🎨 Artcow Ken Penders - Former Archie Sonic Comic Writer/Artist

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My fits of spergery thoughts after looking at that "scorecard:"
  1. What is going on with Knuckles' mouth?
  2. Is Ken colorblind or does Archie Comics just have shitty colorists? Knuckles is saying the "yet to appear" boxes are yellow, but only one is and the rest are orange.
  3. The fuckin' names. Half them have to be jokes, right? Wynmacher. Kayla-La. Mari-Su. Upon looking at his Wikipedia article...
    On March 5, 2014, Penders announced on his Twitter account that his characters were no longer echidna but Echyd'nya, an alien species.
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Basically: what made the higher-ups at Archie think Penders deserved the amount of creative control he got during his time there when this is the kind of crap he put out?
 
Another Fellow said:
Basically: what made the higher-ups at Archie think Penders deserved the amount of creative control he got during his time there when this is the kind of crap he put out?
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As has been pointed out, Archie Comics was one seriously fucked up operation at the time, and may be still.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/archie-boss-calls-male-employees-penis-article-1.1534462

The first paragraph of this really tells you all you need to know about the nut running the place.

"The co-CEO of Archie Comics' says she couldn’t have discriminated against her underlings - because they’re white men."

This is, incidentally, completely wrong. You couldn't be more wrong about the law if you tried. If you discriminate against someone based on race or sex, you will be sued, probably successfully.
 
Why's he like Echidnas so damn much, what about some love for the literally billions of other types of animals bro

He wants the 4 headed D
 
As a bygone collector of the comics, the reason why Ken Penders took his copyright & left was because SEGA ripped off his ideas for Sonic Chronicles without giving him credit for things like the Dark Legion, mostly by name changing it to "Dark Brotherhood". It wasn't even a good game from what I've heard.
 
MarvinTheParanoidAndroid said:
As a bygone collector of the comics, the reason why Ken Penders took his copyright & left was because SEGA ripped off his ideas for Sonic Chronicles without giving him credit for things like the Dark Legion, mostly by name changing it to "Dark Brotherhood". It wasn't even a good game from what I've heard.
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If it was a work made for hire, and it almost certainly was, it wasn't Ken Penders' copyright. Due to astounding incompetence, Archie Comics was apparently unable to produce a copy of the agreement, but it would be virtually unheard-of for a franchise like that, which routinely hires artists and writers, not to have such an agreement.
 
If I'm not mistaken, Ian Potto, the guy who wrote that letter, is currently the lead writer of the Archie Sonic comic.
 
AnOminous said:
If it was a work made for hire, and it almost certainly was, it wasn't Ken Penders' copyright. Due to astounding incompetence, Archie Comics was apparently unable to produce a copy of the agreement, but it would be virtually unheard-of for a franchise like that, which routinely hires artists and writers, not to have such an agreement.
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You'd be surprised that it has happened multiple times in the comic book industry.

Back in the day, Mirage, the company behind Ninja Turtles, didn't make any writers and artists work on their TMNT books published in-house (as opposed to Archie's TMNT titles, which were produced through Mirage but utilized work-for-hire contracts). But then Fred Wolf (producer of the first TMNT cartoon) sued Mirage, claiming he created many defining traits of the franchise, and Mirage got serious about having everyone sign retroactive work-for-hire contracts. Rick Veitch (a veteran of Swamp Thing and sometimes collaborator with Alan Moore) refused to sign such a contract, and his TMNT stories haven't been reprinted since.

In the 1980s, Marvel's UK branch didn't make anyone sign work-for-hire contracts initially. As a result, much of Alan Moore's work for them (including some Doctor Who stories he wrote) has never been reprinted. And Moore's Captain Britain has only been reprinted because of an agreement Marvel made with him.

There's the long legal feud between Todd McFarlane and Neil Gaiman. Long story short, back in 1992, McFarlane tapped Gaiman, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and Dave Sim to write issues of Spawn ('cause of early Image comic getting criticized for poor writing). But McFarlane didn't make them sign any sort of contract whatsoever, but told them they would own whatever characters and concepts they created. And it only got worse from there.

And people like Scott Shaw! (the first artist for Archie's Sonic comics) and Jim Valentino (co-founder and current co-owner of Image Comics) testified on Penders's behalf, saying that Archie never presented them with work-for-hire contracts. So the narrative of Penders being seen as a pariah in the comic book industry isn't entirely true.
 
