Penders Announces “First Lara-Su licensed product” Imminent

53 Comments

1. He’s got to be a pure masochist, who would pay to read his fanfics about Mary Su? I liked the character but he was such an irredeemable asshole during the Archie hearings I’d never want anything to do with him in any capacity.

   1. LOL! Fanfic? You’ve got to be kidding. No way you can label anything by someone that worked on the book as long as Penders did, fan fiction.

      1. The whole comic is like a long fanfic, so yeah, they can call it a fanfiction.

2. Oh the bitter sweet feeling I get when seeing this then I read the comics later knowing that some of my favorite charaters and lore are gone. Oh well just have to be mature about it.

   1. i know that feeling.
      think the characters he didn’t make will come back?

      1. Yeah I hope so man. What characters are you going to miss the most and which ones are you looking foward to see again

         1. ones im gona miss the most..well from this idiot.julie-su lien-da julie-su and egg legion in general..
            btw if you are curious. im only buying his comic if those characters return in the Archie comic. considering what was said..looks like im saying F his comic
            also for returning i am HOPING that scourge fiona and mina return

         2. He didn’t create Mina the Mongoose, so hopefully she’s returning. And I don’t care what he says, he didn’t create Scourge.

         3. Penders won against Archie, which makes him a threat to SEGA, which makes SEGA very angry at Archie, which makes Archie very likely to try very hard to avoid annoying SEGA.

            Which means it’s very unlikely Archie will use anything by anyone that supported Penders, helping him become a threat to SEGA. Who supported Penders? Well, Mike Gallagher (creator of Fiona Fox) and Karl Bollers (creator of Mina Mongoose), among others. Had the case gone to trial they were slated to testify on Ken’s side.

            Really, almost all the characters not from SatAM or the games are probably gone for good.

3. ……ok…..
   Is it gonna be a doll of dog-faced Lara-Su? That thing is the stuff of nightmares; should’ve sold them for Halloween so I could place it in front of my door to scare some kids on my street…( at least I’m kinda supporting this now lol)

   1. It’ll be new material for the next Chucky movie.

4. @sil yeah same here about the recurring characters. As for this comic more I have more or less the same opinion

5. Well… I sure am going to miss Julie-Su, Scourge, Geoffrey St. John and Fiona. Damn lawsuits…

   1. i figured they could use scourge. i mean the guy owns evil sonic. i figured scourge would be a loop hole
      i also emailed him once about fiona i think he said he forgot all about it. im not really sure

      man the lawsuit screwed everything up

      1. They could always introduce a new concept of an evil Sonic and reference his past, readers, especially ones who don’t go online to learn about this lawsuit crap, will automatically get the connection. And the loop whole will be that because Sonic is the main character, an evil version of him is a concept anyone can, has and will think up despite what version that may be. Perhaps he owns the specific evil Sonic but he doesn’t own the idea.

         I honestly don’t know. lol

      2. That’s good to know. I hope you’re right, man.

   2. Scourge and Fiona are in the clear, Ian has said as much. He even said they have a part to play in an upcoming story arc. So you only have to miss half of them.

      1. Where and when did Ian say it was so?

      2. I hope you’re right, Because I haven’t heard that. But I kind of thought Scourge might be safe since we saw an image of him in Universe #50 (which came after all of Penders characters disappeared in #254), but I had my doubts.

      3. Flynn “said so” waaaay back before Things Changed. These days his stance is “if it wasn’t created by SEGA, SatAM, or me personally, please don’t even ask about it.”

         Flynn is not as in the loop as people think. His employers tell him the story they want him passing on, and as a result he’s been frequently wrong in talking about this case.

6. It ain’t gonna sell, Penders.

7. Shouldn’t that headline read “Penders announces disappointment at sales of his first licensed product imminent”? Even on his own forums I haven’t seen anyone request merchandise…and the five or so people that do buy it would hardly make back the costs of production. I can’t see this ending well for the guy >.<

   1. he says that collectors will buy his product. the real question here is will it bee enof to keep his comic going.
      personaly i dot think the comic is goning to sell good enof i mean. its just a rip off of sonic. in fact i told him that.and hes still sticking with the comic.

