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

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So what's worse, the new art for monstrosities or this (Look at poor Vector)
 

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So if I've got this straight, he built of a lot the lore for Archie Sanic then burnt it to the ground in a spat with Archie/sega. Now he spends his time with his origional species Do not steal knock of whatever the fuck knuckles is?
 
Emperor Julian said:
So if I've got this straight, he built of a lot the lore for Archie Sanic then burnt it to the ground in a spat with Archie/sega. Now he spends his time with his origional species Do not steal knock of whatever the fuck knuckles is?
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Partially, there was one writer before him and for a long time there was at least one more writer besides him before he was the main or even only writer for years.

There was the time he took a holocaust poem and made it about Sonic characters, i really wish i was kidding

I suck
 

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Zaryiu said:
Partially, there was one writer before him and for a long time there was at least one more writer besides him before he was the main or even only writer for years.
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So really, too many fingers in the broth.
 
Off-topic but I'm half asleep and for some reason only read "Ken" in the title and thought it was about Ken Ashcorp. I sat there for like 5 minutes trying to figure out what he did before realizing it said something else. Oh well, got a good laugh of it.
 
Has Penders ever spoken publicly about the circumstances that led to Archie replacing him with Flynn? The main reason I ask is that I'm not sure if Penders did much work between his dismissal and the lawsuits. The only thing I can think of is that his artwork from years prior was used as the cover for Shout! Factory's release of the Sonic cartoon. On the surface, there's no reason to assume that Penders couldn't have secured more comic book work (a lack of quality has never prevented people from getting steady work in that industry). He was the head writer for a decade on a title that sold reliably. Something must have been up before he claimed his ORIGINAL CHARACTERS to make other publishers stay away.
 
LonnieRohn said:
New comic book page
DdJL_I7VMAATFDP.jpg:large
https://twitter.com/KenPenders/status/995942547649323008
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It feels as if my eyes have developed the physical need to puke.

I usually just look at the Andrew Dobson thread so I'm used to seeing lackluster art but to know that this was "drawn" by someone who actually used to work on a published comic is baffling. I never cared nor read anything done by Archie Comics but just how low were (are?) their standards to have a man capable of producing this level of utter shit and say "Yeah, this is worthy of publishing".

Where do I even begin? I guess the most obvious: the wholesale stock photograph used as background. This is some dA-amateur-hour level incompetence if I've ever seen one. It is not even ironically amusing, this is straight up the kind of move that would make a head editor go "WTF is this shit?! you're fired!" to anyone trying to pass this as legitimate work. There is not even an attempt to alter the image through filters or digital manipulation to at least appear drawn or painted, no just copypastefuckit! For fuck's sake, not even the sky photo used in the middle of the page matches with the sky in the the photos at the top and bottom of the page. This is Lazy squared.

Then there is the character which it is bad enough that it obviously is a drawing on top of a photograph, it is also the worthless attempt at incorporating the character into the photo. (He copypastes the same drawing in panel 3 and 6) Her color palette doesn't match the lighting conditions of the environment, her colors composition should be entirely bathed in yellow, oranges and reds to blend with her surroundings, instead it has this flat shading that is done with blacks (how the Hell can someone who worked in the industry not know than that is a cardinal sin?) The shapes of the shading itself is all over the place, it is a misshaped mess.

Next is the physical features, design and execution of the drawing itself. This character is an abomination. There are ways and method to designing non-human/hybrid/furry character that look visually appealing and Ken Penders knows not a single one. The anatomy is a disproportionate mess. The body with a head that big should have stockier proportions to compensate instead of that thin frame on display and the anatomy of the body itself is poorly drawn as well showing a evident lack of knowledge in human anatomy.

And finally, the face ... Oh my God in Heaven ... the fucking face :cryblood: Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. There is absolutely nothing about that face that could be described as being graceful, feminine, proportionate or attractive. Every line, detail and placement of her facial features showcase the profound level of incompetence of Ken Penders as an artist and an absolute ignorance of the bare bone basics of how to construct the structure of a character's head regardless the angle it is drawn.

This is bar none some of the worse art I've seen from someone who actually made a living working on the field. It beggars belief.
 
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Belvedere said:
It feels as if my eyes have developed the physical need to puke.

I usually just look at the Andrew Dobson thread so I'm used to seeing lackluster art but to know that this was "drawn" by someone who actually used to work on a published comic is baffling. I never cared nor read anything done by Archie Comics but just how low were (are?) their standards to have a man capable of producing this level of utter shit and say "Yeah, this is worthy of publishing".

Where do I even begin? I guess the most obvious: the wholesale stock photograph used as background. This is some dA-amateur-hour level incompetence if I've ever seen one. It is not even ironically amusing, this is straight up the kind of move that would make a head editor go "WTF is this shit?! you're fired!" to anyone trying to pass this as legitimate work. There is not even an attempt to alter the image through filters or digital manipulation to at least appear drawn or painted, no just copypastefuckit! For fuck's sake, not even the sky photo used in the middle of the page matches with the sky in the the photos at the top and bottom of the page. This is Lazy squared.

