THE KEN PENDERS CHRONICLES: PendersCON Alert level 5- something actually made it to sale

So he actually went through with reprinting M25YL, a story full of Sega's characters, and publishing it himself?

Unless he's abusing some obscure publishing rights loophole that I am unaware of, he's definitely gonna face legal trouble now.

 

There's a few unboxings of it on YouTube. Some of them DO show the NSFW junk.

But one of the people in the videos says it's around 60% republished material from archie comics.

 

Why the fuck did I click that first link? I feel like I'm on a list of some kind now...

 

You know, I always thought everyone would stop caring about Penders and move on with their lives and by the time The Mary-Su Chronicles actually came out no one would pay attention.

welp

 

The difference is, most fans don't make money off of the IP they're making fan games of: there was massive concern when Sonic Omens was locked behind a paywall for this very reason.

Penders is selling the comic, so he's making money off an IP he is not licencing. That's very likely to draw SEGA's attention.

 

Remember that NSFW panel of the echidna breastfeeding the baby?

Yeah there's a 2nd panel in the same book also showing another scene but just after the birth!

NSFW obviously!

 

Yet Sonic Omens didn’t result in a lawsuit (thankfully so, allowing fan games to continue to thrive), which suggests Sega didn’t perceive it as worth the time. Meanwhile, Penders has far fewer eyes on his work than Omens, and Sega has already pushed Archie to settle their initial lawsuit. All of that indicates to me that Sega has no interest in pursuing legal action.

…which Penders is clearly taking advantage of, though I’m not sure how he justifies it. Creating human proportioned aliens named Echyd'nyas to legally distinguish his work from Sonic is… a choice, but is ultimately probably effective enough. Using Knuckles by another name is iffy, but I can see the legal grey area behind it. Reprinting the 25 Years Later stories - maybe he received full rights in the settlement?



But I don’t understand how he justifies referencing Kintobor, a name developed for the Western Sonic Bible and literally the main antagonist’s name spelled backwards. There’s no way Penders can lay any claim of ownership of the name or character since they preceded his involvement with the comic.

 

Doesn't Fleetway have a Dr. Kintobor too?

 

Yes it does.

Its 100% a Sega created thing.

Edit: It's also used in multiple books from the 90s, stay Sonic, Sonic the Story to name but a few.

 

Because the game was released for free, but SEGA were aware of the situation and their community manager actually addressed it. It was a very real concern that SEGA would start cracking down on the fandom because of it. So SEGA may very well be preparing to crack down on this.

It was something developed by SEGA of America, where Dr. Ovi Kintobor became Dr. Ivo Robotnik.

 

Boy am I glad I saw all those drawings of echidna breastfeeding. I think I'm gonna take a walk for the rest of the week.

 

A bit more of his...art.

 

Bottom panel looks like baby's first transparency effect done without an online tutorial

Spoiler: Potentially NSFW - Breastfeeding

 

Squidward: I didn't need to see that.

 

Thing is, Sonic the Hedgehog shows up in this book. And Sega definitely cares a fig about him.

 

Wait, like, in the flesh? I know he was mentioned a few times but that changes a lot of things.

 

In M25YL, I mean.

Now, if he somehow has the rights to all contents of said story, this is no problem. But I find it really hard to believe that he has.

 

Oh, like that. Yeah I find it hard to believe he has the rights to republish that.

 

If I had to guess, Penders is testing the waters to see what he can get away with. If anything would force Sega and/or Archie's hand, it would be republishing their materials without permission. If they don't do anything, I could see him getting more brazen with Sonic references in future Lara-Su books.

Time will tell, but I feel like this is the type of thing that would absolutely force Sega to get involved, as Penders is directly profiting off of their characters without a license. Some could cite Sonic Omens as a reason they would stay out, but the thing with Omens is that their devs were able to get away with it by presenting the Patreon as if it was funding their development studio, not the game itself, so they squeaked by Sega.