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

[horridus]

 

Ya know, things would go a lot faster if you maybe, just maybe, got the ENGLISH release taken care of FIRST and then found your audience stateside before branching out into translations and international releases and the like. Especially when you make it sound like you're doing these as you make each new page.

[Dr. Detective]

Nah. Penders just needs to make sure the people on his home planet can understand his comic thats never coming out. Thats all.

[Paul-Agnew]

On 5/29/2020 at 12:52 AM, The Master said:

I pity anyone who would write/draw/work for Ken. He's shown to be incredibly nitpicky over any art that isn't his, especially fan artists. The work they hand in would be skewed by him until its unrecognizable.

Alternatively, he could always put out a call for artists to email him, give zero feedback (constructive or otherwise), then make claims on Twitter about telling said artists not having the desired skill set despite never specifying what he wanted in the first place. 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

...Do the NORMAL Sonic comics even have other language releases? Mobius Encyclopedia lists Brazil, Germany and France releases of some of the NEWER stuff, but nothing from before 2011. I know Japan is just NOW getting the IDW comics, but is this guy getting translations done for a follow up to a story most foreign audiences never read?

[horridus]

10 hours ago, Shaddy Zaphod said:

...Do the NORMAL Sonic comics even have other language releases? Mobius Encyclopedia lists Brazil, Germany and France releases of some of the NEWER stuff, but nothing from before 2011. I know Japan is just NOW getting the IDW comics, but is this guy getting translations done for a follow up to a story most foreign audiences never read?

If Penders is to be believed, there were in fact international releases even in the 90s- he claims to have received letters from overseas fans. Penders often cites this as justification for his belief that the Archie Books, at least when HE worked on them, are just as widely known and popular (implicitly moreso given his fondness for mentioning them as being 'the only game in town' wrt Sonic for a while) than the actual games themselves. It is through this rationale that he justifies his intent on releasing his work with multiple translations rather than testing the waters, because as far as he is concerned he already has a huge, built in audience hungry for more of the Lara-Su Chronicles. 

The fact that those overseas releases he mentions were niche releases sold in speciality stores never seems to factor into things, and all attempts to point this out have proven fruitless. He refuses to view Sonic as anything other than a comic franchise that HE led to 'greatness', and this in turn informs everything he does. That, and unrealistic expectations in general- he's honestly justified his approach with how movie studios do things, never stopping to consider that movie studios have the resources and built-in fanbase that they can in fact risk multiple language releases with their product on the first go. 

[SatAMhog]

How do you suppose the man is supporting himself while all the stuff in the world is going on?  As far as one can tell, he hasn't had any regular work from any publishers for years unless he landed a sweet gig and is going by the name "Many Hands" for Archie(haha).  All I can see is him selling stuff on ebay but even that is limited in itself.  He doesn't have any comic cons going on either as the San Diego Comic Con is cancelled this year as well as every other major one.  

[SBR2]

2 hours ago, SatAMhog said:

How do you suppose the man is supporting himself while all the stuff in the world is going on?  As far as one can tell, he hasn't had any regular work from any publishers for years unless he landed a sweet gig and is going by the name "Many Hands" for Archie(haha).  All I can see is him selling stuff on ebay but even that is limited in itself.  He doesn't have any comic cons going on either as the San Diego Comic Con is cancelled this year as well as every other major one.  

From what I've heard his wife is a doctor or something so he's basically living off her.

[CleverSonicUsername]

On 5/28/2020 at 8:52 AM, The Master said:

I pity anyone who would write/draw/work for Ken. He's shown to be incredibly nitpicky over any art that isn't his, especially fan artists. The work they hand in would be skewed by him until its unrecognizable.

And yet I kinda want to. Like the experience might be miserable, but my mind is racing at the thought of both drawing those characters better and more legitimately horrifying.

Ok here I gave it a shot, can't wait to be told it's too disney or whatever. (And he'd be right to as I've said disparaging things to him on twitter, so)

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

1 hour ago, CleverSonicUsername said:

And yet I kinda want to. Like the experience might be miserable, but my mind is racing at the thought of both drawing those characters better and more legitimately horrifying is exciting to me.

