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

Hopefully this does turn out to be something good, but I don’t have much faith in Penders if I’m being honest, especially since he’s a considerable part of the reason Archie Sonic needs to be “restored” in the first place. There’s something implicitly self-aggrandising about it all as I read it, which is nothing new for Penders really.

I also wouldn’t be surprised if this was specifically only pre-Flynn stuff, though at the same time I could see Ken making a big deal about quashing the beef with Ian and paying him for story reprints too so that he can act like the bigger man and stroke his own ego further.

 

It would kind of have to be just the pre-Flynn stuff, right? Those are the only ones the previous writers might be able to lay claim to. Ian signed a different kind of contract where Sega (and/or Archie) owns his characters and stories.

 

Ah, you’re right there actually yeah. I think that does raise the question of how widespread the issues surrounding Penders’ employment and creative rights were at that time.

 

I'd be floored if he does decide to reach out to Flynn in some way, Kens apparently got a history of having a go at him for years at a time.

Whilst I'm not exactly the biggest fan of Flynns work, the way penders reacted to his removal from the comic and flynns rise is certainly a case study waiting to happen.

I wouldnt be too suprised if the reason why this comic even exists is because he believed he's a better creative.

The other thing with Ken is that it's a wild ride when it comes to him making statements and promising things that don't happen.

Even if you put aside the many lawsuits he's threatened over the years... you also have the following.

* The Lara-Su Chronicles app (This has been in development for years).
* The NFT's he planned to sell.
* The many books he's promised to write. (apparently he was going to write a book about his court case).

As nice as it is to say he'll comp his archie colleagues... I doubt it.

He's just published and is distributing a hard back book, that's a lot of capital invested on just the publication, he might claim the sales have done well.

But he's really dodging specifics at the moment and let's be real here. Whilst he has some die hard fans, they aren't paying the break even before tax on this.

I don't doubt there's some who have bought it following this week to try and make content from it, but when you look at how he's still doing this "1st one to order from X state gets a bonus!" It doesn't sound like he's had a lot of orders for the thing he's spent a decade working on.

Which makes me wonder, where's these dividend to the archie guys going to come from? He's not exactly had much work outside of fan comissions in the last decade has he? <--- legitimately do not know on this one.

 

Considering Ben Hurst, I would treat this with the upmost suspicion for how he intends to screw over his fellow writers.

 

Ken has announced he plans to republish the entire Archie Sonic comic series...

Under something called "The Mobian Line"

No really, he claims he will do this.

 

Okay, he clearly wants to be sued.

Probably because that's the only way to get people to care about The Lara-Su Chronicles.

 

https://x.com/KenPenders/status/1807111194223992994

WOW, pretty sure he does want to get sued to try and settle and negotiate a licensing fee.

Edit: Also have to think he'll come to some rude awakenings if this happens because he won't be dealing with the incompetence of Archie, because it'll just be him using someone else's easily provable copyrighted characters.

 

We really are at the endgame now.

 

This is the kind of hardcore copium you can normally only buy on the streets of Rio. Definitely curious where this is heading next.

 

If Archie comes after him, I think he'll get away with it.

Sega on the other hand? He's cooked. (Of course, assuming they think it's worth the time.)

 

https://x.com/kenpenders/status/1807099982824313022?s=46&t=S0_YkQ8TRA2Bk54XvKgWfw
He’s trying to provoke Sega into making a deal with him instead of suing him. I don’t have the words to express how risky this is. Penders public behavior and reputation is so awful that I can’t imagine Sega wanting him to officially represent the franchise in any capacity. Especially not now, with Sonic’s increased popularity post Mania/the Movies/and Frontiers.

I agree with this. The real question is: will Penders actually follow through and if so will it get Sega’s attention? If this amounts to a couple dozen hardcovers published by a vanity press and sold exclusively at Ken’s convention booths, Sega probably won’t care. If he tries to mass publish these and make them available on online storefronts like amazon or his website… I would be shocked if Sega didn’t act. Not acting could potentially make it harder for Sega to protect their IP in future legal disputes.

 

Are the rights to the Archie series even Sega's to license? Wasn't this whole thing started because it turned out that individual contributors owned their work? Ken has floated the idea of working out deals with some of the other artists and writers, but there's no way he could sign over all of them. I don't see the pseudonymous "Many Handz" making a deal anytime soon.

 

Thing is it doesn't matter if the story lines and ocs belong to the original owners. Main characters being used are cleary Sega, especially Sonic & Knuckle, and if they aren't edited out it's still an unauthorized use of someone else's ip. He has no agreement to use them. And he seems not to realize how bad trying to goad sega into working with him will likely go. It's why he slightly edited characters, and only alluded to characters in some of those data write up things. Now it's just strait up unauthorized use, and Sega would have every right to enforce their IP rights.

As much as I'd like to see Archie Sonic reprints, Ken handled this about as poorly as he could. Normally i agree if a deal could be worked out for the creatives to get some royalties it would be fine, but this isn't the way a rational person would handle it. From him saying Sega lost his contact info it feels he's tried to reach out to them and was completely ignored as this reeks of desperation.

 

so, how bad would it actually be for any relevant parties

 

Surely he's inflating the success, right?

 

Is he self publishing Lara Su Chronicles? If so it’s plausible that he is getting more orders than he can handle but that the book is nowhere near what a mainstream (or even indie) publisher would consider an overwhelming success.

 

I would laugh if this turned out to be Penders trying increasingly hard to get sued so he doesn't have to release the book. That aside, I'm curious if he truly means ALL Archie Sonic material.

 

Oh he absolutely is!

On the one hand "It's doing really well!"

On the other...

"I still have first order rewards open in these states!"

And "I shipped 35 books!" Yes in the same tweet he claims there's 100 orders to process...

But let's assume they're all 1 for 1 orders, that's only 135 copies... of a hardback book with over 100 pages...

That doesn't seem like a lot, not when it comes to covering the development costs of the book alone, let alone taxes, unless he actually goes and claims a tax loss on it! Which considering how long it took, I wouldn't put it past him to ask the question!



But on the subject of the reprint legalities. I think there's sort of a legal president for this...

IDW, republished a ton of Marvel Transformers comics a few years ago, just a minor problem... Spiderman literally turns up in several issues.

Whilst they had the rights to reprint transformers, they sure as hell didnt/couldn't afford Spiderman!

So what they did was back him out and turn him into a masked ninja! If you ever see these scans it's really bizarre! There's just this random black suited ninja swinging from webs for 2 issues.

 

A ninja, eh? Oh the irony...