I find this especially ironic, considering that one of the main reasons for including characters of different species and races in my own comic was specifically to tell stories about racial divides. But Ken Penders knows best, so I guess I better rewrite the whole thing.
It can go both ways. Animals can both represent race and be an abstraction to remove race as a concept, it just depends on the context. It's a tricky line to ride, since you have to contend pretty well with the social idea of animal behavior when using them as an allegory for humans, and you can accidentally end up falling victim to the bioessentialism you're trying to critique. The issue with Penders, of course, is that he (among other things) explicitly wrote a comic book arc about fascist dingoes doing a big nazi Germany in response to social oppression, which is completely contextual to real-world racial politics (and paints a civil rights movement from oppressed racial groups as the source of fascism, but who's counting?). He has absolutely no place pretending that his stories and the animals contained therein do not serve as a racial metaphor, and even less place saying that about other people's stories.
A friend and me made an alternate version of the Earth that had not just humans, but also other races such as elves an werewolves, and all those races also had white, black, asian, etc. people. I know it's harder with cartoony furries, but, come on, you can ignore different species as different races and address races within them anyway. So, not only it can go either way, it can also literally go both ways at the same time. I guess he's so cool he'd go even further and say his ex-kind'jazz are race-fluid. On another note, I instinctively pronounced K'Nox as Kay-Nocks, just like those toys, the K'nex.
So we've got a few months left to go to until we catch up to the present day, which presents two basic options. Rush them through to avoid being way behind for any big news, or space them out to better keep this thread alive. I think we can afford to keep the next month in the can for a bit longer, especially since something very interesting occurred to me as I weighed doing it just now. For in the last roundup I was reminded of Ken's website which had a much-lampooned quote "from" Lara-Su. Unfortunately, the quote is hard to find these days, since the website no longer exists. But that was not always so. A quick trip back in time through the Internet Archive revealed, in fact, that it once existed a very long time ago. As early as December 5, 1998, Ken's COMIC BOOK Stories & Art (!), last updated at that point on November 18, 1998, had some very familiar sights, and they are a wonder to behold. Some highlights: THE LOST ONES COMING SOON IN 1998! The photos no longer seem to exist, at least on this particular date's "snapshot" of the website. I guess that's where the stuff from the last roundup about how THE LOST ONES was so important because we need positive Asian role models now more than ever came from. Also amusing is the stuff about conventions considering what this thread has said about Ken regarding his comments on taking photos of cosplayers. KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA "Except for where he lives, what he does, and him and all his friends, I created virtually everything related to Knuckles." Do you think he still checks [email protected]? KEN'S CORNER Ken in 1998: Today's comics feature very poorly-drawn naked women. Ken in 2021: The more things change, the more they stay the same indeed. April 2021 coming soon!
I guess I owe Penders an apology. I previously stated that his Knuckles series was cancelled due to poor sales. Surely I imagined that right? I mean, it was one of America's top-selling comic book series FFS!
I feel like no sentence that starts with "If you're a female with Asian features..." can ever end well. EDIT: Wow, I said this the other day and then ran into this awful tweet by complete coincidence.
So based on the altered thread title the cat is out of the bag regarding Ken's recent "breaking news" (Note: news not actually breaking) about licensing "his" characters, or something. I didn't delve too deeply into it, since we aren't quite there yet. But that seems as good a sign as any that I should at least bring us a month closer to the present day. It is time for the April 2021 Ken Penders Twitter Roundup! ========== 04/01/2021 #1 A fitting tweet for April Fools' Day. SG #1: Can't wait to see it. Someone else gets into the April Fools' Day spirit as well. #2 It's the same fare as the rest of the year on the one day when it is appropriate, stopped clocks and all that. ===== 04/04/2021 #3 April Fools' Day has passed so it's back to the unqualified empty promises. And lest we forget: Klassic Ken #1 (11/18/1998) For those who think that Coming Soon in 2012! represents some sort of world record for a project past its due date, it's not even Ken's high score. Justin #2 (04/05/2021): Nobody cares. I guess Justin wasn't one of the guys "drawn into the story" on the prototype. SG #3 (04/09/2021): Why leave comics? Too much work to draw each panel? That probably doesn't help actually. Damious #4 (04/05/2021): Is there any way i can help you out Ken? #4 (04/05/2021) Damious #5 (04/05/2021): I emailed you last year in which you were looking for someone to do something invovling language and or using computer data #5 (04/05/2021) Damious #6 (04/05/2021): Ill try to find the old email its a big of a hassle tracking that stuff within emails but i sent you a new one What a fascinating exchange. Ken says that he doesn't want to "sound antagonistic or unfriendly," which is like the universal indicator that you are about to sound antagonistic and unfriendly (how do you do one and not the other?) and then he... really isn't antagonistic or unfriendly. But everyone thought he would be because of that needless intro. They both kind of sound like doofuses, not least because they are displaying their doofosity (original word do not steal) in this conversation relating to an effective stranger's unprompted work solicitation which for some reason is taking place on a public social media platform instead of in private. ===== 04/12/2021 #6 It's still so weird that he