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

[Disonoid 3000]

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

 

There is a LSC Wiki already.

 

It's full of entertaining sarcasm, and censors every mention of Sonic/Archie with [DENIAL]. 

[Agie]

I decided to check it out.

 

Love how they refer to that image of Thrash as Penders himself. Pure gold right there.

[goku262002]

So whats his statement on people calling him out for using the LA dodgers logo on his idiot patch?

[Disonoid 3000]

I don't think anyone's brought it up to him yet. 

[biznizz]

You just know he'll give a bullsh*t answer to excuse himself. "It's really just Ech'yd'nya language. You really need to stop viewing the world with such a narrow mind."

 

Meanwhile, he sneaks in more 25YL Knuckles into his work hoping no one will notice.

 

I honestly think he might get such a perverse sense of approval knowing people are watching his crap like a hawk; probably thinks it's 1997 again with the amount of attention he's getting.

[Gabz Girl]

I'm just reading through the LSC Wiki right now and I recommend everyone else to do so. It's priceless!

 

 

Lara-Su enjoys wearing mops on her head. This has invited unprecedented controversy amongst the many fans of LSC, as hundreds speculate why on earth an alien species resembling Mickey Mouse would want anything to do with mops of any kind atop their heads. As of yet, the leading theory revolves around some childhood trauma involving cleanliness.

 

XD

[horridus]

You just know he'll give a bullsh*t answer to excuse himself. "It's really just Ech'yd'nya language. You really need to stop viewing the world with such a narrow mind."

 

Meanwhile, he sneaks in more 25YL Knuckles into his work hoping no one will notice.

 

I honestly think he might get such a perverse sense of approval knowing people are watching his crap like a hawk; probably thinks it's 1997 again with the amount of attention he's getting.

 

Aye. Plus, according to him it's a 'prototype' or whatever, so there's room there for him to bullshit, though I'm pretty fucking certain that he only drew that thing up so he could pretend he was getting work done. Seriously, who releases this kind of minute trivia BEFORE they release the damn comic the design was supposed to debut in?

[Verb & Noun]

Everything he's claimed to be the prototype has turned out to be the actual finished product, though.

[horridus]

Everything he's claimed to be the prototype has turned out to be the actual finished product, though.

[Your Vest Friend]

You know, I think the conversation in the car tonight was the first time I got an outside viewpoint on how the case went down. And it's weird because he sided with Penders, noting the following points (note that I never called Penders by name to him);

-Copyright should default to the company you're making stuff for unless you have an agreement in place that says otherwise. Judging by the fact contracts were involved, this would have been an otherwise case.

-Even if it's just a slight difference visually to another copyrighted property, if he came up with the idea himself then he does indeed have the right to it. He cited the recent case of Pink Floyd's pig, where the band got around paying royalties to the member who left and had made the original pig by adding genitals and that was sufficient.

Now if this guy, a person who hasn't heard of the case before I said anything about it to him and has zero interest in the comic or video games, is saying this, no wonder Archie had so much issue in the court.

[Verb & Noun]

There's a bit of nuance to the subject though.

There's only so many ways you can make a pig and have it be a pig.

[-blank-]

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)

 

... Well, I was hoping this was a joke. Turns out Penders is more delusional than I thought. And I had already thought him pretty off in the head.

[Verb & Noun]

Oh yeah. That pisses me off with how stupid he thinks we are. "This is for everyone who thinks she only wears a swimsuit".

 

You mean the other outfit you've drawn her in every other image might be something else she wears? Gee golly.

[Disonoid 3000]

I still find myself focusing on the fact that he thinks a spur of the moment, clearly not connected to anything doodle is somehow proof she wears anything else in the book. I want to know what his logic was in that.

 

I said it in a deleted post, but his inability to just rip an image that is actually from the book out of background context and show people makes me seriously question how much work this dude's gotten done. 

[horridus]

I still find myself focusing on the fact that he thinks a spur of the moment, clearly not connected to anything doodle is somehow proof she wears anything else in the book. I want to know what his logic was in that.

 

I said it in a deleted post, but his inability to just rip an image that is actually from the book out of background context and show people makes me seriously question how much work this dude's gotten done. 

 

Yeah, just read over his entire run on Sonic and Knuckles, and it becomes clear that his long term planning skills are zero to nil. So much of what he does is just because he had the idea and decided to use it then and there. 

 

And yeah, this is why you should always doubt Penders when he talks progress or anything. He wouldn't back up his claims that he sold those patches like hot cakes at one of those cons he was at, despite taking loads of pictures of people buying his SONIC stuff. 

[biznizz]

So, is it true that Pen actively tried to discourage Ian from applying at Archie when Ian asked for advice on getting hired there?

 

I mean, I know that both Dubs and Ian used to be members on Pen's forum back when they were younger and probably DID correspond with the man.

[horridus]

Yes. Without knowing EXACTLY what was said, he basically said that it took a lot of hard work to get into comics and in particular Archie... while having gotten in due to inside connections. Which Flynn ultimately didn't need. 

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

You know, I think the conversation in the car tonight was the first time I got an outside viewpoint on how the case went down. And it's weird because he sided with Penders, noting the following points (note that I never called Penders by name to him);

-Copyright should default to the company you're making stuff for unless you have an agreement in place that says otherwise. Judging by the fact contracts were involved, this would have been an otherwise case.

-Even if it's just a slight difference visually to another copyrighted property, if he came up with the idea himself then he does indeed have the right to it. He cited the recent case of Pink Floyd's pig, where the band got around paying royalties to the member who left and had made the original pig by adding genitals and that was sufficient.

