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


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I still find it baffling how he can just insult Ian and just find it fascinating that the guy who he continues to insult and put down without actually looking into what he's judging. Sure, Ken is allowed to have an opinion, an uninformed opinion is bad enough on it's own but to call the dude idiotic. It's almost as laughable as to how he wants to put out his Knuckles omnibus thinking SEGA will do business with him after his legal shenanigans and consistently insulting what they do as well.
I wouldn't be surprised if they blacklisted Ken after his lawsuits over the continued use of his characters. Sure if it was reprint royalties no one would really argue against him and his concerns over creator writes would probably have weight to them. But no, he went that extra unnecessary step that shows it came from resentment and bitterness that the comic can and did survive without him.
Resentment that once Sonic got a fresh new comic, Ian was brought back once again, and you know what if IDW did decide to continue and reprint Archie Sonic I'm sure he'd be livid if they only focused on the one continuity he had no involvement in and even approached all the other former writers to maybe integrate their characters in. Is he aware of how poorly of a person he presents himself?
With his track record dancing around or straight up ignoring facts or points that go against what he's saying it says yes but with his belief that SEGA would even let him be even remotely involved in another Sonic product it says no. Maybe he really is delusional or hell maybe this whole Lara-Su Chronicles bit is some form of midlife crisis that came about from his public bitterness.

As a big fan of the old continuity, I can't deny Archie did make so pretty dreadful mistakes. They should have stayed on top of contracts as well reprinted the Sonic comics sooner, Sure they can be cut some slack for not doing so for the first couple of years cause who'd have guessed the comic could run for over 20 years, but by say issue 125 they should have made sure those contracts were still there and signed.
Penders on the other hand was just selfish and foolish. He killed his own legacy and probably will be unlikely to ever get hired again because he basically held a bunch of second hand OC's and recolors for ransom in exchange for some creative control and money. Again, I am a fan of the old continuity but I'd rather it just stay ended. It's just too tainted to continue even if all the legal problems were addressed and solved even if Archie, SEGA, Penders allowed Ian and IDW to do so, let alone with Penders, Lara-Su Chronicles, but that's just my opinion.

I won't lie some of Penders ideas weren't bad but the execution was. Echidnapolois would be more interesting if most of the Echidna died out unwilling to live without technology. Locke would be a more sympathetic father if he was unwilling but forced to experiment on Knuckles and rather than lie to him about being the last of their kind, while he was off training him, what remained of the city vanished, and Locke abandoning Knuckles and helping him in the shadows coming from the increasing guilt rather than lying to him his whole life. The Sonic series just is not the right fit for the advanced perfect utopian Echidna  society Ken made them into and insisted on them continuing to be.

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You have to give ken some credit, while he did focus on his new invented mythology an characters, at least he let the actual sonic characters stay around and do something with the

 

he didn’t plan for his creations tot ale over the comic after he had all the game characters killed off

 

like the writer intended for novas avenruras de mega man the Brazil megaman comic where the writer knew nothing about the games and planned to kill the cast off to make the comci about the princess character before being fired

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8 minutes ago, Leebo4 said:

You have to give ken some credit, while he did focus on his new invented mythology an characters, at least he let the actual sonic characters stay around and do something with the

 

he didn’t plan for his creations tot ale over the comic after he had all the game characters killed off

 

like the writer intended for novas avenruras de mega man the Brazil megaman comic where the writer knew nothing about the games and planned to kill the cast off to make the comci about the princess character before being fired

And for a lot of the old mythology he could have been considered one of the grandfathers of the then modern comic had he not decided to remove every last thing he contributed. As for that Brazil Mega man comic, as attached as Ken was to his own mythos and creations I'm sure that when he did briefly kill off Knuckles he had to assure SEGA and Archie that it was very temporary for the 7 or 8 issues he was dead.

 

 

 

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15 minutes ago, Mr. Armstrong said:

This interview with Ken Penders was unexpected. 

 

 

I like how this starts out like one of those kinda foreboding after the fact documentaries. I also like how there are two hosts for him to communicate with and bounce off of.

