got.
This was in August of 2009. My, how time flies, whether you’re having fun or not!
I certainly have tremendous sympathy for Adam in taking down what he wrote because he didn’t want pushback from Giangregorio. On the other hand, it would have been helpful to others to have that information out there. It’s always a dilemma that everyone has to work out in the way that’s best for themselves.
Hi, first time caller here. I see that Anthony Giangregoriopoopytheiverypants first published, “Dead Reckoning: Dawning of the Dead” in the begining of 2009. It is still available @ Amazon by “other sellers”. But by September of 2009 he changed the TITLE to “Kingdom of the Dead”, with the exact same story. THIS is still available from AMAZON, as well as from “other sellers”. Definitely seems worthy of legal action.
Skipp wrote: “This was in August of 2009. My, how time flies, whether you’re having fun or not!”
God, that was a walk down memory lane!
Mr. Keene,
I apologize for the snarkiness of my previous post… I could have been much more pleasant in what I wrote. I was disrespectful in tone and I am sorry for that. Given the larger issues, my post was also a bit ridiculous. Copyright infringements is a serious matter and quibbling whether it was one book or several is rather trivial. Strike trivial… Copyright infringement is serious on any account.
My response was more in the spirit that I knew Giangregorio when he wrote the book, Dawning of the Dead. He had told me about it and was excited. He had loved the original movie so much like many of us had. I remember him talking about how he wondered what happened to those particular characters as they flew off into the sun… like many of us I suppose. There was never a sequel dealing with that. So he wrote that book as a homage in the spirit of a what if.
Clearly, his writing that book was copyright infringement. However, I knew Giangregorio enough to know that he did have good intentions behind that book. It was merely his way of continuing the saga because there was never any real conclusion to the very ending of the movie. He pulled the book very quickly after publication after realizing the implications. In essense, his book was fan fiction but at the time he didn’t know enough about the law to realize that he couldn’t formally publish it. Once he realized, he pulled it.
Now, he did republish the core story without the characters set in the Romero universe. The basic story itself had nothing to do with the movie. I’m not sure if that was the best choice vs. just nixing the entire thing…. but the revisions completely separated it from the Dawn of the Dead universe. The core story was stand alone. At least I think so because I never read the revised version. In the end I can say that Giangregorio felt bad… he had not meant to infringe upon the creators of Dawn of the Dead and quickly tried to fix it. Again, I’m not sure if the stripped version of the reprint was the best decision. But at the time I was a friend and understood that he didn’t have “evil” motives. It was a mistake.
My point of contention with you in my original post was that you said that he had written several books based on the characters of Dawn of the Dead. That he did not. It was just that one book. Again, that could be construed as quibbling…. after all copyright infringement is serious whether its one one count or many. But I knew him back then and I know he didn’t mean harm and had only written one book in that universe…. and again he had corrected that, however imperfectly. Bottom line was that he was not this evil ogre trying to capitalize on Dawn of the Dead. Sadly on that account, it was simply a homage and one that was poorly executed, never to be revisited again.
Of all the things to criticize, this is not one of them. And yes, there is much to criticize. I am not defending Giangregorio on Mandy’s story or anything else. He will have to do that himself. I will not give any excuses for the Mandy story because I’m not in a position to do so. Giangregorio and I are not much in communication anymore. That is not my business to address Mandy’s story or the other issues. I do see where Giangregorio was wrong and I do understand the cause of this firestorm.
It’s just that I knew Giangregorio on a personal level as of a few years ago. I don’t know him as the monster he is regarded on the internet today. Maybe much of that animosity is deserved, I don’t know. But I do know is that Giangregorio did not write a series of books set in the Romero universe. The preface of your blog states that. Of all the things to preface your argument upon please don’t base it upon a falsehood. After all, there are so many other things to pick out and justifiably argue. Its just that when someone of your stature states something it results as fact on the Internet.
And yes some people will accuse me of being Giangregorio simply because I remain anonymous. Well, would you really expect him to write this? My reason for a second post was to apologize for my original snarkines to Mr.Keene and then to clarify. Beyond that I will give no other defenses on any other matters. That is another man’s job.