8. In a diverse world of roughly seven billion people, for every new, ridiculous product released to the public, there is at least one person who is stupid enough to buy it. Considering the unusual concentration of deviations from the norm in the Sonic community, there is such abounding craziness that this could actually turn out to be somewhat profitable. You can also safely wager whether or not I think this Penders’ product is ridiculous.

   1. Hmm… probably couldn’t have said it better myself.

9. I can for see this as being Penders greatest failure. With how bad his art work was back when he was with archie and also how his story lines degraded so much that people had to stomach through, there aint no way Im buying garbage. Now wonder when Penders dick sucking pet is gonna come and attack all of us lol.

   1. I’m going to have to be devil’s advocate here as far as his art capabilities go. Granted, his “Sonic” art is bad, but that’s because he doesn’t put the effort into it. He’s done fantastic art for other comics though, like Star Trek. Makes ya wonder what he really thinks of Sonic, though, doesn’t it? Heck, even in the comics he drew, he put better effort into scenery stuff than he did the characters. Every time the Autobot Matrix of Leadership was used as “background junk,” it was done perfectly. Yet his characters… Ok, so, not much of a devil’s advocate here, but still, just wanted to point it out.

      Can’t argue with you about degradation of his writing quality though… He still had a few bright spots here and there, but the quality ended up becoming more and more Sonic Live quality… I guess since Sonic Live was such a stinker, he didn’t want to use anything from it, not even the Substitute Freedom Fighters, which that story was the best part of Sonic Live, using underutilized characters, maybe giving some hope, and interest (I recall people asking about the Substitute Freedom Fighters in the letters section), and what does Penders do with them? Because they’re coming together story ties so closely into his most notorious stinker, he gives fans the middle finger, and never uses them. It’s not until Ian takes the reigns that we see any of the characters from that group again.

      1. So basically, he can imitate other people’s styles well and draw convincing realism, but when it comes to Sonic, it’s laughable. I’ve seen some of his earliest work for the Archie Sonic comics, and he nailed the style of artwork as seen on the games (the American artwork, at least).

         That actually suggests to me that Penders is a great artist, at the professional level he ought to be at, but that he is miserable with original character design. That is, when forced to imitate another style (including the real world), he can do it easily, but if he has to make original characters and is given free reign as to what they look like, his art falls apart.

         1. I’m not going to argue the early Sonic stuff, but the latter is probably what’s often referred too. Still, you hit on the head with what I was trying to say. But you’ve got it right there as far as being a great artist, just not very good with original character designs. It’s much easier to imitate another style than to make your own original style.

10. Fucking hate Julie-Su. Glad she’s gone. The others I’ll either miss a little bit or don’t care about. Someone like me who got into the comics at 197, doesn’t have childhood fondness for them so I’d be happy to just have a comic about the game characters really. Even though I do like a few of the Freedom Fighters, I wouldn’t miss them if they left too.

    Just being honest.

11. Well, I want to read it before I judge it.

12. I wonder what it is…a fugly doll based of Lara-Su or a t-shirt with his fugly designs of the cast on it ?

13. WHOO-HOO… (sarcastic enthusiasm)

    I could care less, really…I cared very little for his story telling. SOAP TV style drama, and Star Wars and Star Trek references everywhere was just bad taste to me. Sonic in my mind was always about stories of action and adventure– not romantic love stories and constant “Jedi v.s Sith” references. But that’s me.
    Ian has very well to implement many ideas from the games, and the old cartoons– without them alienating each other or feeling out of place (well considering the latest plot I’ve heard of… its KIND OF having a hard time knowing which continuity it should be– so that comment could be arguable).
    As for what Ken owns, its impossible for him to own both Evil Sonic or Scourge. (Evil Sonic is just literally Sonic wearing black leather, and Scourge was a revamp of Evil Sonic, and basically Sonic with his fur and eye color switched around and has fangs. He can’t own them, since its mainly Sonic with
    extra clothes and color changes. (If he could… so could all the recolor artists on DeviantArt. You can’t, say, give Mickey Mouse or Mario some shades and a leather jacket, and say “its mine, do not touch! Its my property!” without Disney and Nintendo getting upset.)

    1. Let’s not forget that Penders also started putting Transformers references in like crazy as well. Just to add to that with the mentions of the other two known series you said.

