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

[Zaysho]

Granted, Archie has been in a weird position recently (delays, cancellations, etc.), I wouldn't really take the word of a bitter former employee who has a history of shitstirring and taking potshots at Archie and SEGA.

Things are rough, for sure, but I'm not sure I really see the signs pointing definitively to that, especially if both Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Universe survived the cut the Action line took last year.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Yes, the comic isn't going to survive.

Despite...

• Sonic's massive fanbase
• The fact there's two comics running together, that survived massive budget cuts
• That it is still a very highly rated comic book series, including acclaim from websites like Destructoid and IGN
• The fact it's about to conclude a 60 issue storyline, which likely means a hike up in sales will likely occur due to the end of the saga coming.
• The fact Ian has outright stated he's basically got up to Issue 300 and upwards planned out.

But naw, I'll take the word of one of the worse comic writers/artists of all time who is a petty shitposting asshole who claims to have a comic book owner over the facts. While I'm at it, I'll also take the word of the many people on the internet who claim to have an uncle at Nintendo that says games that never happens are on their way. 

Also, I wasn't aware owning a comic book store automatically made you the leading expert of how comic book franchises are doing. I guess if someone opens a gaming store, that means they know more about creating games than game developers.

[QuantumEdge]

Honestly, I sometimes wonder if he does this just to get some furious reaction from the fans, no matter how weak his argument is (how is a store owner's opinion credible evidence?).  I mean, why does he bother saying this when he's no longer apart of this franchise whatsoever?  I know the easy answer is because he's still bitter about the past, but I do wonder how he'd answer if someone called him out on it. 

[Tylinos]

Oh hey, there's the semi-annual "Archie Sonic is going to be cancelled within a year" post.  I was wondering when Ken would get to the 2016 edition.

Seriously, I'm 90% sure I recall either Ken or BobR claiming Archie Sonic will end "this year" multiple times over the past few years.  It hasn't come true yet.  Oh, sure, it'll happen eventually, and with this claim being made pretty much every year, you can be sure that the one year it does happen (whether it be this year, in ten years, or in twenty years), you'll have Ken claiming that he called it.  Hard to not call it if you're constantly updating the claim.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

It lasted 20 years and through two dark ages (Ironically both created by Penders). I'm pretty sure the comic isn't in any danger if it survived that.

[horridus]

Personally I'm finding it rather questionable that he regards the opinion of ONE comic shop owner as somehow being indicative of the state of an entire industry, given that in the past he has very loudly proclaimed that "PRINT IS DEAD" and "THE FORMAT CANNOT BE SUSTAINED IN PHYSICAL FORM", all but declaring comic book stores obsolete. But suddenly, oh, this one guy based only upon the local market says something, so suddenly he's got his finger on the pulse of the Comic Book industry? 

Then again, this is the same guy who declared that the store owners 'loved' what he had to show for LSC and declared that it was higher quality than anything in Sonic, and then claimed that stores rarely pic up new series... despite the fact that, from everything I've seen, Image and Dark Horse do a pretty good job of getting new stuff out there even in the midst of the industry being past it's glory days. 

There really doesn't seem to be much point to this beyond him trying to bait people. 

[RetroRy]

3 hours ago, horridus said:

There really doesn't seem to be much point to this beyond him trying to bait people. 

Which he already has done. Reading some of the replies hurts my head. He is using his status as a former writer to spread misinformation and half-truths and people are buying it for some reason. 

Horridus, your post should be put as a disclaimer on his Twitter page when someone clicks it. Lol

[King Scoopa Koopa]

7 hours ago, chaosjam said:

I guess it's more baseless fear mongering today than any actual work.  Remember when LSC was suppose to be published BEFORE 2016?

Ah, there we go. Everything's back to normal, then.

[MetalSkulkBane]

15 hours ago, chaosjam said:

You're the one to gloat Pend(ing)ers.

[SBR2]

Oh, come on Penders Archie and Sega aren't ending the Comics because of one off year. They're not Marvel and ABC.

[Agie]

While the comic will end one day, one comic shop owner and a bitter former writer well past his prime don't really indicate much, if anything.

The franchise, including the comics, survived things that would have killed most franchises, yet they're still around. One shop owner doesn't speak for the whole industry.

[King Scoopa Koopa]

I can't imagine them ending Sonic unless they went out of business altogether. In which case -- yeah, duh, Archie wouldn't publish Sonic (or anything else) past 2016.

Since we're almost halfway through the year, though, I think things are looking alright.

[Mauro Fonseca]

On 12/05/2016 at 7:56 PM, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Yes, the comic isn't going to survive.

Despite...

• Sonic's massive fanbase
• The fact there's two comics running together, that survived massive budget cuts
• That it is still a very highly rated comic book series, including acclaim from websites like Destructoid and IGN
• The fact it's about to conclude a 60 issue storyline, which likely means a hike up in sales will likely occur due to the end of the saga coming.
• The fact Ian has outright stated he's basically got up to Issue 300 and upwards planned out.

But naw, I'll take the word of one of the worse comic writers/artists of all time who is a petty shitposting asshole who claims to have a comic book owner over the facts. While I'm at it, I'll also take the word of the many people on the internet who claim to have an uncle at Nintendo that says games that never happens are on their way. 

Also, I wasn't aware owning a comic book store automatically made you the leading expert of how comic book franchises are doing. I guess if someone opens a gaming store, that means they know more about creating games than game developers.

