What's most shocking about his work station on the previous page is that he has a framed poster of Jack Kirby's artwork. Yet Ken Penders is like the polar opposite of Jack Kirby. Not noteworthy at all with his art and breaking no new ground or being talked about for decades.
Actually, Dinosaur Land was the actual location in the games. Yoshi's Island was merely one of the landmasses comprising the location. So they might have been on the actual landmass, versus the southwestern island. Spoiler
Did you ever hear the tragedy of Ken Penders the Wise? I thought not. It’s not a story a Sonic fan would tell you. It’s a Ken Penders legend. Ken Penders was a comic book writer, so powerful and so wise he could use Archie to create echidnas... he had such a knowledge of echidna lore he could even create hundreds of shitty Sonic fan characters. The mind of Ken Penders is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural... the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately he taught Sonic fans everything he knew, and Sonic fans naturally hated his stories, so he escaped and is now working on a shitty graphic novel. Ironic, he could save his OC echidnas, but not himself.
Enough time has passed. Let's check in on Ken. ---------- 12/17/2019 (Twitter) I had debated whether or not to add a background to this until the person who commissioned this said go for it. So I did. The final result: This looks to be on about the same level of quality as a piece of art sent in to the comics by a fan. I'm not impressed. I had praised this thing when he unveiled it in its "unfinished" form ten days ago, but points off for how underwhelming his ten days of "going for it" was. 12/23/2019 (Twitter) Saying something sucks is not criticism, rather it's evidence of a lack of intelligence, articulation & critical analytical skills. Saying you don't like something because it lacked (whatever you felt was missing) or wasn't up to someone's previous work is constructive & helpful Presented without further comment. 12/28/2019 (Twitter) Unlike many of the creators coming from fandom working on Sonic today, working on Sonic back then was an assignment. Another job. In my case, it was my son and the readers who wrote & submitted drawings who showed me why the characters & the series mattered. Thus, they mattered. You would think if this were so at the point when Ken started to "get" Sonic there would be a requisite upturn in quality. But based on what I've read here, there wasn't one. I wonder which side is lying? 12/30/2019 (Twitter) One of the topics that bedeviled everyone working on the Sonic series was the use of weaponry. That was one area we even heard from the publishers if they felt a line was crossed. With THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES, the topic is addressed with the seriousness it requires. The list of reasons why I'm sorry that THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES (LSC) will never come out has increased because THIS would be some unintentional comedy. In fact, this tweet is by itself. 01/02/2020 (Twitter) If you're a @starwars fan that can be honest with themselves, you know the recent film should have shown Kylo Ren revealed as the Big Bad near the end with Rey taking him out with Luke's light sabre. What was depicted instead was poor fan fiction. Ken has a LOT of tweets unrelated to Sonic or the LSC (AKA the thing which is theoretically his livelihood), including about Star Wars, which I am skimming over here for good reason, but I couldn't pass up him of all people deriding someone else for "poor fan fiction." 01/06/2020 (Twitter) Recent events & Lara-Su plot lines force me to ask the question: Do the Echyd’nya have a military? Upon further reflection, the Echidna certainly did, but they didn’t consider Robotnik their problem, all the while keeping an eye on his antics. The world building continues. The LSC is never, ever coming out and tweets like this are proof of it. Chime in if you disagree, but in my humble opinion, based on everything we know about Ken and the long LSC development process, the two likeliest reasons for this tweet are: 1) Ken actually is bogged down with superfluous details like this, missing, as they say, the forest for the trees; or 2) since something like this requires the least amount of thought and work to come up with as "evidence" that work is being done on a creative project, he's consciously done the bare minimum to keep up appearances on his vaporware. This also invokes that poorly-received sentiment of his from a bygone time earlier in this thread that "The Dark Legion would have had Eggman for lunch" because of what badasses his characters are. 01/08/2020 (Twitter) Here's the 3rd and final piece I was commissioned to do by a fan. Just finished it this afternoon. Like above, I recall this as another commissioned piece that really doesn't have all that much else to show for a lot of extra time that could have been spent on it. 01/11/2020 (Twitter) To the people who feel I alone am responsible for the death of the Archie SONIC series, I'm sorry your grasp of reality is tenuous at best. I really feel for you. I'm also tired of your using me as an excuse to bash other fans who disagree with your POV. Leave them in peace. Presented without further comment. 