Megathread The Lara-Su Chronicles and Ken Penders topic - READ PAGE 164, POST 4096

[horridus]

Oh, and yeah, I'm new here. Hi.

 

Welcome aboard! 

 

And to cover your points about the folly of the conflict and the nonsensicalness.... Penders does not think any of this through, and his attempts to explain only result in things becoming more nonsensical. When you actually read things through it becomes plainly apparrent that developments and details were not thought out ahead of time. The revelation of the Guardian-Legion feud in particular is riddled with this; Knuckles didn't seem to know who they were in his debut, so why would Locke not tell him about the Legion and deliberately misinform him about the true fate of his people and his family? Where were these Guardians when Robotnik was taking over? Why do they continue to sit back despite the fact that twice, Robotnik threatened the existence of the island itself and had conquered Mobius? 

 

Simply put, a lot of these ideas were ultimately spur of the moment, and the result of Penders ultimately being a very plot driven writer. For him it's about the story and getting the characters to it, and thanks to his own lack of skill, he see's no problem bulldozing over the logical fallacies and plotholes created by his ideas. 

[biznizz]

Oh, didn't you know horridus?

 

The reason the Brotherhood didn't do anything about Robotnik was because if they did, then they'd have to solve ALL the world's problems, because they are the chosen species above all the others.

 

Because if they ever DID treat Robotnik like a threat, then the Brotherhood would eat that Eggman for breakfast, just like the Dark Legion would be able to.

Because the only REAL threatening Robotnik turned himself into Dr. Droid and threatened the Multiverse with his army of brainwashed Lost Ones and Super SWATbots.

 

Thus is the logic of the Pen.

[horridus]

Oh, didn't you know horridus?

 

The reason the Brotherhood didn't do anything about Robotnik was because if they did, then they'd have to solve ALL the world's problems, because they are the chosen species above all the others.

 

Because if they ever DID treat Robotnik like a threat, then the Brotherhood would eat that Eggman for breakfast, just like the Dark Legion would be able to.

Because the only REAL threatening Robotnik turned himself into Dr. Droid and threatened the Multiverse with his army of brainwashed Lost Ones and Super SWATbots.

 

Thus is the logic of the Pen.

 

Oh yes, how silly of me; intervening to save the existence of the island they live on, well, that would just send the wrong message right there! Oh and of course the terrorist organization that hasn't been able to conquer Angel Island in over 400 years would tootally whoop the butt of Robotnik, who conquered a whole planet and only really lost it because of his nephew's scheming! 

 

Truly, The Pendejo Knows.

[QuantumEdge]

I would so love to see someone call him out on all these flaws in person.  With Twitter, or his forums, he has all the time in the world to drum up some pathetic, face palm inducing excuse that only makes the flaw even more stupid.  Seeing him handle it in reality would remove that virtual shield he uses to defend himself (albeit very poorly).  Let's face it though, any answer from that sort of situation would be hasty and, most likely, thought up on the spot (no matter how much he'll convince you "it was all planned") and possibly worse an explanation to these faults than anything he'd say online. 

 

In other, more positive news, welcome to the hate and judging wagon Monkey Destruction Switch

[biznizz]

If anyone tried to point out his flaws in person (with or without someone filming him) at a con, odds are he'd just call the con security and claim harrassment; that is if he didn't just ignore you entirely.

 

He's the kind of person who would do anything to avoid having to justify himself for anything others consider 'mistakes'. Like have photos taken of his constantly empty booth, which is why he whores the hell out of people taking photos of his standees on Twitter and claim huge success.

 

That Ken tried to get a photo of his empty booth erased and threatened to call security to do so was one of the few things that we believed that dolphin guy 'reported' back during the Florida Supercon with the reveal of the Lien-Diva standee and the giant poster with Fuckles blatantly on display.

 

EDIT: Or did Dolphin Guy claim it was because Pen said he wanted money for a standee photo that was caught with the empty booth photo? Either way.

