Had no idea he worked on KOTH. Wow... only two episodes according to IMDB, but still. And The Republic was thoroughly documented elsewhere in this thread, though it doesn't look like it really got popular or anything (hell, I had never heard of it up until maybe a year ago), so I doubt anyone knows who he is or cares. And oh man that trailer... XD I've seen Youtubers with better effects. I lol'd at "best-selling comic".
I can take a guess to what forum that was, one of the staff worked for Archie IIRC so there was quite a bit of brown-nosing going on, which even spread to other forums which shared some of the same userbase. I admittedly was a bit of a dick back then so I used to love winding those types up (and boy, were they easy to wind up) by slagging off Ken's characters and writing, funny how everything turned out
I've been a furry for a while now, but if Ken Penders is a true furry, then I think the fandom might need to reassess themselves. O.o
Yeah, they were easy to wind up. And that makes sense as it wasn't just Penders talk that would get me in trouble. I remember reading in one of the issues that Ron Lim was joining to do art, and I was like.. "Really? Him?" When I saw that, I was already familiar with his work on Spider-Man, and anytime I picked up one of those and flipped through it, I knew his style, and I didn't like it. I could tell the characters that he liked and didn't, as I could tell that he just didn't work on certain characters as long. For instance, you had Carnage vs Venom, and his Carnage would look fantastic, while his Venom looked like a joke and that was every frame. And when he started drawing for Sonic, I could tell that he didn't care about the gig, and his worst character? Sonic himself! And apparently I'm not alone on that thought as as other fans have dubbed Lim's Sonic "TV Head" And "Floating Island Productions" Oh! There's a trailer for "The Republic" too. It seems to be your basic 'America=Bad' script that's ideal for fitting in with the loons in Hollywood these days. The production/effects are... a little better than The Lost Ones.
Given I never felt too hot for Archie!Sonic, I only saw Penders as a demented soul yearning for greatness. But then I watched this... I...don't know what to say. I don't wanna curse the guy or worse, he doesn't deserve that kind of attention. But he sure managed to ruin some things from the franchise. Dear Goodness...
He's explained this story himself and his motivations for why he did this last April. Feel like unless you have a good knowledge of the creators rights movement and publishers failures to care for creators who helped them make billions you can't pick a side.
So this show up in my timeline. I have so many questions behind everything O.O https://twitter.com/Sapphire1X7/status/1348461117207699456
I'm pretty sure if TLSC somehow got clout it'd be the first furry material to cause a mass-conversion back to regular-old...fleshies. Skinnies? Whatever you call non-furries, I don't keep very good track of the nomenclature
#1, I wholeheartedly agree. My sona is very close to me, but ken penders will find a way to absolutely nuke that lol. #2, I think it's just normies tbh, like what most subcultures use
Not doing a good job of protecting his 'brand' so far. https://www.namecheap.com/domains/registration/results/?domain=larasuchronicles https://www.namecheap.com/domains/registration/results/?domain=thelarasuchronicles EDIT: Now they're registered by someone
You got it wrong: someone has to get it first so he can sue them or at least have an excuse to say why his work is taking more to release than intended.
I mean. I wouldn't say Ken used all of what Ben came up with. Nicole and Robotnik's origins differ greatly. The "love triangle" thing with Sonic/Sally/Geoffrey predates any conversation between Ben and Ken, not to mention the idea of a "love triangle" is certainly nothing unique. The future Earth scenario? Eh, I dunno if Ken really stole that, either. I never got the impression that it was meant to be a core story point of season three, either way. How Snively and Nagus are used in a post-Robotnik world is also different. Ben was going to tell a story of Snively trying to rule Robotropolis, presumably with Nagus' help until he's betrayed, and Robotnik would be there for Nagus' amusement. Meanwhile, in the comics, Snively and Nagus don't work together, Robotnik is super dead, Snively is quickly imprisoned, and Nagus' plans are nothing like what Ben hinted at. I don't think you can say "oh using Snively and Nagus means Ken stole Ben's ideas," because the show set up Snively and Nagus as being antagonists. Its the natural way to go. Well, this is a public forum. Someone was bound to snatch those up.