       1. Strike Carson, you appear to be misinformed. While there is no denying that Mr. Penders may have thrown the odd one-liner in (“More Than Meets The Eye” was both said by Sonic, and used as a story title), if you’re looking to place blame on Transformers references and throwbacks in the comics, then I suggest you get in contact with Nelson Ribeiro.

          After all, surely it can’t be more than a coincidence that many of the Transformers references are in stories where Mr. Ribeiro is listed as artist/inker, Or that he’s a well-respected fan with a massive collection and love for those giant robots of the ’80s.

          1. Perhaps, but it should be noted that all of that ended right at issue 125. A story that was written by Penders. Gigabot Prime sound familiar? As Penders is known to have been the head writer up to that point, he could have made the call not to use such an obvious major reference to Optimus Prime. The names have the same number of syllables, silhouette matches almost perfectly. And yet, Penders allowed it. Why is that? Whether or not he did it himself, for very long time, as head writer, Penders could make the calls of what he would allow the staff under his direction do. He even said himself that he would ignore what other writers do unless it directly affected his stories. So again, I ask, why did he let Nelson Ribeiro put in so many Transformers references?

       2. That’s a pretty interesting theory you have. Although I must pull you up on one little thing; It was Karl Bollers whom wrote issue #125 (though to be fair, Mr. Penders was supposed to co-write the story with him, but they reached a disagreement, most notably over the portrayal of Aurora, and he bowed out.) and presumably introduced Giga-Bot Prime. Now it’s reasonable to raise doubt over which creator coined the beast, but given Mr. Penders is neither credited in the final issue, plus his story outline was quite different, I’d wager that Mr. Bollers was the man behind the machine.

          Speaking of giant robots (and this is only a theory), it’s fascinating that issue #120 featured another clanking contraption in the form of the Uber-Bot. And while both have very little similarity in the visual department, they are giant robots with incredible strength, and appeared in stories by Mr. Bollers. Personally it’s possible that both are one-and-the-same robot, and Robotnik upgraded Uber into Giga, but the resulting weapon required Sonic’s speed for power.

          As for Mr. Penders being head writer (which was 2-3 years at best), yeah that was a thing, but even if he wanted to make such a blatant reference towards Optimus Prime, it would have to be run by the editor first. To give a modern example, Mr. Flynn is considered the head writer (for the most part only writer) for the series. And while he is the giver of stories that appear in the book (unless editorial, upper management, and/or SEGA keep cramming in mandates/ideas/tie-ins), I seriously doubt every minute page/layout/scene that pencillers/inkers create pass by him for approval. Nor do I believe he would purposefully ask artists to draw specific cameos or homages in background shots. The same way Manny Galan went all-out with Star Wars-type crafts in the ‘Knuckles’ series, despite Mr. Penders not being a fan of the galaxy far far away.

          See, this is one of the misconceptions I’ve noticed in the fanbase. It’s assumed that the creators have more power than they do. Even if Mr. Penders and Mr. Flynn (and even Mr. Bollers) were head writers, they still answer to the editor/SEGA, and not every artistic homage is their making. Regarding the fact he generally didn’t read other creators input, I really don’t see how that’s a big deal. All three writers mentioned above could/can ignore what the others are planning, because it’s not in their job description as freelancers to read the others work. That’s what an editor is for. The editor brings all the plot points together, and if something doesn’t work, they inform the creators to fix it.

          Now, you put forward the question why Mr. Penders let Mr. Ribeiro put so many Transformers references in his work. The answer is… he didn’t. Let’s have a look at some of the more notable stories with Transformers throwbacks:

          “Forgiven” (#112): W: Karl Bollers. I: Nelson Ribeiro
          “Time Code” (#119): W: Karl Bollers. I: Nelson Ribeiro
          “Running On Empty” (#SSS8): W: Roger Brown/Nelson Ribeiro. A: Nelson Ribeiro
          “SA2.5 Omega” (#125): W: Karl Bollers. I: Nelson Ribeiro (PG 4, 9, 10)

          On a side-note, the credits for #125 list Mr. Ribeiro as inker for pages 4, 10 and 11. This is an error, as page 11 starts a new chapter, which lists Jim Amash for inks.