Edited April 9, 2015 by biznizz

[Sunwalker]

That Ken tried to get a photo of his empty booth erased and threatened to call security to do so was one of the few things that we believed that dolphin guy 'reported' back during the Florida Supercon with the reveal of the Lien-Diva standee and the giant poster with Fuckles blatantly on display.

I don't know whether this got lost or not due to the forum rollback, but I remember that we pretty much concluded that this story was fake. When the person who presented it here got inquired to show a proof that he was in the con, he got a lot of excuses for not being able to get any pictures of of the con, he was even asked for a picture of his hotel room or some ticket that proves his travel. He kept making excuses until he just vanished from the thread.

At the same time Ken himself was posting pictures of the con, which undermined the claim that he wanted no pictures.

[Gabz Girl]

Yeah most of the stuff "dolphin guy" said was fishy, especially since he didn't even give proof.

 

One thing that is true however is that some guy from Sonic Retro tried to get an interview with Pendurrs at the booth, but he wouldn't have it! Nope not even a small question answered.

 

This reminds me, I wonder if anyone actually came up to him at any of these cons and straight up asked "Is this supposed to be a Knuckles the echidna spin off comic?"

[Forte-Metallix]

Yeah most of the stuff "dolphin guy" said was fishy, especially since he didn't even give proof.

 

One thing that is true however is that some guy from Sonic Retro tried to get an interview with Pendurrs at the booth, but he wouldn't have it! Nope not even a small question answered.

 

This reminds me, I wonder if anyone actually came up to him at any of these cons and straight up asked "Is this supposed to be a Knuckles the echidna spin off comic?"

 

I see what you did there.

 

But in all seriousness, I wouldn't put it past Penders to pull something like that. He's petty enough to chew people out if they so much as provide a hint that Lara-Su Chronicles isn't the unfathomably-popular hit he's making it out to be. I mean, we're talking about a guy who'd rather spend his time defending himself against criticisms from random people on the Internet than actually finishing his product- much less making it good.

[Nerfuffle]

I saw a familiar pose on ATFW. Nothing scandalous but I wasn’t sure what to do with this information.

(Apologies if it's been brought up before)

 

 

[Disonoid 3000]

Eh. I think that's stretching a bit; it's a fairly generic action pose, and considering there are thousands and thousands of comics out there I'm willing to bet that pretty much anything is going to match something in one of them.

 

( And her right arm and left hand are different from the pose, for the record, but that's fairly easy to explain away within the accusation.)

[Verb & Noun]

Why hello, Nerfuffle. That's an interesting thing brought to the table. I don't know if it's similar enough to count (it's a fairly generic pose) but at the same time I don't think there's any reason he may not actually own that comic.

 

I think it's a benefit of the doubt situation here. Usually his thievery is much more readily apparent if you're familiar with the source material (Ookla's steed* from Thundarr the Barbarian, the Thunderbirds plane, so many elements from Superman)...

 

 

 

*probably because most of the designs for the Thundarr show were created by Jack Kirby. Actually, this reminds me. Pendejo has once claimed to have taken inspiration for his direction for Knuckles from Conan- in that he wanted it to be an 'epic' chronicling Knux's life from birth to death or something like that- it's been awhile since I've read it. I wonder if that means there are an assload of Conan 'references' we're missing because we're not familiar with the subject.

[biznizz]

@Sunwalker and Gabz-Girl

I recall the breaking point in our suspension of disbelief over Dolphin Boy was when he claimed he bought two $20 copies of Pen's Star Trek comics, got into another scuffle.with him trying to take another discreet photo then failed to show any proof he was there.

My point was that he managed to fool everyone during the first day or so, just BECAUSE it wasnt beyond the realm of possibility for Pen to actually act like that. He just seems to have that superior-than-thou attitude over EVERYTHING.