Then there is the character which it is bad enough that it obviously is a drawing on top of a photograph, it is also the worthless attempt at incorporating the character into the photo. (He copypastes the same drawing in panel 3 and 6) Her color palette doesn't match the lighting conditions of the environment, her colors composition should be entirely bathed in yellow, oranges and reds to blend with her surroundings, instead it has this flat shading that is done with blacks (how the Hell can someone who worked in the industry not know than that is a cardinal sin?) The shapes of the shading itself is all over the place, it is a misshaped mess.

Next is the physical features, design and execution of the drawing itself. This character is an abomination. There are ways and method to designing non-human/hybrid/furry character that look visually appealing and Ken Penders knows not a single one. The anatomy is a disproportionate mess. The body with a head that big should have stockier proportions to compensate instead of that thin frame on display and the anatomy of the body itself is poorly drawn as well showing a evident lack of knowledge in human anatomy.

And finally, the face ... Oh my God in Heaven ... the fucking face :cryblood: Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. There is absolutely nothing about that face that could be described as being graceful, feminine, proportionate or attractive. Every line, detail and placement of her facial features showcase the profound level of incompetence of Ken Penders as an artist and an absolute ignorance of the bare bone basics of how to construct the structure of a character's head regardless the angle it is drawn.

This is bar none some of the worse art I've seen from someone who actually made a living working on the field. It beggars belief.
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Archie standards were higher before and after Penders was there
 
I am alittle upset that this guy was a huge tard and worked on a comic that I cherished my entire childhood. I was literally obsessed with Knuckles (in a healthy way, swear on it.) and learning his history really got me going.

...and then I see this.

Honestly won't lie, but I guess you can call this alittle bit of :powerlevel: but my pre-teen self knew the art was completely off when he was the one drawing it. Infact, I was almost certain I could draw it better and I was still noob at arting back in 1997.


XYZpdq said:
View attachment 457543
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I mean this here pretty much sums it up.

I just...yeah.
 
Emperor Julian said:
So if I've got this straight, he built of a lot the lore for Archie Sanic then burnt it to the ground in a spat with Archie/sega. Now he spends his time with his origional species Do not steal knock of whatever the fuck knuckles is?
Click to expand...

Penders joined the comic around issue 25 - up to that point Sonic had mostly been a comic that tended to have a bit of plot but mostly Sonic just cracking wise half the time. Penders gets hired and the stories gradually become more complex and serious. Which wasn't entirely a bad thing - Penders gets very into his stories but he also had a habit of creating so many damn plot threads that the comic seemingly is creating more storylines rather than resolving any of them.

He becomes fond of Knuckles and after a few special issues Ken takes a shine to the character and jumps at starting a solo book for him. It does well enough to continue past the initial 3 issues, but because SEGA generally didn't talk to the comic book teams, Penders basically decided Knuckles would find his Echidna peoples and Ken starts to really go all out. It naturally gets to a point where he drives the audience off and book gets canned. Sadly this means Ken is back on the main Sonic book and comes back with a vengeance. This leads to a bunch of really stupid plots including aliens suddenly wanting to blow up mobius because humans lived there and Sonic being launched into space for months and finding Tails' parents in space.

Archie basically sack him around issue 137 because fans *hate* the comic at that point and people are peeved and tired of the teen drama and constantly unresolved plots with unsatisfying conclusions. Flynn is brought in to start repairing things. Penders in the downtime tries to work with Ben Hurst (who worked on SatAM) on pitching a Sonic film. Apparently Hurst later finds out that Penders shopped the movie idea elsewhere on his own and changed the story. So people were a bit peeved about that. Ken went quiet for a few years and then Bioware released Sonic Chronicles. Ken had clearly been stewing on his dismissal for a few years and got annoyed when he felt a character Bioware made for the game was ripping off his Echidna peoples. He sued and everyone laughed because they thought he didn't have any legal cred to do this and was just nuts.

Sadly Archie were really bloody incompetent so he eventually won the case, and half the universe in Sonic Archie suddenly couldn't be used anymore without having to pay Ken. Sega - who were quite annoyed about this whole mess had serious words with the Archie team. They tried to resolve things by redesigning the freedom fighters to be more like classic sonic characters and using an event called "The Genesis Wave" to basically recreate the universe to be more like the games. However Archie were having general commitment issues and were more into their "Riverdale" stuff. SEGA decided rather than let the Archie comic limp along with it's messy plot issues, they wanted to start fresh and signed with IDW instead.
 
RisingPheonix said:
Penders joined the comic around issue 25 - up to that point Sonic had mostly been a comic that tended to have a bit of plot but mostly Sonic just cracking wise half the time. Penders gets hired and the stories gradually become more complex and serious. Which wasn't entirely a bad thing - Penders gets very into his stories but he also had a habit of creating so many damn plot threads that the comic seemingly is creating more storylines rather than resolving any of them.

