Ken Penders. Why not root for the guy??

[RegalSin]

I was reading up on the Penders bit; and talking about it five SEGA forums back ( but that is gone ).
So why wont people root for the guy

He is an westerner making money as an artist of an videogame series. He is basically the same as "Addam Warren" who did "Spawn" ( Garbage man gone artist ); and then did his version of Spider-Man ( late 1990's and early 2000's ).

Another way you could say he help molded Sonic into the super-series of the SAT-AM animation ( again animations are not cartoon but can hold stylistic features of cartoons ). Like with "Gargoyles" ( you know that animation that was okay ( WPIX ) and then turned into an Human-supremacist fest back on ABC . After which is continued in it's own comics ( The animated rights holders ) ).


Penders hung on to Sonic ( and made a wide variety of stories and art as well ) because of this he was able to accept working with computers ( which is very unhappy to do; when you know you can cartoon/illustrate works as well as color them. ).

Why not root for the guy and all? The way I see it; is that SEGA and EA lawsuit ( over an story and Penders felt he should have been given royalties for the stories ( that he put his rights over ). Yes Penders logically did make money in terms of Sonic; but SEGA was also collecting on the side-bar as well as archie.

SEGA just decided to flush Penders and say "buddy that was the past; let it go and get out".

I will admit many of the stories in comics kinda side-tracked. But look at it this way; how many other illustrators did what he did and could say they are making something out of it.

[TimmiT]

For too many reasons.

[nuckles87]

Whenever I try to walk into this thread I only see red, then I punch a kitten in the face. Those poor, poor kittens...

[MadeManG74]

Who the hell is Ken Penders?


I know I can wiki him, but I want to hear it from you guys. 

[RegalSin]

http://kenpenders.com/

Is responsible for a majority of the Sonic comics and media that revolves around Sonic/Sally Acorn series. In a nutshell most of the "Animation" or "Mature" Sonic with the extra bad-arse Robotnik and so forth is responsible from his association.

Sega pretty much decided to dump the past and thus dump him. Not because they wanted to; but because they do not want to pony up to him; they decided to dump him.

We are talking about Sonic perfect world. AKA SONIC-CD AKA Sonic-Moddana ( soughta ). So forth.
As the years went by Sega told Archie to include new characters and thus it was shaped and molded.

Sonic SATAM is the apex of STH. Then they took that apex and made some rocking-rolling-bs Sonic ( same art just lame stories ( most are lame ) ).

From the Dreamcast till the WiiU. Sonic was in another universe; blah blah . Before that Sonic was in the SATAM universe via the comics.

[TimmiT]

Not sure if Archie/SEGA dumped him or not, but if they did, it's because his comics were just terrible. He made the Archie Sonic comic universe incredibly convoluted, take itself far too seriously and generally just made it a mess. For a very long time the comic was just shit until Ian Flynn took over and actually made it a good comic. Later on Ken Penders sued Archie/SEGA because he wanted to use his original characters, meaning the comic had to have a sort of reboot. Now Ken Penders is making something called the Lara-Su Chronicles starring his original characters. It looks like this:


Yup.

[RegalSin]

You know what your not making any logical sense at all. Your just bashing the guy. The last time he was associated was barely a year apart from Sonic 2005-2006. Other-M ( while creative ) was also slopply done. I will admit I do prefer many things from Other-M; however Penders was in his rights.

He made the Comic into something actually worth reading. He kept the Story going on; while making logical sense out of SEGA forcing Archie to input this and that. He did his job. This whole entire thing is about his rights to the stories written and SEGA ( SEGA of Japan ) not wanting to share any cent with him.

I mean the Sonic comic is basically Archie foot-hold into the pocket of gamers. However it is also something that took Sonic to a new level.

Penders had to sue. Penders LEGALLY WAS WITHIN HIS RIGHTS and SEGA dissed him. HOW MANY WESTERN ARTISTS HAVE A CHANCE TO WRITE SOMETHING AND ILLUSTRATE IT AND BE RESPECTED NO DIFFERENT THEN A JAPANESE ARTIST?

Americans and most westerners are basically locked out of art jobs. Penders is one of the few who is on his game; and knows what must be done.

What you are seeing is a desperate man; an desperate artist attempting to reach out to the readers of the Sonic Comic/SATAM. Other-M did their thing; and to be clear their first "physical comic" Was that Sonic issue you showed me.

About the CGI-Art. That is CGI art. He has to do it like that because Archie/SEGA does not want him to use anything that resembles anything from their comics. Personally the CGI could use some work. It needs more curves ( in terms of the body )

I understand it is meaningless to argue over this; but seriously. Lets be realistic. This is not Japan or some other Eastern nation. As an artist it is hell to get work; make money; and be loved. Japan they have clubs for these sorta things on going. They have hubs and centers. They have sculptures for these things.

When was the last time you walked into an room and saw billions of comic book/game artwork hanging off the wall? ( not an gallery ) Never. The last time I saw anything like that was the puppet room in my college. It felt like I was in Beijing ( even if there workspace looks almost like my own ). When was the last time you saw the fine arts melting with the low-arts and people had smiles on their face. It is virtually impossible in the west???

Seriously I am not saying Other-M should not do work. I am saying they are short changing the guy; because Penders did his homework and not him. Work is work and people should be respected for the work they do; no matter what it is.

[MadeManG74]

I remember really disliking the series after issue 50. I don't remember if I bothered reading beyond that. I liked the older comics better anyway. This is all from a 7 year old MadeMang though.

[RegalSin]

Before that the Comic looked more or less like an bad Nintendo power rip-off. I like how they made the primary focus Sonic and his world. Or when the SATAM was canceled and the stories tied in.