Whatever the end result of this legal bullshit is, if both Penders and Archie can use the characters in both books then that's fine by me, I say that because I like how Flynn portrays those characters in the comics. As for Penders "Chronicles", I would probably get it whenever it comes out (used), just to see what all this bullshit was leading up to and if it was worth it all (it probably won't be worth it unless it's hilarious). I mean to be fair Penders WAS pretty good back in the day, however most of his stuff has not aged well. We all know how much of a mess issues 100 and over were, but when Sonic Adventure was coming out that pretty much ended the good old days of the comic as Penders stuff was delayed and with the Knuckles book cancelled, everything pretty much went to hell after that. But I would not call SA's Comic Adaption and the internal conflicts at Archie the main reason why Penders failed at the end of his run, it was because he had an idea on HOW it should end. We all know about his Sonic Live story that had King Sonic and all that jazz, that was what Penders saw as the "True Ending" of the comic, THAT's what doomed his run. I mean you CAN have an Idea on how a character's story could end, but you should NOT let that idea be the ONLY ending for that character's series in your mind, especially when you are not the creator of that character! Also as you can all see, Penders got way, WAY too involved in Knuckles backstory and the echidna race, but I don't need to tell you guys any of that, after all his Chronicles is the perfect example of why he got too involved. It's been awhile since I skimmed over it but it was really interesting to see what Knuckles race could be like and the conflicts involved, but once you start showing the character's personal lives with no action the book slowed to a snail's pace and ended up killing it. Hell, he wasn't even into the games at all to begin with, I think maybe if he actually played the games it could have given him more clarity on the book in general. I mean writing about a character is one thing, but to see where this character came from and to experience the character's adventure through it's original media can make what you are writing about the character a lot better, hell by watching one level of the game Ben Hurst and his team ended up creating SatAM, and with Sonic The Comic and it's team they just went all out and decided to make the whole world based on the games alone and it just went off to do it's own thing. Nowadays SatAM and STC are considered classics and among the best things in the multimedia of Sonic, while Archie Sonic's can be summed up as Okay, Pretty Cool, Awesome, turned to shit, THEN awesome again since Ian Flynn took over. Granted that's not everyone's view on it but that's the assumption I get from the fanbase. I'm probably crazy for saying this, but I might give these Chronicles a chance, after all he doesn't have to deal with any game adaptions or internal struggles since he's the only one drawing and writing it as far as I know, but my expectations for it are very low, at best it'll be a very pretentious story about poltical bullshit, fate, and mystical gibberish, at worst it'll make me push my fingers into my eyes (though the preview artwork does look like it will be the latter). Then again Lanzer you have a good point there.
The one time? Dude, I could go on a rant. I am very pro-sharing. When it comes to comics and books, I like physical copies. This is especially true when it comes to random ass indie comics that rarely anyone buys. Really, his market is essentially the size of diehard Archie-Sonic fans that don't hate his guts at this point. I don't think grabbing whatever few comics he releases before this goes down like the hindenberg is going to save it from going down like the hindenberg. Really the thought that anyone would think this will do well is making me laugh. Like seriously. Me voting with my dollar never helps with the projects I do like unless it already has a huge backing. Why would it matter with a project I consider a joke by a guy who is a comically unfunny clown? I mean this seriously. Does he actually have a sizable fanbase of mentally damaged Archie Sonic fans that could support him? If there is a sliver of chance for this to really be successful for him, then yeah I won't buy it.
Why is that? Obviously if I did think this board needed another anti-intellectual property rant from me I would have done it. I find this request to be a bit.... unkind. I only made the statement to clarify that having qualms about file sharing definitely isn't why I said I would snag a copy.
Nobody's mentioned this yet? http://www.kenpenders.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2549 Also in the link is part of the Lara-Su Chronicles script. Not-Knuckles is a random praetorian who is either killed off or is whisked away to the void of missing parents. For some reason I can't help interpreting subtext with Knuckes being Penders running off to engage is some intense legal battles behind closed doors and Lara-Su being the fanbase criticizing the whole situation.
How in the hell are Robo-Robotnik and Evil Sonic his characters? Like, this basically gives validity to anyone's fan character that they are unique creations not owned by Sega despite the fact that said character might just be a purple Sonic.
It's just Penders being Penders. He's been claiming them since the beginning. It's most likely him going "Oh hey, the settlement means the judge dropped all of Archie's claims, including the one where Anti-Sonic and Robo-Robotnik can't be claimed because they're blatantly Sonic and Robotnik. Clearly this means I can infringe on them. But I won't in case Sega decides to punch me with their super-lawyers for trying. But I'll say I can! Free speech." For anyone worried: Robo-Robotnik IS Eggman. As in, they're literally the same person in the comics, not just closely linked characters. You may have noticed Archie isn't worried about Eggman. And Scourge is the one character Archie went out of their way to add into an issue after all the character removals started happening (He cameoed in Universe 50), and he's been appearing in new in-comic ads as recently as Worlds Collide 10. (Probably 11 too, but I don't have 11 yet.) Something I pointed out elsewhere: A couple people brought up the whole Superboy legal issues lately, which reminded me of something. Do you know how DC got around Superman's creators' heirs' claims over Superboy? They just called him Superman Prime. That's it. Wouldn't you know it, both Anti-Sonic and Robo-Robotnik long since have new names and appearances that Ken didn't make. So even if he did somehow have an actual claim over those two despite them being Sonic in a Jacket and Literally Robotnik, their current incarnations are fine, hence why Archie doesn't seem worried about using them. The only way they would be in trouble is if the last part of settlement negotiations added a bit where Archie specifically gives him those two characters. Which, considering Eggman being the exact same character as Robo just like Scourge is the exact same character as Anti, still makes it seem like they're fine.