Sonic's fanbase is kind of irrelevant (it needs to translate to sales which isn't guaranteed), the fact the two comics survived the cuts just means there's nothing else left to cut, Mega Man was gaining even higher aclaims, there were hikes in sales for Mega Man twice and that didn't help, and Ian had plans for up to issue 300 pre-reboot too as well as plans for all the Mega Man franchise.

I mean, doesn't mean Penders isn't wrong. But you're kind of overestimating things here.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

6 hours ago, The KKM said:

Sonic's fanbase is kind of irrelevant (it needs to translate to sales which isn't guaranteed), the fact the two comics survived the cuts just means there's nothing else left to cut, Mega Man was gaining even higher aclaims, there were hikes in sales for Mega Man twice and that didn't help, and Ian had plans for up to issue 300 pre-reboot too as well as plans for all the Mega Man franchise.

I mean, doesn't mean Penders isn't wrong. But you're kind of overestimating things here.

I am aware that Mega Man was getting more acclaim than Sonic, (Mega Man's comics are my personal favourite after all). But you also need to keep in mind that Sonic has the much more active fanbase than Mega Man (Let's be realistic, as much as a MM fan I am, Sonic has been more active after all). If the budget cuts were seriously that bad, I refuse to believe Universe would have survived it and not Mega Man. Only possibility I see Universe surviving in is if it was doing better than Mega Man and Boom. A wide fanbase still equals sells, especially if it comes to huge events like 25th anniversaries and such (I'm not saying the entirety of the fanbase is going to like it, but realistically when you have a large fanbase, it means more possibile fans might get on board with the comic, a luxury that Mega Man doesn't have due to his game hiatus, and Boom didn't have due to it's fanbase split).

[Mauro Fonseca]

I'm just saying. The cuts weren't bad enough THEN for Universe to need to be cut. But they were bad enough to cut everything else. If more cuts need to happen, which I won't be surprised when they do considering the investment into the Archie reboot and how Archie seems to so easily lose steam on these attempts, then, well... Sonic survived by having other comics throw themselves at the chopper. There's no-one else to sacrifice.

 

Not saying it's that likely, just saying it's not that unlikely either.

[Toby]

Look at it this way.

If the comic doesn't have Archie, Jughead, or Betty & Veronica in the title, the higher ups at Archie comics don't give two flaming corncobs about it.

[Your Vest Friend]

It doesn't help that the scheduling issues were so bad that the start of Eggman's Dozen didn't see a sales hike despite sales usually getting a spike with the first part.

[Tenko]

Seems like a certain company has made an error in judgement. Alerting Penders that a reprint with his art on the front is being released. By crediting him and tagging him on Twitter they have started what can only be a downward slope of lawsuit threats and hands out expecting cash for the reuse of his art. Apparently he didn't know this comic was seeing a reprint and will be contacting them shortly. Doesn't sound to good for them.

[Toby]

What reprint is that?

[Multikaris]

On 5/14/2016 at 6:41 AM, Ryannumber1gamer said:

I am aware that Mega Man was getting more acclaim than Sonic, (Mega Man's comics are my personal favourite after all). But you also need to keep in mind that Sonic has the much more active fanbase than Mega Man (Let's be realistic, as much as a MM fan I am, Sonic has been more active after all). If the budget cuts were seriously that bad, I refuse to believe Universe would have survived it and not Mega Man. Only possibility I see Universe surviving in is if it was doing better than Mega Man and Boom. A wide fanbase still equals sells, especially if it comes to huge events like 25th anniversaries and such (I'm not saying the entirety of the fanbase is going to like it, but realistically when you have a large fanbase, it means more possibile fans might get on board with the comic, a luxury that Mega Man doesn't have due to his game hiatus, and Boom didn't have due to it's fanbase split).

They outright CANCELLED Mega Man? When?

[Tylinos]

1 hour ago, Toby said:

What reprint is that?

The one Ken responded to in this tweet.

 

3 minutes ago, Miru said:

They outright CANCELLED Mega Man? When?

It's technically not cancelled, but given that not even Ian seems to have any news on it, a lot of people figure it's just gone for good.

[horridus]

2 hours ago, Tenko said:

Seems like a certain company has made an error in judgement. Alerting Penders that a reprint with his art on the front is being released. By crediting him and tagging him on Twitter they have started what can only be a downward slope of lawsuit threats and hands out expecting cash for the reuse of his art. Apparently he didn't know this comic was seeing a reprint and will be contacting them shortly. Doesn't sound to good for them.

I decided to look into that. I cannot find any credit of that artwork having ever been used as a cover in any previous issue published by that company, and Penders has evidently done work for them in the past, in exactly one issue of one series. My guess is that it was a pinup or a piece of backup art that he made that they decided to repurpose into a cover for that compilation they're making. Either way, looks like something else for Penders to focus his attentions on for the moment.

[Tenko]

The tweet from said company has a link to the product page for ordering, which seems to imply the cover they are using for the reprint collection is a piece of his artwork, it's the cover that he has been credited with. Bad choice for them since he will see the cover as being a "selling point" and request "adequate payment" to compensate. Nothing that a rework of the cover art wouldn't fix if it indeed is the only contribution he made to said comic series.

They seem to be a rather smallish publishing company, even supported by Patron, they seem to deal with "sexy heroine's", none of which I have heard of. I feel bad for them if he does go after sales percentages all over a piece of reused cover art.

[SBR2]

10 hours ago, Tylinos said:

The one Ken responded to in this tweet.

Oh, wow Dat Snarl. But I'd like to point out that Comic's website First Comics News tweeting Penders I don't think they're the ones publishing that book.

[Salamander]

Ken's claiming he drew both the cover and two of the chapters included.  I'm genuinely interested in seeing where this one goes.