Difference between revisions of "Scott Malcomson"

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Scott Malcomson

Scott Malcomson is a furry artist, also known by his unicorn fursona, Roy Calbeck. Not only he is known for his artwork (much of which is on Yerf), but also for being the founder and chief organizer of the furry convention, ZonieCon, as a past member of the Burned Furs movement, and being a perennial candidate for governor of Arizona under the Reform Party ticket.

Military service

Scott is a MilFur veteran, having served with honor with the US Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment as an M1A1 tank crewman during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

Introduction to the fandom

The discovery of a wealth of anthropomorphic comics in the quarter bins of an El Paso comic book shop was Scott's introduction to furry fandom in early 1989. As this was during his tour of duty in the Army, he found the extra cash needed to amass a truly impressive comic collection from the bins, but found that virtually none of the books were still being published, their creators had all folded their tents when black-and-white comics went bust in the late '80s.

A horse fan at heart, Scott was gratified to find that Jim Groat's GraphXPress, publisher of Red Shetland, was still up and running... or, more properly, limping. Nonetheless, it was still putting out issues, and Scott became determined to see that this one survivor of the "B&W Bust" did not go under.

He struck up a correspondence with Jim, eventually meeting at the 1990 San Diego Comic Con where he pledged $1,000 to the Red Shetland Animation Project, which had the lofty aim of getting the feisty war-mare into a Saturday morning cartoon slot. Eventually he was invited to Jim's home in Tucson, where he became a regular visitor to (and over the years, a member of) the infamous Tucson Mob.

GraphXpress/Rising Phoenix

Throughout his Army tour, and four years of college following his discharge, Scott continued to assist GraphXpress financially, going so far once as to attempt to create an umbrella corporation backed by "angel capital" in order to give a hand up to not only GraphXpress but also dozens of other independent artists and small-press publishers.

This attempt, under the working title of Rising Phoenix Comics Group, came close to succeeding: every group of venture capitalists he made his pitch to liked the idea and wanted to see it developed. However, none of them was willing to be the first investor, and Scott was not able to raise the necessary minimum initial capital needed to trigger larger investments. "RPCG" was ultimately shelved when his financial ability to pursue further contacts ran dry.

Scott's art

Joy Riddle is the person to blame for Scott becoming a furry artist, if anyone. He had already become involved in interactive storytelling on the BBSes of the day --- which preceded the browser-driven Internet --- and at one point, Joy demanded that Scott join the Dallas Brawl. Home to some fifty cartoonists, "the Brawl" was where their characters all interacted...usually to the effect of throwing pies or nuclear warheads at each other.

Scott protested, citing his lousy art skills, at which Joy scoffed, remarking that not only did Scott's even lousier puns belong in the "Brawl", but that one of the major players drew a stick figure as a main persona. Excuses exhausted, Scott submitted an introductory cartoon to Mel. White, the editor. At some point he became a member of Rowrbrazzle, and for a brief period contributed to the fandom's original interactive zap'zine Bizarre Wars.

Fursona

Roy Calbeck

Scott's choice of character ("Roy Calbeck") was directly meant to be a foil to Joy's "Harry Horsemage". Where Harry was genteel, self-deprecating, and a clove-smoker, Roy was an ex-military roustabout alcoholic who enjoyed the odd cigar and a hot game of poker. Roy's name, and basic background, was taken from the BattleTech universe and a write-up of a fictional mercenary unit called the Eridani Light Horse.

Roy has served for over a decade as Scott's preferred role-playing alter-ego, both in and out of furry fandom, and in fact became the only furry character to become a canon part of the Battletech universe when Scott's independent treatment of the history of the ELH was picked up by FanPro and published as official material on the ClassicBattleTech.com website from 2001 - 2005.

Scott's fursona on Second Life is named Roy Kerensky.

Conventions

Scott was the Chairman and prime mover of ZonieCon during its short-lived run from 1998-2002. He is considering resurrecting the convention pending sufficient funds.

Political activities

Scott obtained 8,371 votes in 1998 on a $1,000 Reform Party campaign by participating in numerous debate forums including the final televised debates. Arizona's biggest newspaper, The Arizona Republic, lauded Scott's straightforward approach to politics, saying "...his inability to obfuscate does not portend a bright political future". His campaign motto was, and is, "Ethics, Economy, Education".

His no-budget campaign failed, but proved to party members his commitment and debating skills. When Pat Buchanan and his followers took over the Reform Party in 2000, Scott became an outspoken opponent of Buchanan, conducting research and writing articles denouncing the conduct of the Buchanan campaign, such as the attempt to stuff the primary ballot box with 500,000 non-qualifying ballots. He served as a Delegate to the 2000 National Convention, representing Arizona.

In 2001, Scott was elected Secretary of the Arizona Reform Party. He represented the state when the party's anti-Buchanan leadership met in Kansas City on the St. Patrick's Day weekend, and was one of the key contributors to the "Drive Out the Snakes" resolution which united the party's normally-fractious factions in opposition to the remaining Buchanan forces.

When the party held its National Convention in 2002, Scott once again represented Arizona as a Delegate, speaking out several times on the floor to denounce Buchananist rule-breaking, and call for a return to the party's original ideals of streamlined government and fiscal responsibility. The Convention ousted the last of the Buchanan holdouts at the national level.

In 2002, Malcomson was cited for a traffic violation while campaigning from a vacant lot, under a city ordinance intended to prevent panhandlers from using the street medians to hawk wares and services. However, in court, the judge ruled that the median was part of the "right of way", which also included the road itself and the sidewalks to either side. Simply standing by the side of the road with a sign was sufficient cause for citation. Scott chose not to appeal the case and paid the $100 fine.^[1]. He impressed the Tucson Weekly with his debate presence^[2], but failed to make the 2002 ballot. On November 8, 2006, Malcomson announced his intention to make another gubernatorial run in 2012, as well as his plans for state legislature candidacy in 2008^[3].

See also

• Ladder Trick, a column which mentioned Malcomson in the context of his Reform party candidacy.

References

1. ↑ Tucsonweekly.com
2. ↑ The Tucsonweekly.com comments on Malcomson's debate, and its impression on the assembled crowd.
3. ↑ Scott's official "Tossing his hat In the ring" LiveJournal post

External links

This person is a WikiFur user: Calbeck's user page Calbeck's talk page

• Malcontent Central - Scott's home page
• Yerf
  • Scott on ArtSpots's Yerf Historical Archive
  • Scott's gallery on Yerf (Yerf down)
• Scott's gallery on VCL
• Scott's gallery on deviantART
• Windmills and Lances - Scott's LiveJournal