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

[Zaysho]

Huh. DeCesare wrote the Mobie stories? That's interesting, because those happen to be some of my favorite early stories from that period (side note: Gallagher's One-Billionth Ring story--#35--and Mecha-Madness are also personal favorites, but that's not important). The first issue that features him lacks credits for some bizarre reason, so I hadn't realized he was DeCesare's creation (this is something that's happened a few times in the book's history from what I recall; #51 is also missing them, but I believe they were printed in the letters page of the following issue). I thought it was Gallagher for some reason, but that's good to know. I also didn't realize he did the original Mecha-Sally/introduction of Dulcy; I thought that was one of Penders's stories for some reason, probably because he did try to do something with Sally early on (if only use her to introduce his own characters). But that does make sense... there's no way Penders would've introduced a character he didn't create if he could help it.

 

Come to think of it, DeCesare did some pretty good work when he was involved; it's been a while since I've read the really old stories, but those stories do stand out in my memory more. Odd. Makes Penders's criticisms of his work and saying things like DeCesare was a poor fit/weak writer (he said something along these lines in an interview Dejimon11 did last year) even more unfounded. I should really go back and re-read those stories, because it seems the guy deserves more credit, especially after reading your post, Monkey Destruction Switch.

[RaginRonic]

Heh....Kenders working the Sonic SatAM TV show? As WWE's Vince McMahon's theme song intones, there'd be NO CHANCE IN HELL of that happening. And if it did, Ben would've cracked the whip real hard on Kenders.

 

Ben and Len would not have allowed Kenders to run amok. And Kenders ideas would have likely been filtered quite heavily first, had Kenders got on the show staff.

 

And I am DAMN certain that Kenders use of Sally as a Mary-Sue chara would have pissed off Pat Allee too. Me thinks she took all the female Sonic charas to heart; making them all balanced, but likeable and appreciable, individuals....something Kenders does NOT understand, nor ever will.

 

BTW, Kenders is my version of his name. And it's context is not kind. Given the utter contempt he's shown everybody who's observed his childish shit over the years, I will not use his proper name, till he mans up, stops behaving like a 5-year old, and makes full amends to a degree that I can be satisfied with.

 

He's not done so. So Kenders is all he gets to be called by me, until he behaves like a mature adult.

[QuantumEdge]

I think Angelo was one of the (if not the) best writers at the time.  They weren't heavy, or particularly deep, but they had a fun warmth to them.  The Vol-Ant-teer is still one of my favourite classic stories.  I'll have to do the same as Zaysho and re-read his stuff. 

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

Hey guys! What did I-

So whilst searching for something... I found this.

 

I present to you, Sonic the Hedgehog X Wonder Woman as drawn by Ken Penders.

 

Edit: Damn, won't link... 1 sec

 

 

Before people go nuts, this was almost certainly a fan request sketch...

 

But I just found it too funny not to share.

Okay that is just freaking weird. Drawloverlala's version is a million times better.

 

AND YES HE'S WEARING LIPSTICK ARGH.

 

He's pretty jealous of Ian's popularity it seems. He seems to be really resentful that Ian gets a lot of recognition and he doesn't.

But but! He's getting a lot of recognition! We're talking about him right now!!

 

But yeah what Goku said, it's not the kind of recognition he's expecting.

 

 

I actually never read Angelo's stories. He approached them exactly as if he were writing a furry version of Archie

 

Okay, Why comment about somebody's story when you haven't freaking read the story in question yet? Is he assuming that it's bad?

[biznizz]

With Pen constantly bringing up how fan letters constantly praised his work, slammed other stuff like Angelo's and Dave Manack's work, telling him that his work is the best the book had ever seen, I have to wonder just how much Fulop and Gabrie hid negative fanletters/feedback and only gave Pen positive stuff.

Like this type of childish behavior is similar to a misbehaving child who does something bad, but the parent reinforces it with cookies and ice cream and spinning it to look good to avoid looking like a disappointing parent? I swear that Pen acts like he got false positive reinforcement to justify his insanity and jackassery.

[horridus]

With Pen constantly bringing up how fan letters constantly praised his work, slammed other stuff like Angelo's and Dave Manack's work, telling him that his work is the best the book had ever seen, I have to wonder just how much Fulop and Gabrie hid negative fanletters/feedback and only gave Pen positive stuff.