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Hellsperger said:
There's the long legal feud between Todd McFarlane and Neil Gaiman. Long story short, back in 1992, McFarlane tapped Gaiman, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and Dave Sim to write issues of Spawn ('cause of early Image comic getting criticized for poor writing). But McFarlane didn't make them sign any sort of contract whatsoever, but told them they would own whatever characters and concepts they created. And it only got worse from there.
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Interesting. But I'm pretty sure you wouldn't ever get Dave Sim to sign a work made for hire agreement. He has been very outspoken about detesting such contracts, and has (or had) the clout not to have to sign one. Pretty sure Alan Moore is generally of the same attitude and similarly doesn't have to do anything he doesn't feel like doing.

If Archie didn't do this, though, they're stupid. Not only would they be messing with their own IP, but I'm pretty amazed Sega wouldn't insist on having the rights to everything too.
 
Sorry, not for necroing. Ken really has a hate boner for firearms and forced this message into his work. The plot driving war? All started by accidental firearm use, I shit you not.
 
Someone in a Tree said:
I don't care that he sued to get ownership of the characters he created while working on the comic (that's what Archie gets for not crossing their t's and dotting their i's. I find it hard to believe that they lost a contract and couldn't find another copy), but what I do find baffling is that he still thinks that people would be interested in these characters once they are almost completely rewritten to disavow their connection to the Sonic comic.
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Ego certainly gets in the way of integrity!

Panzerkampfpony said:
Who wants to bet that Sega and Archie comics never let their writers have ownership of their work again after Penders' lawsuit, he might not be as deluded as Chris but he's probably made work harder for his former co workers after his abuse of the creative freedom given to him.
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It always takes one bad apple to spoil it for the bunch. If it wasn't him, it would've been someone else to have brought this on the industry sooner or later.

SteelPlatedHeart said:
I remember reading the issue that second one was meant to be for, and holy shit given the context that cover is just incredibly bad taste.
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Jokes about the OJ Simpson trial were wild and rampant in many forms of media during the mid 90's (certainly with TV shows and movies). It wouldn't surprise me someone like Ken wanted to take a stab at it in comic form like that, not that a kid may or may not know what was happening at the time (since it was most watched in the country).

Jewelsmakerguy said:
At the way it's going, it may never come out. And I for one am happy it isn't.
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It's nice when destiny works in our favor!

AnOminous said:
Interesting. But I'm pretty sure you wouldn't ever get Dave Sim to sign a work made for hire agreement. He has been very outspoken about detesting such contracts, and has (or had) the clout not to have to sign one. Pretty sure Alan Moore is generally of the same attitude and similarly doesn't have to do anything he doesn't feel like doing.

If Archie didn't do this, though, they're stupid. Not only would they be messing with their own IP, but I'm pretty amazed Sega wouldn't insist on having the rights to everything too.
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Sometimes people don't plan for the future.

Tranhuviya said:
Sorry, not for necroing. Ken really has a hate boner for firearms and forced this message into his work. The plot driving war? All started by accidental firearm use, I shit you not.
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Well, he needs an excuse somehow for attention.

Now with Archie having put the comic on a long hiatus (or just drop it altogether), I do wonder what Mr. Penders thinks of this sudden turn of events? I hope he doesn't think he won somehow.
 
Panzerkampfpony said:
TL-SC_Cover_Art_R1_Web.jpg
the artwork he intends to use for "book 1" of the comic, as much as I take the piss out of Deviant art I admit I could find 50 artists on there who could do a better job.
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It's not terrible, but that's all I can say for it.
 
You know I see ken saying the current artist of the comic that he hopes they do well with the comic ending and it just like, fuck you asshole you're the one who got it cancelled with whining about your knuckle oc's. I can't wait for his new comic to come out just to see the reaction from Ken when it turns out no one wants to read it.
 
Blindrainbow said:
You know I see ken saying the current artist of the comic that he hopes they do well with the comic ending and it just like, fuck you asshole you're the one who got it cancelled with whining about your knuckle oc's. I can't wait for his new comic to come out just to see the reaction from Ken when it turns out no one wants to read it.
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Archie's Sonic the Hedgehod is already dead with it's "infinite hiatus" and the last time an issue came out was December of last year. As for what Ken Penders has been up to since this thread died? His forum is dead and I could find no recent references to his book on his Twitter. All he does now is bitch about Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders ruining America. Oh, and implying Asians are emotionless robots.

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RockVolnutt said:
Archie's Sonic the Hedgehod is already dead with it's "infinite hiatus" and the last time an issue came out was December of last year. As for what Ken Penders has been up to since this thread died? His forum is dead and I could find no recent references to his book on his Twitter. All he does now is bitch about Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders ruining America. Oh, and implying Asians are emotionless robots.

tumblr_inline_oo2ulqRNf31re1bwb_500.png
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Nut job.
 
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