01/12/2020 (Twitter) A fan purchased a copy of the hardcover edition of BEST OF SONIC that came with a sketch of Cmdr Geoffrey St John and this is what they received from me. I think this looks good. There was no two-week period involving what appeared to be ten minutes of work touted as a "big finish" or what have you for which to take off points. In fact, it looks good enough to be clearly better than the images of Jeffrey Saint James--or whatever the LSC knockoff is called--that we've already gotten, which makes that stuff look even worse. Somehow, he is putting both too much and not enough effort into his fan commissions, managing both to underwhelm on them by themselves AND making his "main project" look even less appealing than it already is in comparison. 01/16/2020 (Twitter) I believe at some point a story has to end. 80 years of SUPERMAN & BATMAN stories should have covered everything. @StarTrek should be boldly going into the 25th & 26th centuries, not reliving Kirk & Picard episodes. That’s why I have a definitive arc with an ending for Lara-Su. Unfortunately, Ken does not seem to believe that at some point a story has to begin. The new @SonicMovie trailer goes where we never did in the comic. The Government wants to dissect Sonic. The parents can have fun explaining that one to their kids. I think earlier in this thread there was someone whose mother did not let him buy Archie Sonic because the art was so bad, although that may have been the fault of Rob Liefeld or some other non-Penders fellow. At any rate, just another snide dig at a big Hollywood project that cannot measure up to the high standards of Ken's kid-friendly masterpieces. 01/18/2020 (Twitter) I really should thank Harry & Meagan for providing the solution how to handle Princess Sally in THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES. It was actually something I was considering had I stayed on the book. Namely, Sally has relinquished her crown and title. She’s off elsewhere now. Another treasure trove of a tweet that hits a lot of squares for those playing Ken Bingo. The "clever" incorporation of current events. The "lost idea" from Ken's unjustly-ended tenure on the book. The laziest and easiest solution possible to sweep under the rug the fact that this "non-Sonic" story cannot be told without reference to Sonic. "Hey! I've got it! She's just gone now!" Maybe in this kid-friendly story with its mature discussion of weapons she can just have been blasted into a coma offpanel, but I think Ken already did that. ---------- COMING SOON: Ken discusses if Echy'sdfsdhfds like to drink coffee, what kinds of coffee they like to drink, and the nature of the communal meetings in which Echy'sdfsdhfds gather to drink coffee together (this is speculation). NOT COMING SOON: The Lara-Su Chronicles (this is guaranteed).
Penders being Penders aside, he does have a point here. In all my research I've found nothing to suggest that Penders had anything to do with, or was even a factor for, the cancellation of the Archie series. His legal actions certainly didn't help, yes, but it seems more like Sega just became wary of the direction the series was going in and wanted to jump to IDW. Flynn even said at one point (I think in an article he wrote for the Escapist?) that the series was only canceled because Sega suddenly revoked the license. We can keep laughing at Penders, but we shouldn't blame him for killing the book.
Think of Penders the way you'd think of a snowball at the top of a mountain. That one snowball won't do harm on its own, but the resultant avalanche will. Penders' lawsuit invited further ones against Archie (the guy who did the James Bond ripoff mammoth whose name I forget was likely in the running). Sega decided it was better to cut its losses there and start free of any problems.
I would probably read between the lines on this one. Ian is probably going to remain professional about the situation and not point fingers. Although I do love the post Genesis Wave stuff, it's clear the Archie and Sega lawsuit really damaged the comic, and considering it was Sonic Chronicles that mostly kicked this all off. I'd say Sega were more than happy to get a million miles away from Archie comics as quick as possible in case of this happening again. To assume Penders isn't to blame is to assume that SEGA didn't take the lawsuits into consideration at all when they made such a decision to part ways with Archie. As I've always seen it, Sega still wanted to continue the western Sonic Comic series. But they didn't want to do it via Archie anymore, thus losing their record streak and Archie fanbase at that point. Unless there was a bigger problem at hand that we weren't aware of, how could it not be the shockwave of the Penders catastrophe? It was a big ship to jump from, but there were clearly too many holes letting water in, and IDW offered a safer voyage.
There was also Archie putting more of its effort in to its titular IP around the time of Archie!Sonic's cancellation, what with that Riverdale series becoming something of a sensation.
Mammoth Mogul. Don't remember if the creator is the same guy, but I do remember Karl Bollers trying to get in on the lawsuit fun for his characters (Including the original incarnation of Dr. Finitevus.)
I was thinking of writing a novel called "The Ken Penders Chronicles", and it's literally just this entire thread woven into a cohesive narrative structure. If I do I want to time its release to make sure it releases alongside the Lara-Su Chronicles.
I'd actually genuinely read that book. It'd be far more interesting than the MARY-SU CHRONICLES itself would be.
Just a sudden thought that this thread will be having it's 10th anniversary this year! Going back and reading early posts is quite a ride full of twists, considering everything that's happened! I'll definitely have to do some kind of picture to celebrate.
