Re: being an asshole over appearances Personally I was just wondering if the stress had really gotten to him from all of this, but the last picture I had seen of him before this recent one may have been from years ago. Also the comment about everyone having unflattering pictures does hold ground. Sorry for being a dick, Ken. Feel free to make fun of my appearance any time.
Yeah I don't get why everyone is making fun of his appearance, well I do but I don't see the reason to make fun of the man himself, it's his actions that are the most frustrating thing about him. I thought it was really interesting that he's without his moustache and that he should have dressed better but that's about it, hell am I the only one that commented on the interview itself around here? Considering everything that has transpired I think he's extremely overconfident in The Chronicles being a multimedia series, especially when the first book isn't even out yet! Granted many authors, publishers, and companies do at times make something with the hopes that it will turn into a big series but in this case with the mostly (if not all) negative feedback with these legal troubles the only way I see it being successful is if a LOT of people get curious enough to buy the books, and considering most of those that might buy it will mainly, if not only be people who grew up reading Archie Sonic anyway it doesn't look good for the guy. I can in some aspects understand why he did all of this and why he would want to finish what he started years ago, but as I've said WAY too many times he really went the wrong way with all of this, which earned him the spite of many around here and the entire Sonic Fanbase. I kinda feel bad for the guy looking back, but it is his own pretentiousness, overconfidence, and obsession with the story he never got to finish and his characters that is and may prove to be his own undoing. That's why The Chronicles will not be successful, but if by a miracle that it does find it's own audience and does well enough then hey good for him, and to leave this post off on a more optimistic note if all the characters he created during his run on Archie Sonic DO end up all staying in the comic then that would be great and we all win in the end, so let's hope for the best then and wait to see what comes next. Besides, if the book does end up sucking we can always riff the hell out of it! But I would like to be critical about it first before I tear it a new one. Also does anyone know if Ken will actually release Knuckles 20 Years Later? I heard he had the whole book and that it would have been released as a bonus or something in the first book but I highly doubt that will happen sense he would need permission from Sega and Archie to put it in the book, if that's the case can't he just release it for free on his site? Is he even allowed to do that?
Please stop arguing about his appearance already. IIRC most libel and other cases would have to involve the staff members, speaking in an official capacity, directly saying evil lies about Penders to try and do something. I am not a lawyer, but non-affiliated users saying nonsense isn't likely to hit anything. That said, we don't need to turn this into a giant PENDERS IS UGLY OMG festival either. Discretion is the name of the game, really. :p
I tried to avoid calling him ugly outright, but I guess I'm still guilty of being in the bandwagon too, by saying I was repulsed by that creepy smile he had in the photograph. I don't even care if he's ugly or not anyway, that expression just bothered me, like in a way that'd make me cry if I was still a kid; topic title is still being appropriate. I've SAID ENOUGH THOUGH MOVING ON Arguably, he put more time and effort into his work, but, at the same time, only the post-work has more effort put into it, and is in general, completely out of character for the Lara-su we know, so it's obviously very jarring to look at for anybody who reads the comic. Then there's the fact that she looks like a dimple-chinned old lady with hipster glasses and a cheap weave anyway, like another artist's rendition earlier in this thread points out. Then again, maybe that's the point and the comic's all about her kids; terrible waste of character ownership, if that's the case.
Picture is so bad that I can't view it in Chrome or Firefox />/>/> So I typed in the link in the IE browser, and the pics show up. That face of Lara-su looks like a granny. It's like a humanoid tranny enchilada of an Echidna. You know the writer sucks when he fails the design of his own characters. I mean, my posts are usually honest, but it's kind-of hot. But... I can totally hear that grandma from the Big Bang Theory talking. And looking at Ken. Well, I don't judge human appearances. But I was expecting more of a Stan Lee look younger with a grey pony tail. Guess not.
A little tangential, but yesterday Ken pointed out that there is, in fact, one Knuckles clone who is not his: Athair... Who is Mike Gallagher's. Gallagher created Athair as a spiritual guide for Tails in his mini-series. Which is interesting, because Athair is also the only Archie character to appear in another medium, in an episode of Sonic Underground. Although he looked markedly different in that episode. I've always wondered if there was ever an arrangement between Gallagher and the folks working on Underground, or if the naming was just a coincidence.
Pretty much this, any libel would be against me who chose the thread name, t least until Retro staff make a post saying "hurr hurr completely agreed" :v: As for the thread title it was just a rhyme linking Penders' shaving with the way he's treated as satan's second coming, and a riff on how last thread name was fairly innocuous but had people say it was innapropriate, but the first thread title ("Ken Penders is a Douchebag") didn't have any problems :P. I now realise that most likely in normal English accents "shaved" and "wailed" doesn't rhyme, though. Hmm. I'm looking forward to the one issue we'll see if we see an issue at all. It'll be a riot.
As an artist that earns practically no money from doing art, Sometimes I find Mr Penders ability to make money of his artwork kinda like a slap in the face =T Spoiler Boreeeeedom Sketch is still better =T took me the length of time it takes to listen to the Back to the Future II score =P http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFEvbbhAp2o Obviously, mine can be cleaned up, I dunno what you can do with Ken's =P
Who's saying he will make money from these new comics for sure? =P Of course, all this bad publicity might just bring in some sales out of curiosity- Wait, there's a thought, Penders might become successful for a time simply because his art is just that bad. inb4 Ken's new series turns into a captioning gold mine. That's a similar point the guy behind "A Moment of Archie Sonic" blog was trying to make during Mail Call as well. He wasn't about to critique fan artists' works, or red line them, since they're just doing what they do for the love of the series in their free time. Ken, on the other hand, was a paid professional, and here he was screwing up left and right on almost every panel, on top of cheesy writing.
He needs to stop trying to be so detailed in his work, because it really, really suffers. Besides, it's an absurd direction to take a race of stylized echdnas. His older stuff was better even if it was stiff as hell because, Jesus, the crummy shading does no favors.
IS he not trying to distance the art style so he can legitimately say that they aren't Sonic characters and solely his creations? He could turn around and say that no one of the general public would link the series to Sonic and therefore SEGA shouldn't be worried about him spinning it off.
I'm sorry, but all I can think of when I see this is I agree with him probably trying to distance the art style for legal reasons and get it away from the usual look, but if the entire book looks like this it will be a laughing stock (even more than it already is).
The only people unironically interested in this are... well, let's just say N.E.E.T. is putting it nicely.
.. I am now thoroughly terrified after an idea I could not get out of my head, but too lazy to do well: DISCOVER YOUR DESTINY
DANGIT, WHY CINOSSU. I WANTED TO SLEEP TONIGHT. Penders, look what you have wrought. Look at it and despair.
I can't believe this topic is still going. You'd think this kind of issue would be settled a little sooner.