He becomes fond of Knuckles and after a few special issues Ken takes a shine to the character and jumps at starting a solo book for him. It does well enough to continue past the initial 3 issues, but because SEGA generally didn't talk to the comic book teams, Penders basically decided Knuckles would find his Echidna peoples and Ken starts to really go all out. It naturally gets to a point where he drives the audience off and book gets canned. Sadly this means Ken is back on the main Sonic book and comes back with a vengeance. This leads to a bunch of really stupid plots including aliens suddenly wanting to blow up mobius because humans lived there and Sonic being launched into space for months and finding Tails' parents in space.

Archie basically sack him around issue 137 because fans *hate* the comic at that point and people are peeved and tired of the teen drama and constantly unresolved plots with unsatisfying conclusions. Flynn is brought in to start repairing things. Penders in the downtime tries to work with Ben Hurst (who worked on SatAM) on pitching a Sonic film. Apparently Hurst later finds out that Penders shopped the movie idea elsewhere on his own and changed the story. So people were a bit peeved about that. Ken went quiet for a few years and then Bioware released Sonic Chronicles. Ken had clearly been stewing on his dismissal for a few years and got annoyed when he felt a character Bioware made for the game was ripping off his Echidna peoples. He sued and everyone laughed because they thought he didn't have any legal cred to do this and was just nuts.

Sadly Archie were really bloody incompetent so he eventually won the case, and half the universe in Sonic Archie suddenly couldn't be used anymore without having to pay Ken. Sega - who were quite annoyed about this whole mess had serious words with the Archie team. They tried to resolve things by redesigning the freedom fighters to be more like classic sonic characters and using an event called "The Genesis Wave" to basically recreate the universe to be more like the games. However Archie were having general commitment issues and were more into their "Riverdale" stuff. SEGA decided rather than let the Archie comic limp along with it's messy plot issues, they wanted to start fresh and signed with IDW instead.
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That is the long and short of it. IDW now publishes a Sonic comic that sticks clear to the Sega-approved script, while Ken has the rights to his OC's but not the actual ability to use 'em in anything without getting on Sega's ass if he stuck to that original look.
 
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RisingPheonix said:
Penders joined the comic around issue 25 - up to that point Sonic had mostly been a comic that tended to have a bit of plot but mostly Sonic just cracking wise half the time. Penders gets hired and the stories gradually become more complex and serious. Which wasn't entirely a bad thing - Penders gets very into his stories but he also had a habit of creating so many damn plot threads that the comic seemingly is creating more storylines rather than resolving any of them.

He becomes fond of Knuckles and after a few special issues Ken takes a shine to the character and jumps at starting a solo book for him. It does well enough to continue past the initial 3 issues, but because SEGA generally didn't talk to the comic book teams, Penders basically decided Knuckles would find his Echidna peoples and Ken starts to really go all out. It naturally gets to a point where he drives the audience off and book gets canned. Sadly this means Ken is back on the main Sonic book and comes back with a vengeance. This leads to a bunch of really stupid plots including aliens suddenly wanting to blow up mobius because humans lived there and Sonic being launched into space for months and finding Tails' parents in space.

Archie basically sack him around issue 137 because fans *hate* the comic at that point and people are peeved and tired of the teen drama and constantly unresolved plots with unsatisfying conclusions. Flynn is brought in to start repairing things. Penders in the downtime tries to work with Ben Hurst (who worked on SatAM) on pitching a Sonic film. Apparently Hurst later finds out that Penders shopped the movie idea elsewhere on his own and changed the story. So people were a bit peeved about that. Ken went quiet for a few years and then Bioware released Sonic Chronicles. Ken had clearly been stewing on his dismissal for a few years and got annoyed when he felt a character Bioware made for the game was ripping off his Echidna peoples. He sued and everyone laughed because they thought he didn't have any legal cred to do this and was just nuts.

Sadly Archie were really bloody incompetent so he eventually won the case, and half the universe in Sonic Archie suddenly couldn't be used anymore without having to pay Ken. Sega - who were quite annoyed about this whole mess had serious words with the Archie team. They tried to resolve things by redesigning the freedom fighters to be more like classic sonic characters and using an event called "The Genesis Wave" to basically recreate the universe to be more like the games. However Archie were having general commitment issues and were more into their "Riverdale" stuff. SEGA decided rather than let the Archie comic limp along with it's messy plot issues, they wanted to start fresh and signed with IDW instead.
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To be clear, the reason Penders got into Knuckles is because a lot of the shit he did with Knuckles was shit he wanted to do Sonic, but he couldn't do because Sega was intensely protective of the character and constantly vetoing it, but for some damn reason they had no issue whatsoever with him doing it with Knuckles, so he essentially liked writing Knuckles because he had more creative freedom.
 
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