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Ken Penders Scrapped Sonic Movie


DaddlerTheDalek

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In regards to Penders' artwork, I would be more willing to forgive it if he were strictly a writer and only a writer, but he has branched out into artistic endeavors before, having drawn comics and done work for pitches and things. With him putting his stuff into the professional ring like that, I see no reason why his work shouldn't be criticized, especially since it is deeply flawed on a fundamental level.

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Ogilvie, saying "you can't talk about Penders not being able to draw since he's a writer!!" when the man makes a living of drawing as well doesn't work.

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Glad this never saw the light of day. Especially given Penders' level of infamy/reputation within the fandom. Given the sneaky, backstabbing things he's done since this pitch, I am glad this never got green lit/made so as not to further add to his already overinflated sense of worth for his paid fan fiction/fan characters. Not that I'm in any sense of the word mad since the comics have been in need of a scrubbing, but I find it jarring that legal action was taken over what are essentially paid fan characters.

 

Good for him that he gets to keep copyright over Julie-Su, Lara-Su, and the other fuck-all echidna Star Wars skins he claims ownership to.

 

I also probably shouldn't be ragging on the artwork since I'm somewhat of a lazy bee when it comes to mine, but damn. It's pretty bad, especially given the fact that the teaser profile images for his Lara Su Chronicles/Fan character graphic novels are of similar quality. I could go into several issues with it that could use improvement (i.e. proportions, perspective, etc.), but I'll simply settle with the coloring; I think he thought he'd try his hand at digital art, and this was the result. He must have gotten a hold of a full trial copy of Adobe Photoshop and went absolutely crazy with the Color Burn/Dodge feature.

 

Then again, I'm saying that with the mindset that he's been drawing consistently since this failed pitch. You can usually see gradual signs of improvement over the course of several pieces of art in chronological order. That doesn't seem to be the case here.

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Ogilvie, saying "you can't talk about Penders not being able to draw since he's a writer!!" when the man makes a living of drawing as well doesn't work.

 

You can make a living off of it and still produce nothing but shit. This guy is a perfect example of that (oh the things you come across looking for gigs on craigslist...).

 

I don't agree with the "well, he's a writer so his art is supposed to suck lol" sentiment because it's bullshit. Tell that Tristan Jones (aka T-Rex Jones), who is both a great writer and illustrator. Penders's problem is that, as VizardJeffhog pointed out, he refuses to get any better than he is. The crap he drew in 2002 is the same crap he's drawing now, and it's the same shit he'd been shoveling out since the 90s (or earlier). And those efforts lead people to think he's too self-absorbed to give a shit. It baffles me that no one tells him "dude, you really should brush up on your drawing" or if someone has, he's obviously ignored them. Probably because he has some lapdogs (like that BobR cat) who will happily defend him and his work and pat him on the back, no matter what monstrosity he unleashes onto the public next.

 

EDIT: Though I suppose I shouldn't talk; I know I'm not anything special either. But then, I try to learn and improve just a little because I do want this to be my living and I do want people to like what I do and not mock me at every turn. Silly me, I care.

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actually Ken can draw well he only sucks at drawing cartoon furries. i heard that during comic con he drew a well detailed super man and sketch of a guy sitting right next to him

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actually Ken can draw well he only sucks at drawing cartoon furries. i heard that during comic con he drew a well detailed super man and sketch of a guy sitting right next to him

 

Actually, I think he only inked that. Penders is a competent inker, if nothing else. There's also his Star Trek work, but most of that is from probably from photo reference. Penders's hand can't produce anything from his imagination. Just look at all the non-furry characters in the Sonic comic he tried to draw or any of his scenes, there's nothing particularly well done or interesting about any of it; his layouts are kinda dull, his characters are stiff and boring, and his backgrounds can be a little empty at times. Hell, there was instance where he has Spaz draw Sonic on a page for him, though he drew everything else, and the Spaz!Sonic is the only thing worth looking at on that whole page (SSS#2 "Brave New World"). At least that's the impression I get from most of his work, anyway.

 

EDIT: To go off of my last post, I just want to say that my criticisms (though probably a little too vitriolic) are aimed exclusively at Penders's output as an artist. I'm not throwing stones at Penders the Man, because I don't know anything about him personally (though the whole legal mess doesn't paint a positive picture of him, I admit).

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From what I have seen, Ken has shown that he cannot take criticism

Really? Because based on what I've seen, he's more or less responded to critics with the civil "it's your choice whether you buy and read my stories or not" while going on to delude himself with the idea that it really doesn't matter because the haters are outweighed by the heaps of fans (about 3 or 4 people) who are sticking by him.

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Really? Because based on what I've seen, he's more or less responded to critics with the civil "it's your choice whether you buy and read my stories or not" while going on to delude himself with the idea that it really doesn't matter because the haters are outweighed by the heaps of fans (about 3 or 4 people) who are sticking by him.

 

And aren't those numbers like the complete opposite? That's at least what I've always heard.

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And aren't those numbers like the complete opposite? That's at least what I've always heard.

That BobR dude makes at least one. And I've seen a couple of others on his forum admit to being interested.

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Really? Because based on what I've seen, he's more or less responded to critics with the civil "it's your choice whether you buy and read my stories or not" while going on to delude himself with the idea that it really doesn't matter because the haters are outweighed by the heaps of fans (about 3 or 4 people) who are sticking by him.

That's still not taking criticism.

You generally have three responses. One is to take the criticism. Another is to go "ok sure and ignore it". That's not taking criticism. The third is attacking the critic. That's also not taking criticism.

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Hey so..

 

First page of this topic mentioned something about a few other Sonic Movie Pitches.

 

Anyone mind sharing a bit of info?

