Ken Penders teases new “Echidnaopolis” story

We’ve been following Ken Penders’ ongoing legal battle with Archie Comics, Sega, and Electronic Arts over the rights to certain characters – in a nutshell, Ken asserts that he owns characters he created for the stories he wrote for Archie Comics, and everybody else begs to differ. Similarly, Ken is pursuing other lawsuits against Sega and Electronic Arts over Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, a game that features numerous concepts that Mr. Penders feels hit a little too close to home on intellectual property he maintains ownership on (as related to why he’s suing Archie Comics). While Penders vs. Sega & EA is still warming up, Penders vs. Archie was originally scheduled to take place in October 2011, before recently being delayed to January 2012, in order to give both sides more time to make their cases.

That hasn’t stopped Penders, however. In an official post on Kenpenders.com today, Ken officially teases an upcoming graphic novel furthering the adventures of The Dark Legion and The Brotherhood of Guardians. In Mr. Penders own words:

COMING IN 2012
Ever since I registered my copyrights for all my stories, characters and concepts that had played a part in one of the most popular comic series ever published in the modern age, I’ve been planning how to answer numerous reader requests regarding how I eventually intended to continue those stories, resolving many if not all of the plot points that were left dangling due to unforeseen circumstances.

While my current legal situation with three well-known companies is still an ongoing matter, I’ve decided now is the time to finally launch the continuing saga of the Brotherhood of the Guardians and Dark Legion in graphic novel format, starting with the first image of one of the story’s major characters, whom I first introduced to the world in the REUNIFICATION storyline several years ago.

Included with this post is a teaser image for Lara-su, which, if you aren’t keeping up with things, is essentially a daughter Knuckles fathers at some indeterminate point in the future (and is therefore eventual heir to the title of “Guardian”).

For those of you reading Archie Comics, you’ll know that this version of Lara-su differs considerably compared to the one we saw in stories like Sonic Universe: Mobius 30 Years Later.

Certainly, to announce something like this while in the middle of multiple ongoing lawsuits over the ownership rights of these characters is a bold move on Mr. Penders’ part, and it’s interesting that even though he most likely cannot legally use them in this forthcoming graphic novel, he’s already making veiled references to Sega characters like Knuckles the Echidna in his teaser material.

With more teasers promised in the coming weeks, we’ll be sure to keep you posted on anything else Ken Penders reveals about this upcoming series.