          And I’m leaving out ‘Sonic X’ issue #20 (the one where Sonic fights a Hod Rod wannabe), because it was written by James McDonough and Adam Patyk. The Transformers reference in that story is obvious, considering both were writers during the Dreamwave years.

          The real question here is not so much “Why did Mr. Penders let Mr. Ribeiro put so many Transformers references in his work”, but in reality “Why didn’t Justin Gabrie/SEGA pull up Mr. Ribeiro for putting so many Transformers references in their comic”.

          1. Hmm… Penders wasn’t a fan of Star Wars? Did not know that. I guess my memory is a bit more foggy than I realized. You also raise good points about thinking creators have more power than they really do. It actually does make sense, what you just said. As well as other things you said that make sense, but as I was not in the know about the background stuff at the time, like a lot of fans, assuming to know what went on, I talked out of my rear in that it would seem.

             And then you make another good point about the question, which was enlightening. That would be a good question though you just posed, much better than my original retort. But I can safely guess that issue 128 was probably where Sega finally had it with non-Sonic references int he comics. As far as blatant ones anyways, as far as I recall, the space race Sonic was in was a rather blatant rip-off of the Pod Race from Phantom Menace. Since you mentioned Penders wasn’t a fan of Star Wars, and my memory on who wrote it is foggy, I’ll just cut to the chase. Why did it take so long to put the foot down on blatant references? Still, you managed to get the point across, especially for a hard head like me.

             But I do have one question as to a possible first reference to Transformers. Way back in issue 13, in the back-up story, it had a little excursion to space to knock out a satellite Robotnik had built. Long story short, Sonic and co. bring it down on a megamuck moon, and Robotnik and Snively arrive in a ship that proceeds to mass shift into an armless humanoid form. And Robotnik even calls it a “transformer.” Anyone familiar with Generation One Transformers will recall the robots converting from small hand held things like walkmans, stereos, and guns, and then turning into 30 foot tall robots, and back. It is a kind of obvious reference to me at any rate, and it is an issue Penders did infact work on. I can’t help but wonder who was responsible for that though, especially since I can’t find, with ease at any rate, who wrote which story in that issue… Buuut, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind clearing it up.

14. *Ian has done very well

    Anyways… people will buy it, no doubt. But I don’t know if black Friday is a great day or not to sell it. Its a busy day for shoppers… so it may get overlooked by many for say, new expensive games and consoles, movies, popular novels by big name authors, etc. And a bunch of Thanksgiving shopping I’m sure.

15. Well, we need the return of Imperator Ix and the Nocturnus in the video game series!!…

    1. I loved Sonic Chronicles! 😉

16. Any product involving Laru-Su now will be using his ugly drawn version of the character. Why would anyone want that?

17. Meh, I could care less about what this guy does anymore. The only way to get the point across to him is to not pay him or his work any attention OR money. If he DOES have fans on board for this project, then good for him and good for them. But since I highly doubt that this thing of his will go pretty far, I’m just not going to give it any thought.

    Also, for the record, I feel like I need to keep saying this, but Penders said that Archie could still use his characters, it’s just up to them whether they actually DO or not. The only reason we haven’t seen them yet is because they haven’t decided if they want to bring them back into the water so soon after picking them out due to all this chaos. That or SEGA is still holding Archie by the ear and telling them what to do all the time.

    1. Very much true, but I do have to say, if we’re to stop paying attention to anything he does, then those of us who post to complain or state what’s likely to happen, probably should stop. After all, I’ve heard it said “Negative attention is STILL attention.” It may not be what he wants when we say what’s been said in this article’s comments section, but in his mind at this point, any kind of attention is better than nothing. Course, look at me pointing it out and doing what I probably shouldn’t be doing. Just saying, not that it’s going to stop people, or me at times.

    2. They’re being taken off covers for being off-limits and having references to them cut in reprints aimed at audiences outside of hardcore collection trade paperbacks. I think they’ve decided not to use them.

       Not surprised though.

18. Lol whatevs if people wanna waste their money on this guy you can’t stop them.

19. Sooooo, Are we getting Sonic Chronicles 2? 😐

20. . . . .yyyaaaaaaaaaayyy *uncomfortable smile* ^ ^;

    God. . . That’s what everyone wants to get mauled for at Black Friday sales.