Concerned wrote: “And yes some people will accuse me of being Giangregorio simply because I remain anonymous.”
I can confirm for everyone that your IP is different than those known to be used by Giangregorio, if that helps. And thanks for stopping in to further clarify.
Like I said before, other sources are reporting that he wrote several. You’re stating that he only wrote one. I don’t know, because Giangregorio hasn’t come forth to set the record straight. But anybody who reads this Blog will also read your statement, and be informed that there is some question in this regard. I guess that’s the best we can do until as such time as Giangregorio elaborates.
Thank you. Again, the point I was making is stupid and trivial in context of everything else. It was just that I knew there was no bad intent/planning behind that particular situation a few years ago.
With everything that is going on, I find his hastily published novelette… interesting.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0084O040A?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwperfectbyd-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0084O040A
And here I was thinking I was the only one. Back in 2010the before my first novel was published, I penned a zombie story for one of Tony’s Book of the Dead anyhow (I asked him if they were connected to the other anyhow of the same title and he acted like he didn’t know what I was talking about). I saw there was no payment but I figured what the he’ll because it would be good promo. I knew nothing about anything. He accepted the story, but called me about certain changes. Some I even thought were good. But he was such a condescending DICK on the phone, saying essentially that he was calling me as a professional courtesy and he could have just made the changes had he wanted. I let it go because all I cared about was getting word out for my book. I finally got my contributor’s copy and guess what? He wrote a story based off the characters in Zombieland. As a matter of fact, he completely retold the scene from the grocery store. So he hasn’t learned his lesson. I asked for the rights to my story back last year because I wanted to put it in my own book of shorts. We talk on the phone and he agrees but not before insulting the title of my book several times. I let it go as I was getting what I needed but I knew right then I’d never write anything for him again.
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No disrespect intended but this has nagged at me a bit. Not trying to dredge things up but this board is still active on this subject. Again, I mean no disrespect… I had felt I had gone half-cocked in my original post which was regrettably rude. Mr. Keene, can you please provide links to the sources that tell of multiple novels that feature Dawn of the Dead characters? I’m only aware of the one and its subsequent revision, stripped of the characters. But if there are others, I would like you to help me out here. So, the links would be great. I guess I just want to find out if I was speaking out of ignorance. If so, I sincerely apologize for the rudeness of my posts. Thanks!
Can’t go back to edit posts… (RE: “if so” from the last sentence of my last post.) No, irregardless, I do again apologize for the rudeness of my previous posts.
I’m dissapointed.
Dear Concerned,
The very first thing you see at the top of this site is that Brian is on vacation with his family for the entire month of June and into July, and isn’t responding to anything here. And yet you want him to give you links to shit and then you bitch when he doesn’t immediately drop everything and do that. In the words of Samuel L Jackson “GOOGLE MOTHERFUCKER”. I’ve seen the reports Brian referenced. They were on the Fangoria forums and Horror World and elsewhere. Jesus…
My apologies. Didn’t see the notice at the top. Will check out the Fangoria forums. Thanks.
Word of warning.
Looks like he’s at it again with STFU Publishing (http://stfupublishing.com/) While I’m not entirely sure this is his doing, one of the books I checked on amazon before work listed him as the editor, when I got off and ready to post this here, his name was removed but a preview at one of the books lists all his imprints.
The book covers are similar in style and cheap appearance, It looks like his laying low with this. Notice his name anywhere?
If I’m wrong and this is a new and budding imprint, I am sorry. For some reason, I have a feeling about this one.
So…after the debacle back in May Anthony Giangregorio emailed me to say that he was pulling my story from GNOMES OF THE DEAD and that I was released from the contract. But…after speaking with people at Amazon today, it’s clear that he’s still selling the book with my name included as an author and my story still there.
That is, I believe, theft, fraud and copyright infringement.
I believe it’s time to get cranky and call my lawyer.
Nail his ass to the wall, Jonathan. And of course, you know the guns of the F.U.K.U. are at your disposal, should you require a legion.
Antphoney Giangregorio’s behavior is digusting.
Sometimes threats work which I find scary.
I want everyone to speak up to this low life so he cannot continue his atrocious behaviour.