Like this type of childish behavior is similar to a misbehaving child who does something bad, but the parent reinforces it with cookies and ice cream and spinning it to look good to avoid looking like a disappointing parent? I swear that Pen acts like he got false positive reinforcement to justify his insanity and jackassery.

 

I've wondered about that myself, because I know for a fact that it wasn't all smiles and joy among the fandom back in the day when he was on board. In fact, I recall there being some kind of fan-made parody of Endgame having been made in response to it, one that pointed out a lot of the problems with the storyline. I find it exceedingly difficult to belive he never got any hate mail (Geoffrey alone would have guarunteed buckets of the stuff), so either he's fibbing or somehow none of it got to him to begin with. 

[QuantumEdge]

I've wondered about that myself, because I know for a fact that it wasn't all smiles and joy among the fandom back in the day when he was on board. In fact, I recall there being some kind of fan-made parody of Endgame having been made in response to it, one that pointed out a lot of the problems with the storyline. I find it exceedingly difficult to belive he never got any hate mail (Geoffrey alone would have guarunteed buckets of the stuff), so either he's fibbing or somehow none of it got to him to begin with. 

If I'm correct, you can find the parody on Dan Drazen's website, though it might be a different one, because Lord knows how deserving that thing is to have several.

[Sunwalker]

I've wondered about that myself, because I know for a fact that it wasn't all smiles and joy among the fandom back in the day when he was on board. In fact, I recall there being some kind of fan-made parody of Endgame having been made in response to it, one that pointed out a lot of the problems with the storyline. I find it exceedingly difficult to belive he never got any hate mail (Geoffrey alone would have guarunteed buckets of the stuff), so either he's fibbing or somehow none of it got to him to begin with.

 

It's time to travel down the memory lane! Here is the parody comic and the parody fanfic.

 

Also here are some discussions from late 90's criticizing Ken Penders:

• What is it with Ken Penders anyway? (September 1998 - around the time of STH #65 and Sonic Super Special #7)
• Ken Penders Sucks! (August 1998 - around STH #64)
• Who's Stupider:St. John or Ken Penders????? (June 1996 - around STH #38 and Knuckles Miniseries #3)

There is a special post from Ben Hurst, from a different thread than the ones above, that I would like to call attention to. Some people have gone too far and threatened Ken Penders, to which Ben replied (in October 17th 1998):

 

Sonic Fans,

Regarding this thread and the criticism of Penders, I am appalled at the level of animosity shown by the fans here. It is your right to disagree. To be rude, crude and threatening is not only completely inappropriate, but also violates the basic rules of courtesy on the net. Death threats? Not even in jest. Not done. Stop it. Sheeesh.

<shakes head> <shrugs> <Ponders the fact that, overall, he likes the people here> <gathers thoughts...scratches....speaks>

I haven't read the comics written by Penders. I haven't followed the continuity since after the 2nd season of Satam, so I have no opinion on the arguments set forth. But if I were to take issue with someone who worked hard to create comics, I would do that person the courtesy of postulating logical, reasoned arguments. With the exception of just a few ascerbic moments, Allesandro does this quite well and you would all do well to study his critiques. He cites specific instances and correlates them to earlier, generally agreed-upon continuity. This is useful information to a writer, but remember, there may be many different reasons for the choices writers must make and though you may find them unacceptable, they are a fact of life. If you flame a writer, if you throw insults and attitude at him, he's probably going to give less weight to your argument.

Don't forget, your words don't just disappear into the Void, they are read by a person. A person with feelings. Feelings. You know, those things that you have, too? So by all means, feel free to state your opinion, but please take the extra time to be courteous.

<looks down, reacts, surprised> <wonders how that soap box got there> <steps down - smooths wrinkles from t-shirt>

Thank you for reading this. I'm happy that so many people share a passion for the speedy blue hedgehog.

Ben Hurst

(source)

[QuantumEdge]

You know, seeing that post of Ben's makes Penders look even more of a dirtbag for what he did to a guy that was trying to get fans to lay off him.  The thanks he got for that and letting the man lend a hand in making a movie?  A ruined chance of a SatAM film and criticism towards his handling of business.

[Verb & Noun]

Those old chat logs are amazing.

 

Particularly lines like this-

"I DO wish that he used more of the Chaotix! All they do is STAND AROUND!! There was a three issue thangy 'bout them, but I mean REALLY!!"

 

Things were different back then, he says. This criticism like this didn't exist, he says.

 

And yet in that 'end-lame' parody people do point out that it's a shitty rehash of a movie still.

