horridus

In theory? No, he isn't. In practice? Given that I'm not even certain that Tails is really Sonic's sidekick these days, I'm not sure I'd call Knuckles a sidekick if only because he really seems to have been sidelined to something much less active within the games along with virtually everyone else, at least until Mania came along.

Huh. So you are correct. Judging by the giant quiff on Geoff's head and the bright flash, I'm gonna assume that's the second page of The Storm, wherein the redesign transition whatever thing happens.

Kudos to that artist for perfectly mimicking Penders' particular method of coloration and shading. And we now have a teensy bit of insight into what went wrong exactly. So much for my theory about him botching it on purpose. So. There you have it. It's meant to be Sonic as a 'real' creature, hence why the picture still has a flat, 2D and utterly cartoony face while the rest of his body is a warped mishmash of both. Evidently before this point, Sonic had no teeth. Who knew.

Indeed. The fine advantage of knowing that no matter what he does, the only thing that gives him any kind of popularity has been and always will be Sonic, and if that means becoming a sideshow attraction who can't even manage to draw the character decently despite YEARS of exposure, then so be it. This seems less like an advantage he will press and more like a confirmation that despite his best efforts, he can't escape the shadow of Sonic. It's the Sonic stuff that sells big at these events (which he paid Archie to get), not his LSC products, and it's the terrible Sonic drawing that gets a lot of likes and comments, even though most of them are negative. This feels less like something he can use to his advantage and verification that he really doesn't have anything else going for him. It's particularly loathesome, as Penders has done things like try and claim credit for the BUnnie and Antoine ship, which was started by Angelo DeCesare, while at the same time dismissing the man's work as 'furry Archie' within the same breath as admitting he never actually read any of DeCesare's stories (a particularly astounding accusation given what his own work would later become on the book). He's careful to bring up Gallagher and Bollers these days, but he never elaborates on what he liked about their work or why they were important- he paid so little attention to Gallagher's work that he repeated the more-than-overused-by-then 'Sonic is Framed' plot point in Endgame despite Gallagher doing likewise mere months earlier, and he continues to deny his past feud with Bollers despite having accused the man of trying to undermine him and blatantly admitting that his goal in taking over afterward was to reverse things to being like how they were around the time he left. It's pretty astounding that Penders has gotten to the point where it's not enough that he was once the most prolific writer for Sonic, but that he MUST be regarded as THE best, most daring, most innovative writer EVAR for the book.

Give it time. Sooner or later So'nix or whatevs will blight the eyes of everyone unfortunate it enough to witness it, much like this picture has done.

As I've said, this is still too toony to actually BE the inevitable Sonic-Ripoff for the book, and Penders' words here make it clear that this is indeed meant to be Sonic proper. While what happened to his friend is infortunate and its sweet he made time for his son, I'm not really sure how either of those things excuse the fact that he failed so miserably to draw a character whom his career was built on.

Nah, if Penders has been consistent about anything regarding the aesthetic of his project it's that everyone has more humanlike proportions now. This... abomination... is still too toon-y to properly be the 'Blue-Quilled Erinacinae' he mentioned.

No need- just edit the post and get rid of the picture.

Ooookay, that's kinda veering into 'Mocking HIm For the Sake of It'. The Sonic Picture was one thing given that he's spent years working on Sonic so he should be able to AT LEAST draw the guy decently. What say we just steer the conversation away from this for now- his lousiness as an artist is self-evident.

Because at some point, that became his go-to method for drawing eyebrows on Mobians...

I'm not yet unwilling to abandon the theory that he drew it like this on purpose just to screw with people. I know I've seen him draw better Sonic stuff than *this*.

I myself am just staggered by the implication that despite years of exposure to Sonic in both classical and modern designs, he still can't really draw the character. The realistic proportions and the toony proportions are mixed in the most unappealing, uncanny-inducing way possibe. The eyes are way, way too big and shiney, and somehow, while the rest of his body is shaded as to imply dimension, the face remains flat and toony. This is without getting into the fact that the hands have only four fingers, the shoes lack buckles and he completely botched the quills. This whole thing is like a truly nightmarish attempt to transfer the design traits of Sonic from SatAM into the aesthetic of the modern era while trying to simultaneously make it more realistic, and failing on all conceivable fronts. This is without getting into the fact that he's still clinging to design traits from the old show that haven't been in vogue for nearly two decades now. Guy really cannot move on.

Maybe he fudged it out of spite? I hope so. Cause if not... yyyyyikes.

And we got some small scale stuff about the App, mostly verifying what VEDJ-F told us. Given the kind of 'talent' Penders has attracted in the past, this... is gonna get REALLY cringe-y.

Given that he tried to sue SEGA? Yeah, it's all but guaranteed. Contrary to what he says, they're not gonna negotiate, and they're not gonna permit him to reprint Knuckles stories. They've officially got zero motive to have anything to do with him anymore, and its entirely his own fault.