Today one of our team noticed a small inconsistency that needed to be checked out. We've already listed Ken "Whit" Whitman's earliest "companies" as "Whit Publications, Inc." now we know that Ken "Whit" Whitman likes to make up companies and unfortunately the online searchable records don't go back that far, but we suspect that "Whit Publications, Inc." is another false front, just like D20 Entertainment LLC.
The tip of was a brief mention of the Mutazoids game, which actually has a Wikipedia page. The page lists Mutazoids as being produced by "Whit Productions, Inc." While that could be a typo, it is difficult to think that the cover of the game is a typo as well.
Definitely not a typo.....especially when you see one of the old Mutazoids ads. This ad, interestingly enough, came a page before a review for the game in White Wolf #20.
We just don't see Ken "Whit" Whitman actually incorporating one company in 1989 and then another just a couple years later, at least based on his current "company" of D20 Entertainment LLC.
Adding "Inc." or "LLC" doesn't legitimize your business....unless you actually incorporate. It actually is illegal to represent yourself using these terms if you haven't actually incorporated! Of course we should give Ken "Whit" Whitman the benefit of the doubt that he did incorporate....twice, but as of today we don't have any proof of this.
We've updated the Pseudonyms page appropriately to add in this new entry.
I have a copy of Mutazoids, 2nd edition.
ReplyDeleteIt's complete crap. I picked it up at a used book store in the mid nineties cause it was a couple of bucks. For that price, I could burn it and get $2 worth of heat.
Part of me is thinking of putting it up for auction (like at GenCon) with the winner getting to destroy it in the manner they prefer. Proceeds would go towards GenCon's charity partner.
There is an eery resemblance to FASA's Shadowrun (1989), first edition. Could anyone comment on the similarity?
DeleteThat is an interesting question. I believe Mutazoids was being developed in the same time frame as Shadowrun with a different premise based on everyone being a policeman whose duty was to hunt down the mutants. I always thought it was influenced from the X-Men comics.
DeleteWhen we played Mutazoids, the first thing players wanted to do was turn the original premise on its head and roleplay the mutants instead of the police. In the case of our group its was similar to the movie Alien Nation with our adventuring group including both.
Whit Publications also produced the Ralph Bakshi's Wizards RPG.
ReplyDeletehttps://rpggeek.com/rpgpublisher/9648/whit-publications
http://www.wow.com/wiki/Ken_Whitman
Also did a WWF game back in the day...
ReplyDeleteAnd screwed that up as well.
DeleteKen also sold Bibles of all things in 1998-1999. For a while there he was pimping Fantasy T-shirts.
ReplyDeleteFunny story. Years ago at the Chessex Open Houser (Game Distributor) in Fort Wayne they would give each company a little rubber stamp with their logo on it and an ink pad. The purpose was to stamp retailer sheets to verify they had come by your booth and listened to your pitch. At the end of the show they would ask for everyone to turn in their stamps.
Except for Ken Whitman. At one Open house in 1998 when asking for stamps the announcer added, "Except for you, Ken. You'll have a different company next year any way). Even in 1998 it was an industry joke that the guy started up a new company every few years. Some things never change.
Also - and I'm just asking questions - has anyone ever seen Kenny and Gareth-Michael Skarka in the same room together?
ReplyDeleteA half a dozen email and a phone call to Kenny asking for my promised refund has resulted in nothng. He will not respond to email nor answer phones.
ReplyDeleteSo, in deperatin, I sent him a Facebook message, and was blocked by him within minutes.
Nice to see he hasn't changed.
Honestly? Why did you think he would? He's been ripping people off for over 20 years. It's who he is.
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