[horridus]

I don't know whether this got lost or not due to the forum rollback, but I remember that we pretty much concluded that this story was fake. When the person who presented it here got inquired to show a proof that he was in the con, he got a lot of excuses for not being able to get any pictures of of the con, he was even asked for a picture of his hotel room or some ticket that proves his travel. He kept making excuses until he just vanished from the thread.

At the same time Ken himself was posting pictures of the con, which undermined the claim that he wanted no pictures.

 

Aye, I remember that; I'm the guy who brought up his story didn't add up.

 

That being said, I did hear that at his various con appearances he didn't get neary as much traffic as he was he was trying to convince people of, to the point where he would leave it for extended periods of time. While he might not have acted like a jackass at those cons, he still tried to present things as though his work was a smash hit that somehow vindicated the various criticisms hurled his way, despite not actually verifying that any of his Lara-Su stuff was bought and showing that people were only purchasing his Sonic materials. 

 

And as has been mentioned... it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility with the guy. Years and years ago he was evidently very nasty to a bunch of fan-artists who presented their stuff to him, looking for pointers on how to get in to Archie Comics, as well as repeatedly tried to discourage Ian Flynn back before he was hired on, claiming it was really hard to get into Archie (while he himself got in easy and stayed in easy). 

 

Fact is, it's difficult to really gauge what would be 'too much' coming from the guy, given that he has *entrenched* himself into the Tyson Zone by this point. 

[Nerfuffle]

Eh. I think that's stretching a bit; it's a fairly generic action pose, and considering there are thousands and thousands of comics out there I'm willing to bet that pretty much anything is going to match something in one of them.

 

( And her right arm and left hand are different from the pose, for the record, but that's fairly easy to explain away within the accusation.)

 

 

Why hello, Nerfuffle. That's an interesting thing brought to the table. I don't know if it's similar enough to count (it's a fairly generic pose) but at the same time I don't think there's any reason he may not actually own that comic.

 

I think it's a benefit of the doubt situation here. Usually his thievery is much more readily apparent if you're familiar with the source material (Ookla's steed* from Thundarr the Barbarian, the Thunderbirds plane, so many elements from Superman)...

 

 

 

*probably because most of the designs for the Thundarr show were created by Jack Kirby. Actually, this reminds me. Pendejo has once claimed to have taken inspiration for his direction for Knuckles from Conan- in that he wanted it to be an 'epic' chronicling Knux's life from birth to death or something like that- it's been awhile since I've read it. I wonder if that means there are an assload of Conan 'references' we're missing because we're not familiar with the subject.

Oh yeah either way it’s definitely not sealing. Heck i’ve done it too (I drew a panel of modern eggman posing with a heart over his head referencing a piece of classic eggman official art.) 

I’m curious what people use for reference and I always wondered if Penders used photos or old comics. I have nothing to back this up, though.

 

[Salamander]

Yeah most of the stuff "dolphin guy" said was fishy, especially since he didn't even give proof.

 

I see what you did there.

 

Dolphins are mammals.

 

...Just putting that out there.

[Verb & Noun]

 

Oh yeah either way it’s definitely not sealing. Heck i’ve done it too (I drew a panel of modern eggman posing with a heart over his head referencing a piece of classic eggman official art.) 

I’m curious what people use for reference and I always wondered if Penders used photos or old comics. I have nothing to back this up, though.

 

 

It's hard to say. People say his Star Trek work is good, but it's just the facial likenesses, and only that. His bodies are stiff.

 

Furthermore, the faces in his Lost Ones comic are pretty awful and tend to change a lot (or look very samey)- people's noses tend to wander up their faces, for instance.

 

I would propose that he used photo references for the faces in his Star Trek stuff. His Lost Ones work, where they were fictional characters with no real faces to reference from are pretty sloppy.