Ok here I gave it a shot, can't wait to be told it's too disney or whatever. (And he'd be right to as I've said disparaging things to him on twitter, so)

I'm honestly really impressed how you're relatively close to Penders' design but it actually looks good. Quite good, in fact.

[CleverSonicUsername]

9 hours ago, Monkey Destruction Switch said:

I'm honestly really impressed how you're relatively close to Penders' design but it actually looks good. Quite good, in fact.

It helps that I draw horror mostly so uh, Pender's style speaks to me.

 

 

 

[horridus]

Oh my, but those are really quite good. I like how you manage to capture the essential essence of the design while drawing it out in a way that looks appealing and, unlike Penders, actually looks creepy and villainous. 

[DabigRG]

I never did get to listening to the rest of that interview from a month or two ago, past the first ten minutes. Any interesting tidbits or developments since?

[Zonic 2099]

Does Ken really have to try to address every issue we have had this year in his projects.. I mean there are so many reasons why he shouldn't do this.
For starters by the time he theoretically gets the first book out, odds are everything will be over and done with. There's also the fact that most of the main cast are hideous knocks of Sonic & Knuckles & mostly Knuckles.

But my biggest issue though is my doubt in Ken's ability to handle such a sensitive subject properly. It requires a frightening amount of skill to tackle some subjects properly and respectfully, and Ken has demonstrated that he just doesn't have that kind of skill.

 

[horridus]

20 minutes ago, Zonic 2099 said:

Does Ken really have to try to address every issue we have had this year in his projects.. I mean there are so many reasons why he shouldn't do this.
For starters by the time he theoretically gets the first book out, odds are everything will be over and done with. There's also the fact that most of the main cast are hideous knocks of Sonic & Knuckles & mostly Knuckles.

But my biggest issue though is my doubt in Ken's ability to handle such a sensitive subject properly. It requires a frightening amount of skill to tackle some subjects properly and respectfully, and Ken has demonstrated that he just doesn't have that kind of skill.

 

Well, given that Penders is the guy who said THIS about his prequel story...

 

... it'd be a pretty safe bet to say that yes, he really does want to tackle as many issues as he can. 

That said, it's not surprising. He re-started work on his inane 'The Republic' project only after Trump won the election and altered the plot to be about him rather than George W. Bush (The Republic was initially announced/conceived during the Bush Administration). Likewise when you look at some of the crap he included in his Knuckles' work, you are left with the impression of a man who desperately wants to be seen as some kind of brave, politically motivated writer tackling the relevant subjects of the day. 

Of course, being Penders, his tackling of those subjects is ultimately simplistic, childish, and bereft of any real empathy or insight on even the most surface level of things. And that's without getting into the fact how, just in general, a lot of the content of what he writes seems completely at odds with his stated position as a progressive liberal feminist. 

[SBR2]

Y'know the worst part is I don't think there's anything wrong with taking inspiration from real world events but he can do that in Future Books! Stop going back and changing the plot! If you're drawing it and translating it into other languages we assume you're past the first draft. Not every idea that enters your brain at this precise second needs to go in the first volume!

[CleverSonicUsername]

Oh he's been active on Twitter again? Well cool, he never said anything about two pieces I did. Which, to be fair, I've been mean to him before and if he remembers that through avatar and name changes then I can't blame him.

Also those above tweets, him restructuring and rewriting things to stay politically fresh, is some Duke Nukem Forever levels of chasing after the current "thing" and forever staying in production as you fall behind and catch up again. Just swap out game engines for current events and there you go.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

21 hours ago, horridus said:

And that's without getting into the fact how, just in general, a lot of the content of what he writes seems completely at odds with his stated position as a progressive liberal feminist. 

Feminism is when you take away female characters agency and reduce most of the women in the cast to housewives in your crappy "future" stories, and antifascism is when you write a story about how oppressed minorities will inevitably try to burn the cities of the ruling race to the ground.

[Nintenboi]

23 hours ago, horridus said:

Well, given that Penders is the guy who said THIS about his prequel story...

 

... it'd be a pretty safe bet to say that yes, he really does want to tackle as many issues as he can. 