Might give this a fuller listen when I have to sit down for a good bit of desk/house work. 

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Midnight's Edge is a fantastic channel. Can't wait to give this a listen! Ken Pender's version of events is sure to be a cringe fest though. I can't wait!

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Actually I take my previous comment back. I never liked his comics but he comes across very well in the interview. Seems he's got a good business head on him at least, and it seems like Sega has no idea what they wanted at the time.

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He talks well. Better than anything else he does, really. But I think we've seen enough out of him to not be taken in by his silver tongue.

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So now I can't help but imagine Geoffrey was Penders way of keeping his interest in writing the Sally mini series given his seemingly bigger role over hers. I feel like I learned a lot from all this, I remember it's been said here or somewhere that Penders wrote for Knuckles because he was such a blank slate and I even think he even said he tried to apply his Knuckles ideas to Sonic first and it was accepted when he applied it to Knuckles. So it makes sense why he'd choose to be the Knuckles head writer over Sonic. It really all seems to come back to his creative freedom, which is probably why he didn't bother to read stories written by other writers and clashed with Bollers.

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1 hour ago, Zonic 2099 said:

So now I can't help but imagine Geoffrey was Penders way of keeping his interest in writing the Sally mini series given his seemingly bigger role over hers. I feel like I learned a lot from all this, I remember it's been said here or somewhere that Penders wrote for Knuckles because he was such a blank slate and I even think he even said he tried to apply his Knuckles ideas to Sonic first and it was accepted when he applied it to Knuckles. So it makes sense why he'd choose to be the Knuckles head writer over Sonic. It really all seems to come back to his creative freedom, which is probably why he didn't bother to read stories written by other writers and clashed with Bollers.

Ding-ding-ding, we have a winner! Like, I totally forgot to bring this up in my post about the interview, but he actually stated that the first thing that came to his mind upon being given a bit more leeway in the book and being asked to develop the world was to go 'Where are the parents, where are the adults?'. And you know, on paper that's not a bad thing, but when you witness how he tends to actually use adult characters in relation to the teenage main cast, it becomes really clear that he did not care for having to write about teenagers. I suspect its also part of why he included his myriad, inept attempts at 'mature' subjects in the book- all so he could pretend he wasn't writing something aimed primarily at kids. 

And yeah, he's made that abundantly clear in every interview he's ever had that brings it up- he ultimately chose the Knuckles book for all the reasons you mentioned. He has admitted that ideas pitched for Sonic that were rejected ultimately went into the Knuckles book. In the end it kinda all ties into him basically just wanting to do his own shit, which wouldn't be so bad if he had bothered to remember that ultimately the book wasn't HIS book. Somewhere along the line though, I think he genuinely forgot that at some level. 

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I do love how this proves that Penders really doesn't like Editors who do their job. He just wants to do his own thing with zero oversight at all.

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11 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

I do love how this proves that Penders really doesn't like Editors who do their job. He just wants to do his own thing with zero oversight at all.

Kinda makes you wonder why he wanted to work in mainstream comics at all, doesn't it? 

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25 minutes ago, horridus said:

In the end it kinda all ties into him basically just wanting to do his own shit, which wouldn't be so bad if he had bothered to remember that ultimately the book wasn't HIS book. Somewhere along the line though, I think he genuinely forgot that at some level. 

Forgot, or refuses to accept?

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There were suspicions before, but this finally confirms it: Ken's the one who's been blocking Ian from doing Lost Hedgehog Tales.

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It also says a lot that Ken takes issue with Ian posting a summary of informal story ideas online that involve characters he made (and even refers to it as creating "market confusion" in a later tweet), but sees absolutely nothing wrong with him using actual SEGA-owned characters in material promoting the sale of TLSC, or with his plans to republish collections of old stories that just outright feature SEGA characters in them.

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So uh, is no one going to point out how hypocritical this is? 

Because, yeah. It's really hypocritical. Because in Ken's words, he is a "working professional", and if you all recall, as it's been floating around here for who knows how long, he has done the exact same thing Ian wanted to do with LHT. Which is discussing all of the planned things he wanted to do with Archie Sonic, but didn't end up happening.

