Yeah, that's better than nothing. EDIT: By the way, BobR now claims Ken never backstabbed Ben. Personally, I find it quite odd that despite how Ken has openly stated that people have asked him in the past for his side of the story on the situation over the past decade, this is the first time we've heard anything about Ken never contacting Sega as Ben claimed.
I hear Archie filed a motion for summary judgment. I know the case was adjourned to give Archie the opportunity to do so, but Penders have until March 6 to file a response.
The worst part about all of this is Ken's unwarranted self-importance. He needs to stop thinking he's the shit, because he really, really isn't. He did a bad job writing for a comic book and an even worse job doodling for it. I'm sure someone's said this already, but he really does have the unnecessary, childish ego of Christian Weston Chandler. And while I DO see his frustration in wanting recognition for the characters he created, he's going about it the wrong way. His behavior is neuroatypical.
Question: When he skips over a question that could make him look bad, does he pretend he didn't read the comments that tell him he ignored them?
I vote we just repeat the "So, did Ken Penders ask Ben Hurst and Len Janson for their permission or insight in, say, deciding Rotor was gay? Or trying to kill Sally, or roboticizing and "killing off" Lupe (and making her married with kids, and Hispanic)? Did he care that Karl Bollers had written Mina as deciding against joining the Freedom Fighters when he kept writing her as part of the team? Never mind all the crazy stuff done to the SEGA cast. How does that fall under "respecting the creators' rights?"" post until he answers it.
Usually he just says stuff like "I can't answer your question at this time due to the legal battle," even when the question would have no bearing on the legal battle whatsoever. Well, would any of you guys be willing to help with that? If I did it on my own, I'd probably get banned for spamming the board. EDIT: Looks like Lammy's been reading this topic. Thanks, Lammy.
The best part of "I can't answer that because legalities" is that he's shown to not give a damn about legalities already. There's this little pet project he's advertising before the court issue over it is even near done, as well as the other times he's mentioned how he is in the right and so forth legally, when, if I'm not mistaken, that what this whole case is about. But, yeah. Penders is hypocritical. Water is wet. The sky is blue. Nothing new there. Hrmm, that almost makes me tempted to join his forum. Is Lammy a member here? I don't see them on the member list. Well, in any case, thanks mate. Not a single reply has been made on that thread at all, to the quote or ignoring it. It's almost as if the sheer logic pointed out by it has actually sunk in to some of them. Wishful thinking, I know, but it's interesting how they jumped on it before when all they noticed was Hurst's name. But, now that the quote itself is plainly visible and impossible to misinterpret in any way (or to claim to be, in any case), not a single person has responded. Interesting.
BobR comments on the creator's rights thing: Wow. Way to downplay Ken screwing Karl's work over, Bob. Ken has already said himself that he often didn't even read other writers' work (See: Karl) even when he still worked on the book himself. It's fairly common knowledge that this led to Ken screwing up Karl's work a lot. So go ahead, Bob. Blame the editor, not Ken.
...Because. You know. Having a little chat with another writer over your characters and plot ideas is so damn hard. I'm not even saying to have a full out pow-wow or whatever. Just shoot them a memo, "hey, I wanted to do this," or go to lunch with them and discuss characterization. I have these types of conversations all the time with my Beta (to see how people who DON'T know everything about the plot are seeing the characters in my various writings), and she doesn't even have any real creative control. Sure, I guess an editor should keep an eye out for this type of thing, but if the editor isn't doing it right, then stand up and take action yourself. It only takes a 15-20 minute conversation to clear up a lot of these issues. "Oh, Mina decided against being a Freedom Fighter? Okay." That only took, like, 30 seconds. A writer is responsible to craft the best story that he or she can, with the proper characterization and flow of canon as possible. In comics, that means conversing with other writers. Passing the buck just shows that you didn't care about the story itself, just your story and, more likely, the paycheck. Of all the things Penders has said, admitting to never even glancing at the other writers' works while writing for the book (especially for the main book) has been one of the ones that irks me the most. You want an example of two writers collaborating and writing something that took a miniscule frame and evolved it into a rich world? Try one of my favorite series. It starts with a book named Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Weis and Hickman collaborated so well, that I couldn't even pick out whose influence was whose. Dragonlance started out a just a campaign setting for Dungeons and Dragons (albeit, with its own world, but it was still a D&D property). It's now evolved to the point that many of the D&D players I've met consider Dragonlance to be it's own universe. It's done so by having writers that work together or at least work to have a basic understanding of the mythos. And you don't see Weis or Hickman suing Wizards for the rights to Raistlin or Tanis or Tasslehoff. And these characters actually can carry a story by their own merits. They have since 1984. Just.... I apologize if this seems a little over-ranting. This just has always bugged me, and Bob just pushed it even further.
That's right, we're "a few lurking trolls" compared to his "vast number of supporters". How is it like being in such a world of delusions, Ken? In all seriousness, what the hell is this man on? As Antarctic Deity says in his reply, "I've actually seen less unanimous dislike of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)". This is one of the only cases where I've ever seen near unanimous agreement like this. There are almost no supporters speaking out. SOPA is the only thing in recent memory which was like this, and amusingly enough, Ken's sounding a lot like the few supporters of SOPA did in trying to claim the protests against SOPA were overblown and based on lies.