21. I’m utterly confused reading this.

    Why does he not explain what this licensed product is? Does he think that telling people which character it is, and nothing else, will get people to flock to buy it? Even collectors need to set limitations on what they will or will not collect, especially when it comes to something with merchandising as diverse as Sonic. No one person, or even museum, has a full collection of Star Wars action figures or Disney Parks pins. Collectors need to decide what to focus on. No one will blindly collect EVERYTHING except the pound-foolish.

    Why are pre-orders so soon? Black Friday is now less than a week away. Is the prototype already completed? I doubt it is, because otherwise we’d get photos (and he isn’t even telling what it is people would buy). He’s really putting the cart before the horse if he’s going to start taking pre-orders before production numbers are finalized. And why Black Friday? Will he promise to give them whatever this is before Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Boxing Day? Because otherwise, there is no point in taking pre-orders on Black Friday. Black Friday is a shopping rush because of store sales and people making sure they get a sought-after item before it vanishes. It’s not an Everybody Goes Shopping for the Sake of Shopping Day.

    Where did he get a manufacturer/distributor for this stuff? Last I remember, he was repeatedly laughed out of court, albeit the legal status of Julie-Su and the others are in a gray area. Still, it would mean that any toy company would be apprehensive with anything to do with him, because they don’t want to get caught up in the courtroom storm surrounding him. And even if he DID get a company to make and distribute this product, why have we not heard from them? They’re usually the first to announce something, especially if they cater to collectors. And while a minor issue, toy companies, collectors and mainstream alike, do not like franchises aimed at males with a female protagonist. Historically, they’ve been poor sellers–this is what doomed Sym-Bionic Titan and why the Wonder Woman movie is in development hell.

    1. You raise very good points that I do agree with. However, as a Transformers fan, I have been very aware of how he can do this. Anyone who’s spent any amount of time in the Transformers Fandom circles recently will have likely heard of at least one “Third Party Toy Company.” These are the small business people that at high prices, low return value, create products that Transformers fans often want Hasbro to make, but for some reason won’t. Some, like iGear, make “knock-offs,” or toys that are similar to what’s on the market. Others make accessories and upgrades, and other miscellaneous stuff that require having an official figure. And still others, like Maketoys, create full on new stuff. Either figures that are of characters from the old lines that haven’t had new official figures, or are based on what’s seen in the comics, or completely original figures that are new characters. If this is a figure or statue, it’s probably from a company like what Transformers Fans are familiar with, and there’s always new ones popping up. So if you haven’t heard of this company, you likely will if you decide to hang around long enough.

22. Someone should make a petition to sway Penders to not only scrap the Lara-Su Chronicles but also give up the rights to his characters forever.

23. http://www.kenpenders.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2621

    Ken announced his product….An Acorn Royal Secret Service patch….. Yea…..First original product under his company Floating Island Productions…

    Yea…

24. OH BOY I JUST CAN’T WAIT!!! I’m a huge Ken Penders fan and I just can’t contain my excitement for the Lara Su Chronicles!! Ken taking these characters away from Archie was just a great decision and is definitely for the better!………………………………..SAID NO ONE!!!!!! (Had you all fooled didn’t I?) I mean really, has anyone ever actually said anything close to that ever? Does Ken Penders really think 5 years from now people will be reading this garbage and thinking, “Wow, I am so grateful he took these characters away from Archie’s comic and made his own third party fanfiction.” His only noticeable contribution to the comic book world has forever been stained with this awful lawsuit and one can only hope five years down the road when nobody remembers who Ken Penders is will he think to himself , “maybe my revenge on Archie by screwing up a couple of their issues and the expected stories thereafter was the wrong decision and I should have just been happy to have a legacy in comics at all instead of trying to hurt Archie but really just hurting my fans.” As the Sonic comics progress and the characters I loved that are gone are starting to become just a strange memory to the comic continuity so will I continue on and let go of the past to embrace the present. I just needed to get this off my chest before then. Thank you Ken Penders for the wonderful characters you added to the continuity, and also screw you for those same characters you took away. My memory of you as a writer will forever be a negative one now!

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