So in other words guys, for all of the banned characters to return all have to undergo is simple changes that won't make the said character 1/1 close to the Penders varient. Give Julie-Su a purple coat, some red eyes, remove her robotization parts and give her a different name and *boom* there you go, loopholed.
It only takes a spark to light a fire. Even if you hadn't intended to start a discussion on IP and file-sharing and what-have-you, I could see one blowing up. But you're right, it was rather unkind. Apologies.
Err, that isn't quite how the Superboy thing worked. Superboy was changed to Superman Prime because DC still had copyright over Superman at the time, with the Superboy variant of him in dispute. In regards to Robo and Anti, Anti is a variant of Sonic, so if there are any problems, they would be fixed by having him as a different Sonic variant, Scourge. Same goes for Robo: He's a variant of Robotnik, so any problems are fixed by him being what they own, Eggman. That wouldn't quite work with Julie-Su, since (Knuckles recolor jokes aside) she's not a variant of a Sega character.
Don't take that example too literal. What I mean basically is just its just going to take reworking but its possible for the banned characters to come back, I believe all they have to do is just get the character in question as far away from the Penders' Variant as possible while still trying to retain alittle bit of what made that character that character.
The Praetorian, really? I mean it's not a common word or anything but can't he come up with an actual name and not a title? I mean we all know that this is Not-Knuckles but still, how about Gauntlet, there I just came up with a name in less then a second. What is this character's design gonna be like I wonder, I'm betting two cents that the character will be obscured in shadow or something. Also since Penders 2nd book is gonna be called Brotherhood of The Guardians why not just call him The Guardian, why even call him The Praetorian at all? Also why would he want to use The Substitute Freedom Fighters and Dr. Quack anyway? I mean what would then even do, hell if they somehow do get in this series, it's gonna be like a cameo or at best 2 or 3 lines of dialogue, excluding Quack and Larry it's not like any of the other Substitutes have been useful at all other then being cannon fodder. There is no way in hell he can use Anti Sonic and Robo-Robotnik, unless he makes Not Versions of them like The Praetorian or something. How the hell the Acorn Family is gonna tie into all this I don't want to even think about it, can't wait to see what Not-Sally is like though! Also, taking place after M25YL? Really, how does that even work? My guess is that there will be like a 2 page long prologue about The Echydnas, Not-Sonic, and Not-Robotnik, that's the only way I see this happening. So far it's not great, shit I'm already bitching about it and so far only a small thing of dialogue has been revealed, hell what I was rambling about wasn't even about the dialogue! But what is there isn't much to talk about, just Lara-Su talking to her dad and then Cobor and someone else, something about an escape, Not-Knuckles fucks off to who knows where, and that's about it. Sounds RIVETING so far! *sarcasm*
Actually, the only Sub Freedom Fighters that belong to him are Penelope, Hamlin, Dylan and Arlo. Cyril was created by Mike Kanterovich and Larry was created by Angelo Decesare.
Well in that case, why use them at all? Hell I'm pretty sure they are gonna be just as useful as they were when they first appeared in the Sally Mini Series if they make it in this book. You might think I'm being harsh on the Sub Freedom Fighters in Archie Sonic (Minus Larry, as well as Arlo and Cyril since they went away a long time ago, although I think Cyril might be dead, he was pretty old when he first appeared after all) but really what have they really ever done? I mean there are only 3 times when they are featured (in The Sally Mini Series, Sonic Live, and Brave New World), 1 in which they do save the Freedom Fighters, but it's because Larry tipped them off about it and lead them to the group, I'm pretty sure if it wasn't for Larry they would have just done nothing, figured something was wrong, and then get captured trying to save them. But you could blame the writers for never doing anything with them after Brave New World, though truth be told literally ANYONE could do their job, and probably better too because other then field training they don't have any kinda special abilities, powers, or traits to fall back on like abnormal agility, hacking skills, or demolition expertise (again, excluding Larry as his Bad Luck could be considered a power). And considering that they let a mad man become King (though to be fair Naugus' magic played a part in him getting the throne, and of all the Subs Hamlin was actually ready to jump Naugus, on that note it's the only good or noticable thing Hamlin was ever going to do), The Remaining Subs that are now 1/2 of the Council are easily manipulated and weak willed. Penelope and Larry have no backbone while Hamlin is just an asshole who's jealous that he didn't get to fight more and be as well known as Sonic and Sally, on that note I hope the pig gets turned into bacon by the time the series ends. Sorry, went off at a tangent there, so back to The Chronicles I guess...