That said, it's not surprising. He re-started work on his inane 'The Republic' project only after Trump won the election and altered the plot to be about him rather than George W. Bush (The Republic was initially announced/conceived during the Bush Administration). Likewise when you look at some of the crap he included in his Knuckles' work, you are left with the impression of a man who desperately wants to be seen as some kind of brave, politically motivated writer tackling the relevant subjects of the day. 

Of course, being Penders, his tackling of those subjects is ultimately simplistic, childish, and bereft of any real empathy or insight on even the most surface level of things. And that's without getting into the fact how, just in general, a lot of the content of what he writes seems completely at odds with his stated position as a progressive liberal feminist. 

Oh god. I cringe thinking about how he's gonna try to handle the protests (If he even gets to it before changing the script to tackle the next "big thing"). He clearly is too focused on being "relevant" to finish the comic. Which isn't a good thing to be focused on when dealing with a comic you plan to release by September (For now at least). Not to mention that he still wants to translate the comics. When will he focus on actually releasing the damn thing?

[UnknownByME]

On 6/2/2020 at 11:52 PM, CleverSonicUsername said:

And yet I kinda want to. Like the experience might be miserable, but my mind is racing at the thought of both drawing those characters better and more legitimately horrifying.

Ok here I gave it a shot, can't wait to be told it's too disney or whatever. (And he'd be right to as I've said disparaging things to him on twitter, so)

Ok I might actually read this if it looked like this.

Don't get me wrong the writing would still be an issue, but not nearly as much as the art. It's a shame that Ken doesn't do this instead, it could genuinly stand on it's own.

[horridus]

2 hours ago, Shaddy Zaphod said:

Feminism is when you take away female characters agency and reduce most of the women in the cast to housewives in your crappy "future" stories, and antifascism is when you write a story about how oppressed minorities will inevitably try to burn the cities of the ruling race to the ground.

Meanwhile the characters you've been building up as the setting's answer to Nazis, to the point where you actually (and very callously) edited a real life poem warning about the dangers of Nazism in order to be about your storyline, are suddenly no longer Echidna Nazis but unjustly victimized rebels against the theocracy. The theocracy you established in literally one issue, and not once mentioned in the entire storyline about the political structure of your setting even as that same storyline was all about how the villains are Totally Nazis.

1 hour ago, Nintenboi said:

Oh god. I cringe thinking about how he's gonna try to handle the protests (If he even gets to it before changing the script to tackle the next "big thing"). He clearly is too focused on being "relevant" to finish the comic. Which isn't a good thing to be focused on when dealing with a comic you plan to release by September (For now at least). Not to mention that he still wants to translate the comics. When will he focus on actually releasing the damn thing?

At this rate when permanent global peace is achieved and thus there are no longer any crises for him to draw 'inspiration' from. Assuming he ever gets over his addiction of making a fool of himself on twitter. Which he will not.

So never, basically.

[horridus]

Apologies for the double-post, but we have a... quasi-update. 

 

Welp. So much for the theory about him re-drawing anything. Good grief. 

[CleverSonicUsername]

Correct me if I'm wrong, that's drawn by Dawn Best, correct? Wonder what they would think about their art being republished by Penders or if she was approached at all about this.

[Razule]

6 minutes ago, CleverSonicUsername said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, that's drawn by Dawn Best, correct? Wonder what they would think about their art being republished by Penders or if she was approached at all about this.

That's Steven Butler's.

[CleverSonicUsername]

2 minutes ago, Razule said:

That's Steven Butler's.

Oh jeez. It's been a while since I've combed through the series so I'm bad at spotting who does what at this point. Except Ron Lim. Couldn't forget that if I tried.

Edit: Still, I am curious if Penders is working with the original art teams on those stories and getting their blessing before republishing anything.

[Tylinos]

Hedgefox is known for posting links to pirated scans of the Archie comics.  So, does this mean Ken is using pirated scans for Beginnings?  Because that'd actually be kind of hilarious.

EDIT: It looks like he's deleted the tweet.  For future reference, in case the text doesn't stick around, he said "youre welcome for the digital scans btw ^^" in response to Ken's tweet the other day about Beginnings.