That's kinda our point (well, one of mine, anyway). This is something that has actually united a surprising amount of the community. The only non-lackey's of his that I've seen say "let him win" always add "so that his terrible shit is removed from the book." I have been lurking around several of the major Sonic communities and some of the smaller ones and even a few non-Sonic comic communities on a rare occasion, and they all are like this. That's not exactly support, Penders. Link me/us to proof otherwise. Show us evidence. Without it, it's *your* argument that sounds hollow. Hahahaha-what? I'm one of "a few lurking trolls?" I'm a troll because I call you out on your hypocrisy, your bullshit, and that fact that you've basically acted like an ass during this entire brouhaha? Oh, Penders. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. If I was a *real* troll, I'd have joined your forum and spammed it with rule 34, or something. He's calling us trolls for developing our own opinions on the matter and supporting it with actual facts and details that we can show (namely, things he's said and done) and use visual examples to prove his hypocrisy. It's rather childish, actually. Just because we're against something, just because we're the vocal ones, doesn't mean we're wrong. Sometimes, the loudest crowd really is right. Trust me, Penders, if we were trolls, your forum would get a lot more activity. Real trolls actually tend to inspire a lot less people to follow their "thoughts" than you'd think. I certainly wasn't convinced that you're wrong or acting like a childish jerk because someone just went "Penders is an ass" on a forum. *You* and *your actions and words* are what positioned me against you. I don't know why that's so *hard* for you to grasp. I mean, after all, it "comes with the territory." Antarctic Deity is right; this is kinda like SOPA. Listen to him, Penders. Somehow, this guy seems to still be on your side and is genuinely looking out for you. EDIT: Oh, and to add some strength to my words, here's a little image I was recently shown pointing out his "everything I wrote was purely original" hypocrisy: EDIT DEUCE: Lammy, I love you. That is all.
So, Ken finally admitted what he's doing isn't popular, but it's buried in a post of "Where are all the people protesting Archie's treatment of freelancers? They deserve to be protested instead of me."? I'm somehow not surprised.
I'm currently typing up a rather lengthy post to explain to Ken, in detail, why people don't like him, since he clearly has very little idea of why. Anyone care to help link me some source posts on things he's said that have pissed people off while I write? So far I have the first post that started to get people annoyed with him two years ago. EDIT: Actually, I've decided to hold off for now and only use that first post, but look up more in the meantime for a later post. I don't like delaying posting this just over something I can add as extra stuff later. I posted the post as-is, and it's already really long.
Sorry Penders, the king is still nothing without his subjects. As notoriously nitpicky as Sonic fans can be, they are still your intended would-be patrons are they not? Your certainly not doing all this for yourself, you keep coming back to have the last say and then complain about how they haven't supported you. Why do they tend to believe Ben's words over yours? It can't possibly be because he shows respect and gratitude for his fans, acknowledges his own weaknesses or speaks highly of people other than himself. Nope, it must be because he's dead, because they are all sappy morons like that. There's going against the grain and then there's “everyone is crazy except me.” What makes you think that things will be different in the future? Do you have a contingency plan in case you fail? Bravery is knowing what you're getting into, not blindly charging into a battle while foaming with bludgeon in toe. Anyways, I think that's enough rubbernecking for me for today.
So Penders says that using the Millenium Falcon wasn't his doing, it was the artist's. I believe this is a Klingon Bird of Prey starship from Star Trek, and Ken Penders was the artist of this page.
Hrm, well, if it hadn't been for Penders's general "Not my fault/problem" attitude, I'd be willing to grant him that one (I didn't put the image together, I was shown it, I just didn't want to hotlink it), but.... Eh, one point out of many isn't the grandest of recoveries, anyway. Hahaha. Klingon warbird? Penders as the penciller? This is a SHEER ripoff. I'd normally just call it a homage, but his statement on how everything he did was "original" just makes that page so hypocritical. Speaking of Penders's arrogance: Well, it's not a raisin this time, but any improvements to anatomy compared to the last one is completely ruined by God. Damn. Dodge. And. Burn. It's seriously starting to annoy how he thinks that it's appealing, especially used like this. I've seen very few artists use dodge and burn well, and then sparingly. Also, I hate the design. More Borg bling? What was wrong with his old design, anyway? It wasn't pretty, but it fit the character and what he'd gone through (Legionization). Also, Penders is going to be selling reprints guys. Yeah, good luck with that.
Whoa whoa whoa wait, I haven't been keeping up to date with this much, but..wasn't Penders the one who started the lawsuit? I know he said that Archie filed the lawsuit against him, but I'm pretty sure he was the one who filed it. If I'm right that's just annoying and childish, blaming it on the other.
Well... It's the best drawn of the four. I'll give it that. But the design is just...stupid. hahahaha yeah okay Ken's finally truly lost it. Until now I thought he had at least some sense left. EDIT: Just to be clear, I'm not laughing at the royalties part. I'm laughing at the idea that Ken thinks he'll be able to publish these without Sega's say-so. Even if he gets the rights to his characters and such somehow, do you know what he still won't have the rights to? The Master Emerald and Floating/Angel Island. And this time, he can't just say "Oh, it's not Sega's island and emerald." Because it is.