 

This reminds me, when he drew a picture of Lara-Su running recently, he broke her anatomy quite a bit (one leg was going off in an entirely different direction). Someone suggested that he use photos for reference in the future, to which he replied that 'Lara-Su was out of town and not available for a photo'. Which suggests that no, he generally doesn't use photo references and doesn't normally think to do so.

 

Considering how he tends to ape certain artists, I could see him referencing art more than reality.

 

Honestly though his stuff is just super stiff. He could benefit a lot from practicing exercises to loosen it up.

[horridus]

 

Oh yeah either way it’s definitely not sealing. Heck i’ve done it too (I drew a panel of modern eggman posing with a heart over his head referencing a piece of classic eggman official art.) 

I’m curious what people use for reference and I always wondered if Penders used photos or old comics. I have nothing to back this up, though.

 

 

In fairness, the line between reference and 'reference' is a very, very tenuous one when it comes to Penders. 

 

That said, I'm not sure what he uses for references. I doubt it was that Big Bang comic up there, if only because I don't think Penders' is really all that aware of many comics outside the big names at Marvel and DC, and his interest in Image was largely for the chance to get his own work published.

 

I do however see what his influences could be. In terms of design elements, a lot of his stuff is kind of all over the place, ESPECIALLY in the Lara-Su Chronicles; many of the design elements seem to take their cues from science fiction tropes of the past five decades or so, all mashed into one. He's mentioned being a fan of Jack Kirby and has tried repeatedly to ape the guy's design aesthetic, while mixing it with more modern things... modern circa 1995, that is. For all that he tries to present his stuff as 'hard science fiction', his design tropes are anything but; he tends to come off as being very out of touch about a lot of modern ideas of science and technology, still operating under the logic that 'future stuff' implies bigger or more impressive than the current age (his redesign of Spectre has a speaker in his helmet that looks like itcame out of the 1960s.)  

[Verb & Noun]

You know, he tends to have trouble with ankles/feet the most, and considering these are the body parts least often shown in comic panels, I think that's another point in favor of "he uses comics as references".

[Tenko]

That Big Bang comic might explain where he got those god aweful glasses he keeps putting on everyone tho. Also is it just me or does that guy in the lower left look like Batman without the little ear bits and the cape?

[horridus]

That Big Bang comic might explain where he got those god aweful glasses he keeps putting on everyone tho. Also is it just me or does that guy in the lower left look like Batman without the little ear bits and the cape?

 

Oh it's quite deliberate, I assure you. Big Bang Comics was a series made by Image Comics focusing on the superheroes of a ficticious comic book company, the aforementioned 'Big Bang Comics'. It was basically a love letter to the decades of comics past as well as a bit of a parody of the then-modern age of comics. As such, the characters involved were deliberate riffs on well known DC Comic Book characters, such as Knight Watchmen being 'Batman' and Ultraman (blonde guy in a yellow cape) being their 'Superman', and so on and so forth. 

[-blank-]

 Someone suggested that he use photos for reference in the future, to which he replied that 'Lara-Su was out of town and not available for a photo'. 

 

 

Did he really say that? Was that seriously an actual quote from him?

[Zaysho]

Did he really say that? Was that seriously an actual quote from him?

Yes. I remember this. Many faces and palms met that day.

It's on his Twitter somewhere.

EDIT: Just posting proof. The thread would be a riot if wasn't for the fact that Penders is an ass. (Wasn't that hard to find, but I didn't feel like browsing his twitter while I was eating)

Edited April 10, 2015 by Zaysho

[horridus]

Did he really say that? Was that seriously an actual quote from him?

 

I can verify it. Somewhere in the depths of his twitter, this was an actual response by the man. You couldn't make this guy up if you tried.

[Your Vest Friend]

Well of course she'd be out of town. She's an alien, she shouldn't be anywhere near this planet at all in the first place.

[DaddlerTheDalek]

THAT'S a patch?

Granted it's a prototype, but nobody's gonna focus on that patch when people (IF people) read the book. 

 

Well. It's at least useful for a possible LSC Wiki...