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

I believe that was his original plan, to release the comic as a paid mobile app before publishing hard copies. IIRC the app was canceled, not exactly sure when though.

 

Sorry, I somehow misread that as Bollers supporting Penders as being sloppy, not Archie. I've not been having good thoughts lately.

Archie was sloppy as hell, Bollers supporting Penders wasn't, that's my bad.

I recall Penders advising his intent to reprint all the Archie comics and paying all the artists for that (I'll believe it when I see it). This would presumably include Bollers' work since he would have the copyrights to the stories he worked on in the main series while Penders worked on the Knuckles mini-series and the Mobius: 25 Years Later, which take up a significant chunk of the catalogue Penders is purporting to be releasing.

He could have stood aside and said "I agree with Penders' point about how corporations should not be able to claim ownership of work based on 'I said so', but I disagree with how he is going about the situation and will not involve myself." Instead, he followed Penders' lead in my honest opinion, and similarly notes "it's up to what SEGA/ACP wants" when his ownership is brought up.

If I were in the situation, my response would be that quote, and when it settled and I 'owned' those characters, directly approach Archie/SEGA and negotiate a contract to give the rights of those characters to them in exchange for reasonable royalties, since I had been hired to make them for that specific task. I agree they should have been getting royalties in the first place, but as Penders noted in 1999, "Part of the contract Sega has with Archie stipulates any and all characters created in the Sonic and Knuckles comic books become property of Sega."

Archie screwed up, but I'm not about to remove two decades of history from the fanbase if I can help it.

 

Understood.

Why would Bollers assume there would be a settlement? There was no way for him to know with certainty that would happen, and plenty of reason to think that Archie, the corporation with teams of lawyers who had historically screwed over creatives, would win out. Bollers testifying was a small step toward ensuring a settlement was reached. And like, how exactly did Penders go about the lawsuit the wrong way? Especially considering it was Archie who sued him. There's a lot of things to criticize Penders for, but his arguing in the absence of contrary evidence that he owns the characters he created isn't one of them.

Framing this as Bollers knowingly ending the Archie universe is kind of bad faith. Maybe his testimony wouldn't matter and Archie would win the case. Maybe Penders would win but Archie and Sega would just pay him and the other creatives for their characters. And even if Bollers foresaw the domino effect that would be the reboot and subsequent cancellation of Archie Sonic, viewing real life creators' rights as more important than the continued publication of a licensed comic using material arguably stolen from working creatives is fairly reasonable imo.

 

So he put his name on something he would presume to be a folly, with a person he has immense friction with historically? What was the endgoal there, at the start of all that with all that in mind?

To clarify, I said situation, which encompasses his other actions as well as the suit. Penders made zero good will, he copyrighted the characters and immediately jumped to making The Lara-Su Chronicles, then you have his attempts to sue SEGA and EA for Shade the Echidna and the Dark Brotherhood, which he's now going ahead and pretending he owns anyway. Then suing them again when the case was dismissed. Honestly, surprised he didn't sue SEGA for making Sonic a King in Sonic and the Black Knight as he was in Mobius: 25 Years Later.

Why would someone want to be associated with all of that?

But it's clear we just have different thought processes behind this entire mess. I don't trust Bollers for siding with Penders: if he'd been compelled by the courts, then I wouldn't have an issue since he has no choice, but to actively supply an affidavit then parrot Penders' comments after regarding the characters he now has from SEGA's licenced works, instead of waiting it out, seeing how things go, then acting accordingly? That seems suspect to me. But that's simply my opinion on it, shall we agree to disagree?

 

It seems suspect of what? That Bollers secretly hated Archie Sonic and wanted it destroyed? That he wanted to make millions off of his creations? It’s evident neither is the case and that he went in with fairly genuine and noble goals. Your issue seems to boil down to the fact that Ken is a self centered prick, and that anyone who helped him in any capacity is therefore also guilty by association. And yeah, Ken is a prick and Karl knew that, but he disregarded his personal enmity for a larger goal. If the legal outcome for future artists is positive, why does it matter if the defendant you’re testifying for is an ass?

I don’t understand what you mean by waiting it out and acting accordingly. It reads as though you wished Karl just took a passive, centrist approach. Even though he really cares about creators’ rights and saw a situation in which he could help prevent bad legal precedent, he should have instead maybe just tweeted about it and done nothing because… Penders is a jerk and Sonic fans might get upset?

Ultimately I think your perspective is influenced by your fandom and resentment at Ken and the loss of Archie Sonic rather than anything Karl actually did wrong. You’d do things differently in Karl’s place because, well, you’re a Sonic fan who has different values than he does. You’re free to continue with that perspective and I’m happy to drop it here.

 

I'm British, so my fandom lies with Sonic the Comic. But we'll leave it there.

 

I've heard about this supposed cancellation too, but Penders was still very recently tweeting about the app like it's a thing that he's actively working on.

 

I made a comic book viewer using Visual Basic when I was fucking 10 years old and knew almost nothing beyond if/then branches. That's legitimately embarrassing if someone can't develop that kind of app, they are extremely basic.

 

Ah Sonic the Comic, Fleetway. That takes me back. None of this Pendering stuff there. Also UK, also STC. Loved it.

 

Except when Sonic was a jerk in that continuity.

 

Nope, loved it then, but cultural differences.

 

Naw, jerk Sonic rules

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Sonic being mean to Tails just for the thrill of it > Sonic being mean to Tails due to him or his parents not being mindless and compliant supporters of monarchism

 

Sonic & Tails being BFFs > all the above

The best cartoon depiction of Tails is still Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Tails was supposed to be the player-insert Sonic fanboy of the series. I'm not interested in watching Sonic bully an 8 year old.

 

Non-nerfed Tails (OVA Tails and Mania Adventures Tails) > nerfed Tails (AOSTH)

I hate how old western Sonic media depicted Tails as basically just a tagalong kid. As opposed to, you know, the kid genius he was in the games. Though I blame SOA for leaving that trait out of the game localizations.

 

We're getting quite a bit off-topic here, but I'd argue that Tails was initially more of a tinkerer than a computer genius.

SA2 just changed him into a straight up Einstein for whatever reason.

 

When I was a kid, Tails wasn't a genius. When I was a kid, the games had absolutely nothing in them that depicted Tails as a genius. I actually hate that they changed him into the Egon of the group. It was more fun when he was the world's biggest sonic fan, trying to live up to his idol running hopping and bopping.

 

So inventing things like an emerald radar, a transformable submarine and a freaking rocket ship at the wee age of 8 doesn't count as being a genius?

 

I liked him being a gear head, but being a full on tech wizard personally made him less interesting as a character to me. He can just whip up anything now if he needs it. Same deal happened with Donatello in TMNT. He was the "smart" one or the group, but with every iteration they kept scaling up his abilities. Now he's just an obnoxious know it all.

 

Tails doesn't have to be Eggman's intellectual equal, but he shouldn't be the nigh useless character he was in old western media. Other characters contributed something, but it felt like Tails was there just because he was expected to be, not because he served a purpose. Old western writers always struggled to come up with a use for him, with some even giving up and either reduce him to a stay-at-home kid (SATAM, Archie) or remove him altogether (Underground).

And no, Tails being a genius doesn't go against his "Sonic fanboy" trait. The whole point of him is that he's not as cool as capable as his idol, but he can still aid him and contribute in areas where only he excels, showing he has his value and strengths despite being previously ostracized and bullied.

I mean, it's in his freakin' theme song.

"Many friends help me out - in return I help them. Certain things I can do, and there are things that only I can do"