 

And seeing people chat about how they brainstorm ways to kill St. John too, ha. It only matters if characters he didn't make are hated... or vaguely disliked.

[biznizz]

...Was that Endlame comic written by THE Dawn Best? The one who'd go on to work with Pen?

 

Or was that just a fake name used after the real Dawn became associated with Pen?

[QuantumEdge]

...Was that Endlame comic written by THE Dawn Best? The one who'd go on to work with Pen?

 

Or was that just a fake name used after the real Dawn became associated with Pen?

[Verb & Noun]

I believe she used to be known as Ruby Echidna back in the day so... yes.

[Sunwalker]

...Was that Endlame comic written by THE Dawn Best? The one who'd go on to work with Pen?

Or was that just a fake name used after the real Dawn became associated with Pen?

[goku262002]

Btw, is Dawn still besties with Ken or has she seen the light about what a true scum he is?

[Verb & Noun]

Not a topic of discussion.

[goku262002]

Not a topic of discussion.

Can't bring it up or something?

Well, alright. but I hope she just stays away from this project, last I heard is that during the beginning of all this she sort of wanted to be involved and that she was good friends with Ken. but that was before we even got those first horrid renders.

[Verb & Noun]

Pendejo appeared to assume that Dawn Best would be helping him with the project. She declined as she has her own projects. She did give advice on designs which he's ignored.

[Zaysho]

With Pen constantly bringing up how fan letters constantly praised his work, slammed other stuff like Angelo's and Dave Manack's work, telling him that his work is the best the book had ever seen, I have to wonder just how much Fulop and Gabrie hid negative fanletters/feedback and only gave Pen positive stuff.

Like this type of childish behavior is similar to a misbehaving child who does something bad, but the parent reinforces it with cookies and ice cream and spinning it to look good to avoid looking like a disappointing parent? I swear that Pen acts like he got false positive reinforcement to justify his insanity and jackassery.

 

Not that I doubt Gabrie, and maybe to a lesser extent Fulop, might have coddled Penders a bit, but I'm sure he did see negative feedback. I'd also hazard a guess, based on how he behaves today and the rose-tinted glasses he views his run on the book through, that he simply ignored it. This is why I believe there had to have been complaints regarding Niemoller's poem, or even people just complaining about the boring furry drama Pen would cook up in later years. I'm actually certain in one of Penders's history lessons he mentions that Pellerito did actually say M25YL was poorly received and changes had to be made, such as including Shadow, and otherwise using the SEGA cast more, which, as we know, are things Penders refused to do.

[Disonoid 3000]

Ken's already cemented his opinion of any complaints online as being a loud minority.

 

People who send mail to comics, on the other hand, those are representative of the general population. 

[Killtank]

 

Not that I doubt Gabrie, and maybe to a lesser extent Fulop, might have coddled Penders a bit, but I'm sure he did see negative feedback. I'd also hazard a guess, based on how he behaves today and the rose-tinted glasses he views his run on the book through, that he simply ignored it. This is why I believe there had to have been complaints regarding Niemoller's poem, or even people just complaining about the boring furry drama Pen would cook up in later years. I'm actually certain in one of Penders's history lessons he mentions that Pellerito did actually say M25YL was poorly received and changes had to be made, such as including Shadow, and otherwise using the SEGA cast more, which, as we know, are things Penders refused to do.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if he ignored such criticism when he was head writer. We've all seen plenty of evidence that Ken's very adept at ignoring the truth if it doesn't suit his interests. In fact, ignoring the truth regardless of circumstance is quite possibly his greatest talent. 

[horridus]

It wouldn't surprise me if he ignored such criticism when he was head writer. We've all seen plenty of evidence that Ken's very adept at ignoring the truth if it doesn't suit his interests. In fact, ignoring the truth regardless of circumstance is quite possibly his greatest talent. 

 

To put it mildly. He's got a talent for self-delusion unlike anything I've ever seen.

 

This is a guy who STILL refers to The Lost Ones as a 'hit comic book series'. 

[Gabz Girl]

If Dawn Best was still working with Ken Penders she would've been the one creating those fugly character posters and cardboard cutouts rather than...whoever did the 3D models. o__o

[Agie]

I doubt she'd do more than giving advice...which she might not do anymore of, since it was promptly ignored.

 

Is there anything that can get Penders' mind into reality? I want to believe something is out there, but...

[Zero Dozer]

I was reading around, is it true that Finitevus IS NOT Ken Penders' creation?