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 To go off of my last post, I just want to say that my criticisms (though probably a little too vitriolic) are aimed exclusively at Penders's output as an artist. I'm not throwing stones at Penders the Man, because I don't know anything about him personally (though the whole legal mess doesn't paint a positive picture of him, I admit).

 

I'm not judging Penders by who he is either, I don't know him so I couldn't give less of a shit. At the same time, I do agree that he doesn't improve his skills and doesn't even try to. I'm not gonna slam his artwork too hard, as I'm starting out doing an indie comic finally and have little ground here, and I know my work's not too pretty yet but I keep learning what I can improve on and what designs can work for future projects. Penders just doesn't give a shit, expects people to not see how painfully hideous his work is, and ignores the fact that people find it pretty repulsive.

 

And Zaysho, I'm willing to bet someone did tell him to brush up on his skills and it either a. rang on deaf ears, or b. Penders just doesn't give a fuck as you said.

 

 

Hey so..

 

First page of this topic mentioned something about a few other Sonic Movie Pitches.

 

Anyone mind sharing a bit of info?

 

Have heard any since the Sonic Fan "Film".

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Really? Because based on what I've seen, he's more or less responded to critics with the civil "it's your choice whether you buy and read my stories or not" while going on to delude himself with the idea that it really doesn't matter because the haters are outweighed by the heaps of fans (about 3 or 4 people) who are sticking by him.

 

That's still glossing over it and handling it with kiddie gloves. In art, you need critique if you want to get better and improve. I don't know his background, but if he had any type of schooling for art, critique is something that should have been ingrained into him from day one. It helps you become more aware of both your strengths and weaknesses so that you can improve. Getting complimented all the time and/or making yourself complacent with the knowledge you have fans who will support you regardless of your work's quality is simply shutting yourself off to that. 

 

Granted there's a huge difference between full out flaming the guy because you just don't like him or what he's done and legitimately trying to point out areas in need of improvement in his work. But from what I've seen on his forum, he's fairly content with associating the latter and the former as one in the same.  It's that mentality, which I've seen in both fairly decent and crappy artists alike, that rubs a lot of folks the wrong way.

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I'm currently trying to wrap my head around who he could've possibly struck a licensing deal with.

 

Poor, poor Lara-Su... You had so many possibilities and now they're all gone.

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I hope he's ready to taste bitter disappointment when all of five people order whatever underwhelming thing it is >.<

Sigh it's the sad truth it's going to be the lost ones all over again. The only people that are going to read this are reviewers(feel bad for whoever is doing that) his fans on his forum which are very little and some fans of the comics that are going to read this out of sheer novelty just too see why he went through all this drama to make this. I just wished be did something like summer wars and mighty no.9 instead of this

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I just wished be did something like summer wars and mighty no.9 instead of this

 

Yeah, I still think it would've served him better to just forget the whole thing and create something new. Hell, it might turn out to better than this now vague, sorta-Sonic-but-not-really thing. But, well, his ego won't allow that sort of thing (no, Penders, your "struggle" is nothing like Jack Kirby's, get over yourself). I guess we just have to let him play in his personal sandbox with his precious toys he doesn't wish to share with anyone anymore. His legacy on the Archie comic is essentially dead (not counting reprints) just because he's too lazy to create something wholly original (or vaguely similar, but with more potential to stand out as its own thing, as with your examples--if I remember correctly, Summer Wars was essentially a re-tooled Digimon concept, right?).

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The fascinating thing about the Lara Su Chronicles (aside from how much worse she looks design wise than she did in Archie even when he was writing it) is that it is legally required to be a 100% distinct entity from the Archie comics, but the entirety of the backstory and world building is carried over from it except when it comes to anything using characters he didn't design. It reminds me of those Bond movies following Thunderball where they couldn't use the Ernst Stalvo Blofeld character, but they stopped just short of directly referencing entire plot summaries of the movies he was in as well as having the movies carry over directly from the events he committed.

The comic is almost certainly going to be terrible, but it will be so in such a unique way that it almost (but not really) seems worth looking into.

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The comic is almost certainly going to be terrible, but it will be so in such a unique way that it almost (but not really) seems worth looking into.

 

I fully expect that all of the people who purchase or read it otherwise will only do so out of curiosity after seeing this legal shitstorm and lulz, and not because they're supportive of his work.

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I fully expect that all of the people who purchase or read it otherwise will only do so out of curiosity after seeing this legal shitstorm and lulz, and not because they're supportive of his work.

 

Yoho, yoho, a pirate's life for me...~

 

Yeah right, like I'd waste hard drive space on this sack of crap.

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If people have looked on his forum out of curiosity or seen the preview section of one of the scripts he posted...you may not be so curious anymore.

It was terrible, Chaos Emeralds turned into some kind of generator/battery/energy source of a non descript nature. Knuckles almost being a side character named the "Praetorian" or some such. Vague references to the things he can't use to try and put some sort of semblance in it. And as people know...the art he's gunna end up using...ugh. Even out of the worst kind of morbid curiousity I wouldn't buy it.

Besides if my curiousity really got that bad I would just sneak a peak at the copy whoever the one person that buys it and no doubt ends up uploading it to the net for lol's, provides.

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The fascinating thing about the Lara Su Chronicles (aside from how much worse she looks design wise than she did in Archie even when he was writing it) is that it is legally required to be a 100% distinct entity from the Archie comics, but the entirety of the backstory and world building is carried over from it except when it comes to anything using characters he didn't design. It reminds me of those Bond movies following Thunderball where they couldn't use the Ernst Stalvo Blofeld character, but they stopped just short of directly referencing entire plot summaries of the movies he was in as well as having the movies carry over directly from the events he committed.

 

It doesn't seem to be too different to the hoops Ian Flynn jumped through with the Archie comics, when referring to characters like Nega or Penders own characters.

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