Who's Who - Patrick Oliver

Knowledge and Scholarship
Who's Who - Patrick Oliver
By Hervé St-Louis
August 7, 2012 - 13:53

Writing this series of articles on people who have come and gone can be a bit depressive since most of them have left for whatever reasons, often unknown to me. Well, finally I get to write something more positive thanks to Patrick Oliver. Patrick approached me about starting a new column on Comics to Film News for ComicBookBin. We of course had always had comics to film material, but I don’t think we ever had it concentrated in one place. Usually, I don’t like to give new columns to untested writers. That usually blows back in my face. But Patrick, I’m happy to say still writes his column to this day and more. Of course, when building the column for Patrick, I had enough material from our past to pull in and beef up the section for him before he could post his first article.

Patrick is one of the most polite and enthusiastic person I’ve ever met. He seems a bit shy though. One thing I have to say about Patrick and that speaks volume about his person, is that I haven’t been the easiest or nicest of editors/publisher with him. I haven’t complained about contents, but I have given him a hard time as recently as last month, and I didn’t apologize. Were Patrick the resentful type, he could have packed away his stuff and left. Instead Patrick defended himself politely and continued to contribute to ComicBookBin. I like to think that after five years, Patrick knows me well, or as well as some of the other writers or some of my friends. I like calling myself J. Jonah Jameson these days. I’m really like that fictitious character sometimes when I’m angry at writers for a story I don’t feel they’ve covered well or when I don’t think they’ve covered at all.

Patrick is from the United Kingdom and is steady at what he does. His section Comics to Film News is of course one of the most popular on the site. When I ask myself what I’ve done wrong to lose so many writers over the years, sometimes I should pause and remember that I still have great contributors like Patrick who have seen the worse side of me and still contribute for ComicBookBin. Instead or wondering why some guy I’ve barely exchanged three emails with has left after writing five articles, I should wonder why guys like Patrick are still at ComicBookBin and what I can do to make it a better place for them. Patrick, five years is a feat. You’ve been here longer than most. High five my man! And my apologies for bursting out on you (although you know it will happen again as soon as the opportunity comes ;) )

Who's Who @ComicBookBin is a feature celebrating the 10th anniversary of ComicBookBin where publisher Hervé St-Louis features writers past and present that have contributed to ComicBookBin over the years.

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