supposedly is legally able to sell these Sonic comics for profit. Well, in theory, my seconds of internet research suggest that there are just north of 7,000 languages in the world, and my years of Ken Penders research suggest that he wishes to create a translation for each and every one of those languages, so "All that remains" might be more than is implied by that statement. Remember, Ken likes to make work offers to people who show up and imply basic competence in the relevant language in his Twitter threads, something that I believe he did at least once not long before the above tweet here. Forgive my pessimism, but that leads me to believe that the translations might not all be being completed with optimal speed. Snoopy #7 (04/14/2021): Hope it is ready by Summer 2021! Dreams are good. ===== 04/16/2021 #7 Why did this tweet make the roundup? Because it features Ken doing what he sure seems to do a lot, which is shoehorning his conflict with Archie into every conversation possible and attempting to relate it to every notable conflict, disagreement, and historical event ever, particularly those with a good vs. evil dynamic (I'll let you decide which is which! Hint: Ken is good and Archie is bad.) #8 Why did this tweet make the roundup? Because of this reply: avisactu #8: Once he is public domain do you have any plans to release any intergalactic space epics featuring the Disney cast as muscley versions of themselves? I know what he was going for, but the answer is no, that would be too much work. And... that's it. We're done. I think the mods may give me the benefit of the doubt on certain things, but Ken screeched about a lot of stuff that, while interesting, probably wouldn't last long if I tried to post it here. Not that I'm complaining, it's less work for me. And it looked like it was smooth sailing up until the present day. Once. And then, August: Future Ken #1 (08/18/2021) August looks it sucks (for me), but that just means I'm going to try to get there with some speed lest the comments balloon up even more than they already have. Until then, may May (hey hey!) be shrill, political, and TLSC free. Pinned tweet on top of Ken's page #1 (05/01/2021) Thirty-two (32) comments. A provisional look reveals that I might have to do more copying, pasting, and formatting for the fallout of this one tweet than I did for all of April. I really hope you all look forward to it because I'm sure not. ========== I've decided to include a new bonus section at the end of the Roundup because there are so many wonderful things to be found for intrepid explorers willing to brave the dangers of the Internet Archive to explore Ken's now-dead website. Each one may not be too long, but that will preserve some material for later. Anyway, what was Ken like on the bygone day of October 20, 2007? Klassic Ken #2 (10/20/2007) Coming Soon in late 2007/early 2008! I wonder if he makes it? Klassic Ken #3 (01/22/2009) Probably just too busy getting THE LOST ONES out on schedule to update the website. Klassic Ken #4 (05/30/2017) Uh. ========== COMING SOON: Much tedious transcribing. NOT COMING SOON: THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES, THE LOST ONES.
I think Scott's Fulop Mammoth Mogul site has been updated with some Archie Sonic pages? http://narrativearkent.com/MAMMOTH-MOGUL/ Or is it new art? Also "Fearsome Foursome" sounds like a web series for adults
It looks a lot like a word I invented myself, so this is my word too now. 2021! = 2021 factorial = 7.8 x 10^5804. It is a really big number. I think the chapters of this novel were... the lost ones!!!!! I'm funny.
Holy moly, do you know what this means?! Ken and I are about to make an absolute KILLING together on Geoffrey St. John branded adult diapers for diaperfurs. and if any of you steal my idea im suing
https://mobile.twitter.com/KenPenders/status/1430048623778144260 So, who wants to license Evil So...ekchem... Scourge? You know, that character who was created by totally different writer? Man. This is pathetic. Nobody wants his characters, and nobody wants to do any business with him... and yet, he's rambling on Twitter, trying to get people's attention.
Speak for yourself, my Scourge cock rings are gonna be a surefire hit "Get Radical On Your Genitals", preorders available only through the official Lara-Su Chronicles™ app.
Ken Penders is the MyPillow guy of the comic book world isn't he? Can't wait til he hosts a 3 day symposium of his own. He will show the world that Geoffrey St. John is a good character and not just a creeper he kept having Sally's dick father set up some underage relationship between the two. Ooh what about Locke, can he be licensed? I want to write a series of parenting books offering horrible advice and I want him slapped on the cover. He's the ultimate dead beat dad so you know his advice is good. "Oh don't mind me, just watching my son on monitors from my hidden high tech base with my army of weird magical fire ants while my son has to forge for food and guard a rock that prob could be in this hidden location but it's not for reasons." Something tells me Penders has daddy issues because every father figure he made was an absolute ass
He's actually on the record as saying that Locke was based on his own father. Apparently he had a rocky relationship with his dad and they never really made amends until shortly before his death. I do sympathize with him, having a bad dad is rough. But of course that's not a good excuse for his writing.
Did Penders dad also spy on him through secret cameras? But that certainly makes sense. But ya his writing has more issues than just daddy issues for sure.
The man has weird obsession with family stuff. IIRC, Sonic's mom is called after his wife. Everybody has extended families everywhere and in Sonic Live! Kenders used photos of his family. Not surprising, that he hates Ian. The only good story with Locke is Enerjak Returns, and Locke sacrifices himself in it.
I think the biggest problem with Locke (and King Max, for that matter) is that there's always some point where the story pulls back and justifies their actions, usually by some form of "god told me to do it so that makes it okay". They never actually get to be wrong, no matter how much everyone else suffers.