Penders listed multiple stories, and listed that he planned for Issue 150 to 200 to be based around building up Bunnie and Ant's marriage. Or in other words - he is discussing his story ideas/plans involving characters he does not own. The exact same thing he's trying to accuse Ian of doing right now, and that he's trying to claim why he can't condone LHT. The only difference is Ian intends to go into detail about the canned plans if/when he can, while Penders only went in on summaries. 

Just, ugh. The blatant hypocrisy from this asshole infuriates me to no end. 

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3 minutes ago, Zonic 2099 said:

https://twitter.com/KenPenders/status/1232459953329164288?s=20

At this point I think he just really hates Ian and does a terrible job of hiding it, either that or the minuscule chance he doesn't realize how passive aggressive he comes off. Actually having reread this tweet, it's definitely the first one..

Nah, he really does just flat out hate Flynn. He once accused the guy of stealing ideas from him (because he had Bunnie and Antoine married), spitefully called his popularity a 'bandwagon', has at once criticized Flynn for NOT using his ideas while at the same time slamming him for not making up his own crap, and on and on it goes. No matter what Penders tries to say, he really, really cannot keep a lid on his sheer resentment towards Flynn. 

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4 minutes ago, Zaysho said:

Honestly, I can forgive and understand a lot of what he did from a legal standpoint with protecting his rights, even if a lot of that was just exploiting loopholes and bad bookkeeping and a lot of really stupid technicalities that worked in his favor. But I think what's always disheartened and embarrassed me about Penders (as someone who is tolerant enough to enjoy what he made and the legacy he used to have on this series, even if turning over some of those rocks revealed some really sketchy things about how he worked) is his total lack of class and respect for younger creators, in particular the number of times he's swiped at Ian and Tracy over the years.

It's not exactly surprising- this guy couldn't muster any respect towards his peers. He's repeatedly downplayed Angelo DeCesare's work on the book even while trying to lay sole credit to the Bunnie/Antoine ship (even as it was pointed out as factually untrue), and then there's his whole deal with Bollers and accusing him of trying to actively undermine him. That to this day he's such a blatantly mean-spirited prick towards the guys who REPLACED him after he walked out of the only job that ever gave him any real success, is completely par the course for a man whose respect for others in general is dubious at the best of times. This is a guy who got snippy about Mike Kanterovich even, the guy who he literally owes EVERYTHING to. 

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13 minutes ago, horridus said:

Nah, he really does just flat out hate Flynn. He once accused the guy of stealing ideas from him (because he had Bunnie and Antoine married), spitefully called his popularity a 'bandwagon', has at once criticized Flynn for NOT using his ideas while at the same time slamming him for not making up his own crap, and on and on it goes. No matter what Penders tries to say, he really, really cannot keep a lid on his sheer resentment towards Flynn. 

True.  Ironic that a Sonic fan writes a better Sonic book and is a fan favorite compared to the man with an ego who can't even claim he's created anything original that's resonated with people.  Ian at least is humble and easy to approach.  Ken, on the other hand, has shown us through his Twitter and his legal actions that the fans don't really matter to him...only his ego.

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24 minutes ago, Zonic 2099 said:

https://twitter.com/KenPenders/status/1232459953329164288?s=20

At this point I think he just really hates Ian and does a terrible job of hiding it, either that or the minuscule chance he doesn't realize how passive aggressive he comes off. Actually having reread this tweet, it's definitely the first one..

Can we just take a moment to remember the irony that Penders himself once claimed to be the saviour of Sonic (as in the whole series)?

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1 minute ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Can we just take a moment to remember the irony that Penders himself once claimed to be the saviour of Sonic (as in the whole series)?

By the time Penders ended his run on the book, there was no clear direction and the editors clearly had enough which is why they brought Ian in and after awhile, the book vastly improved and we got stories like "Eggman Empire" from now on.  It was a good time to be a Sonic fan, especially after the fall out from Sonic 2006.

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