Now if this guy, a person who hasn't heard of the case before I said anything about it to him and has zero interest in the comic or video games, is saying this, no wonder Archie had so much issue in the court.

 

This is a pretty interesting point. I remember when I first mentioned this to my mom, her first instinct was to side with Penders. "Creator's rights" is inherently attractive.

 

Honestly, I get the impression that the "grander issue" with Kenders isn't really whether or not he should have the legal right to his characters. People are annoyed at him in part because of the effect of his actions being the removal of characters from the comics, in part because his work is so seriously and so annoyingly flawed, and in part because of his delusional egotism and other undesirable personal traits.

 

I honestly think he might get such a perverse sense of approval knowing people are watching his crap like a hawk; probably thinks it's 1997 again with the amount of attention he's getting.

 

Yeah...sometimes I wonder what would happen if all us people who are complaining about Penders decided "eh, who cares". Stopped responding to his tweets and all that. I really wonder how he would react to that.

 

And I guess now is as good a time as any to say that I sometimes feel that all this hating and complaining about Penders is sort of a waste of energy. Personally, I'm really not angry at Penders anymore. I always had mixed feelings about the old continuity, and while it definitely had some aspects I'll miss, overall I just love how the comics are now - streamlined, much more games-based, etc. So, in a roundabout way, I actually have to kind of be...gulp...thankful to Penders. Ugh. xD

 

But even if I'm not angry, it's still amusing and sort of baffling enough for me to pay attention. It boggles the imagination how he can just keep making himself look worse and worse and be too egotistical to figure out that he should do something differently. And maybe in some way, it satiates some desire for justice within me. His stuff is horrible, and he doesn't exactly seem to be a great person, and so seeing everyone complaining that his stuff is horrible is kind of satisfying

 

I also really enjoy analyzing bad stuff and seeing why it's bad, and there's plenty of that to go around when we're speaking of Penders.

 

So yeah. I guess what I'm saying is, I don't really Penders is worth getting too worked up over. He's just so insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Even in terms of the "grand scheme of Sonic", he's not really that significant. At the same time, I do understand the feelings of those who grew up with the comics and are hurt not only by the removal of beloved characters and continuity, but by the disillusionment of realizing that someone who had such a major impact on the comics was...not exactly praiseworthy. I guess I'm just saying we should keep things in perspective.

 

...And yet I'm still here. 'Cuz I find it entertaining.   And also because I think the specific flaws in his work could make for interesting discussion, as I enjoy revieiwng/analysis type stuff.

 

tl;dr - I enjoy watching the spectacle that is Ken Penders, but I feel kinda bad about it sometimes. But it's still a topic for potential stimulating discussion, so I think I'll stick around. (I'm kind of a hypocrite aren't I =P)

[QuantumEdge]

Yes. Without knowing EXACTLY what was said, he basically said that it took a lot of hard work to get into comics and in particular Archie... while having gotten in due to inside connections. Which Flynn ultimately didn't need. 

There's nothing much more to comment on this except, what a jerk.  Glad his attempts completely failed in sneakily securing his cushy job.  It sort of reminds me of his backstabbing on Ben Hurst.

[Adamis]

Yes. Without knowing EXACTLY what was said, he basically said that it took a lot of hard work to get into comics and in particular Archie... while having gotten in due to inside connections. Which Flynn ultimately didn't need. 

Aside from the fact that he had connections, what exactly is bad or false in what he said here ? Getting into comics and Archie is hard. I've tried (with Archie) for years, with no result.

[Sunwalker]

Aside from the fact that he had connections, what exactly is bad or false in what he said here ? Getting into comics and Archie is hard. I've tried (with Archie) for years, with no result.

The point here is all about the tone. Flynn himself has never said it is easy, but he has never discouraged anyone from trying. But Penders, on the other hand, seemed to be trying to make Ian to give up. In clear English: getting rid of competition.

On the other hand, I remember Ian commenting a few times on BumbleKing that he is fine with working with other writers. I even found a quote from him from before he was hired as a writer:

When writing your support, if you choose to do so, please don't go on rants about how I would "fix a ruined comic," or go on to rag on the current writers. Keep in mind that, if hired, I'll be working with them, and I really don't want there to be any hostility first day on the job

(source)

[Big Panda]

Remember the ThanksKenPenders blog? It's returning from its hiatus.

[horridus]

There's nothing much more to comment on this except, what a jerk.  Glad his attempts completely failed in sneakily securing his cushy job.  It sort of reminds me of his backstabbing on Ben Hurst.

I'll bring up again that, ultimately, we don't know for certain if he deliberately screwed over Hurst or if it was simply an end result of Penders running his mouth off and giving off the wrong impression of what Hurst was trying to do. Though admittedly, the end effect is all the same as he did go over his head, whether in malice or not, and it doesn't help matters that he tried to pursue his OWN movie shortly after that. 

 

The point here is all about the tone. Flynn himself has never said it is easy, but he has never discouraged anyone from trying. But Penders, on the other hand, seemed to be trying to make Ian to give up. In clear English: getting rid of competition.

 

Eyup. It does indeed take a lot of effort to break into comics, and Flynn gave that work needed to convince Archie to hire him. In this context however, it seems less like Penders giving an honest bit of information about the way of things and instead deliberately trying to sabotage Flynn's ambitions. I can only imagine the look on his face when they wound up hiring Flynn anyway and letting him write.

[Verb & Noun]

Not just letting him write but letting him have the head writer position and shifting Penders to inking duties.

[Agie]

Not to mention, for a while, even being the only regular writer on the thing.

 

I'd say for Ian, it worked out better than even he could have hoped. With Penders, it turned out a lot worse.