Honestly, the future Earth angle I think was more Penders piggybacking off of Jack Kirby's Kamandi concepts. Not going to say that the Archie writing staff didn't have the SatAM bible and other developmental materials and milk them considering Nate Morgan, which may have been Bollers with the world tour arc, but the world map from Super Sonic Special 2 and Penders saying Kirby was an inspiration of his always sort of hinted at it being more Kirby for it's inception. The Echidnas were always seemingly derived from Kryptonians vs in Japan where it was Castle in the Sky which itself was a degree off of Gulliver's Travels. Originality doesn't seem to be anyone's strong suit. Let alone Penders with his Star Trek and Star Wars fixation with various vehicles Ken directly ripped off. Nick the Weasel and the Millennium Falcon or the infamous Legion Bird of Prey. Mammoth Mogul, while not his, always seemed to be a mashup of Ulysses Bloodstones origin from Marvel with Vandal Savage's villain persona from DC so he wasn't the only writer doing it. That was Scott Fulop, so being that he was another involved in Archie lawsuits it was odd at the lack of originality that was going around among very ip driven creators. Thinking about all of the more overt comedic pastiches done earlier in the series by Gallagher and earlier writers was just so much simpler. Spawnmower, before a crossover with the real Spawn later on. Heck, the Cosmic Interstate was the Crossroads from the Incredible Hulk. Comic writers drawing from what they knew is a thing, it's just varying degrees of what they get away with it seems. In Japan it always seemed like a Dragon Ball style fantasy meets technology world. America was a post-apocalyptic animal vs human one in Archie. Underground cities were mentioned by Ben Hurst which always seemed to be an homage of Planet of the Apes which was what Kamandi was inspired by because DC couldn't get the license at the time if I remember my comic lore right. So many parallel lines of development and it is possible to trace all of it. Even all of the concept art that's come out, you can see various inspirations and genres that everything were tied to and what directions they may have taken. Good they didn't in most any of them. So really, Ken just wanted to make a watered down Kamandi. Screwed Ben Hurst over on the side way back. Now he trolls everyone on the internet. Kinda tarnishes a lot of other franchises and people in the process. What a legacy.
I don't really have a problem with the melting pot approach, rife with guest characters or pop culture references, Sally Moon and such was great fun. Still your point is not lost on me. It needs to FEEL like original work. Take the effort to tie a bow around the different sources, making them more than the sum of their parts. I suppose it's human nature any franchise is going to cross paths with less than noble people along the line. Many of my favorite brands have their skeletons.
To be broadcast Saturday 23rd and downloadable on Sunday 24th: a podcast interview with Nigel Kitching, Ian Flynn... and Ken Penders. (Presumably not all together at the same time.) https://twitter.com/TomCampbell/status/1351567096518504450 The Sonicpodcast.com link in the tweet doesn't work; it's meant to be https://thesonicpodcast.podbean.com/
Ah man, I would’ve loved them all at the same time. Especially since Ian has apparently blocked Ken on Twitter. Still cool though! Definitely gonna try to check it out.
Maybe "All" was a bit of an exaggeration. But for me, there were plenty of times I looked at a comic here and there and got reminded of something Hurst said for his planned continuation. I think in the end that Penders just isn't a very creative guy. I don't think that he has the imagination to just sit down and create a story that's totally original. I think that when he tries, he has to fall back on other works to pull him through.
Regardless of the extent to which Penders derived his ideas and how acceptable it is, it would be more forgivable if he didn't claim monopoly on them. He acts like he's this underappreciated genius who made the Sonic franchise what it is and everyone is out to steal his unique ideas. Ideas that were used by others before him, even within the Sonic series (I'm looking at the echidna civilization here).
Kinda agreed. Derivative ideas are a dime a dozen considering Marvel and DC have full on pastiches of one another. Penders has done almost everything he accused others of hypocritically though. An homage or an occasional nod is one thing. But he lifts things verboten at times. Echidna Civilization, watered down Krypton. Dimitri, forced the civilization back into luddism much like space travel was abandoned after the militant scientist Jax-Ur destroyed Krypton's moon causing societal regression and the ban of certain technologies. Bonus points for both societies always getting involved in nuclear weapons. It Always seemed like it was an interesting parallel. Didn't seem like a coincidence. Let alone the obvious female naming methodology. The ruling council and Science Council shared plenty of similarities. The Twilight Zone is obviously the Phantom Zone. Some random Kamandi stuff for spice to pad out the wider world with a bunch of look alike Knuckles clones. Voila. Let alone the fact all the times people point out StC or the novels beat Penders to an idea he turns around and tries to claim solely for him. Always going to agree the Nocturnus are a vastly more generic precursor civilization than the Legion. Still trying to figure out the inspiration for the Dark Legion though. Warhammer 40K's Adeptus Mechanicus seems like the most direct preceeding analog but I've never come across any mentions by Penders to tie them together. Most other things are either blatant enough or he outright said what his inspirations were.
