Megathread The Lara-Su Chronicles and Ken Penders topic - READ PAGE 164, POST 4096

[Sunwalker]

Ages ago. Last I saw it was on the remains of some ancient Knuckles fansite where the site owner was worried about the comic cancellation and were showing various chat logs with Pendejo. I don't remember the URL of the site, and at this point I'm worried if even the Waybackmachine would be able to find it.

 

The problem with some of Pendejo's grander moments is that they were in the past, before things were strongly documented. So things like him claiming that SEGA owned all his characters or him asking people to buy multiple copies of Knuckles to prevent cancellation gets lost with websites being torn down, altered, etc. Hell, a good example is how many pages in this very thread were lost.

 

So I'm very sorry I don't have a link to give you right now, but I promise you I've seen it. It may be out there on the internet still but I unfortunately don't have the time or even know what to put as keywords to find it.

 

I think this is the Ken's request you are talking about: http://mokat01.tripod.com/saveknux.html

 

Quoting it here for posterity: 

I'm not one to normally do something like this, as I recognize immediately that some people will claim my motivation is strictly self-interest. To be honest, self-interest does play a part, but only to a certain extent. However, when the deck keeps geeting stacked against you, you tend to resort to everything and anything in the hope that something will work.

 

The problem is this...because various suits have affected the way KNUCKLES is distributed, KNUCKLES is now on the endangered list, with the very real possibility of being published only nine times a year, maybe six, or even being outright cancelled.

 

How can this be so? you ask. Let me explain.

 

Months ago, some woman complained to a manager at a WalMart that her child bought a comic book with offensive material at his store. Rather than simply not carry the offending title, WalMart made the corporate-wide decision to not carry ANY comics altogether. This resulted in 10,000 less copies of KNUCKLES alone being sold.

 

While some of those readers probably bought subscriptions, the majority went looking for other sources. Unfortunately, despite the overwhelming evidence that SONIC and KNUCKLES would only bring in more customers, many comics retailers still refused to increase their orders. As for other outlets, they've proven to be hit and miss due to various factors with newstand distribution.

 

Which brings us to the second shoe being dropped: how the current system of newstand distribution could spell disaster for KNUCKLES fans.

 

In case anyone hasn't noticed lately, there are more magazines being published than there is room in stores to display them for sale. That means if you wish to get your product to market, you have to jump through the hoops set up by newstand distributors. Recently, the distributors have decided to charge more money for less space. That means a publisher like Archie has to cough up more money to maintain every title on the newstand they currently publish, or...

 

...they could pay the same amount and get less shelf space, resulting in some books getting cancelled, and others scaled back in their frequency of publication.

 

While SONIC has been a solid performer with name-brand recognition, for some reason, both KNUCKLES and SONIC SUPER SPECIAL have a harder time getting through the food chain and into the readers hands.

 

Be that as it may, the fact is, the publishers don't care about the whys and wherefores. They're not looking for explanations. Either a book sells or it doesn't. While that may not be fair from a fan's point of view, this is how business is currently conducted in America today.

 

Now that we've defined the problem, that various factors are making it more difficult than ever for KNUCKLES' fans to follow their hero, we obviously need a solution, and in this case, there's only one. The only one the publishers will listen to.

 

If you really, truly think the book is worthy of your time and effort, I recommend that everyone who feels this way buy one extra copy for six months and pass 'em along to different friends, getting them hooked.

 

I say six months for two reasons. One: it's going to take that long for the initial sales figures to reach Archie, and Two: it's going to take several months of steady sales to encourage the publishers to maintain KNUCKLES on a monthly basis. As it stands now, after issue #35, there's a very real chance of a "skip" month between every 3-issue story, resulting in only nine issues a year of KNUCKLES. Once that happens, it'll be a long time, if ever, before KNUCKLES is fully restored to 12 issues a year.

 

If anyone has really looked at what's on the magazine racks these days, you know that both the retailer and the distributor make more money selling Time, Newsweek, Better Homes and Gardens, etc., than they do selling comic books. Therefore, if you wish to save that which you enjoy, you have to make the effort to show that support. The more fans that do come through, the louder the message will be.

 

So start by spreading the word, and if anyone has any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

 

The ancient Knuckles website you are talking about should be Knuckles Haven, from True Red. The above message from Ken should also be in this site somewhere.

 

A lot of material was removed from his forums during the court case.

In all fairness, Ken had a very old messageboard system called WWWboard,which I guess it is almost as old as commercial internet itself. It was removed when it was replaced by the more modern phbBB forum. That being said, I do agree that the timing for the change was... curious.

[Gabz Girl]

That Image crossover was a complete and utter disgrace to Sonic and the Image characters. I still can't believe Pendurrs managed to sneak Spawn in and have him do absolutely NOTHING, not to mention introduce us to some guy who is never named and is apparently the villain now (that being Doctor Droid). I still think Linkara's review of the comic was really good and showed just how awful it was.

 

Btw does Penders know about Linkara's review?

[Zaysho]

That Image crossover was a complete and utter disgrace to Sonic and the Image characters. I still can't believe Pendurrs managed to sneak Spawn in and have him do absolutely NOTHING, not to mention introduce us to some guy who is never named and is apparently the villain now (that being Doctor Droid). I still think Linkara's review of the comic was really good and showed just how awful it was.

 

Btw does Penders know about Linkara's review?

 

But, Gabz! Clearly because Linkara doesn't understand the circumstances surrounding not only the creation of that particular comic, he doesn't know Penders's life story! How can he truly judge it accurately? I mean, he hasn't even made a comic book, so what does he know? Penders is immune to criticism, don't you know.

[Verb & Noun]

 In all fairness, Ken had a very old messageboard system called WWWboard,which I guess it is almost as old as commercial internet itself. It was removed when it was replaced by the more modern phbBB forum. That being said, I do agree that the timing for the change was... curious.

 

I seem to recall that it was said that material had been removed for purposes of the court before, as in admitted. But my memory on that may be foggy. It could be that speculation at the time tainted my memory.

 

Glad to see you could find the site, however. There's two things I find particularly interesting rereading that-

• He admits Sonic's sales have to do with brand recognition, not necessarily quality (otherwise his spiel that sales= quality would have meant that Sonic the 'superior book' while he wasn't writing for it)
• He did not expect the series to be canceled, as he was talking about how after issue 35 distribution would be slowed to 9 a year and not 12. Remember that the comic was canceled at 32. This is personally interesting to me because it collaborates with a rumor I have heard before (but am still not confident enough in to repeat, sorry- but it brings to idea that sales weren't that fantastic on that book to begin with).

 

 

 

EDIT- Thought more about the message board thing. I was misremembering but now I'm clear. During the time the court case was announced he was already at phBB. His old forum however continued to exist in the form of backed up files on his website. When the court thing occurred, various portions of that backup disappeared. That's what I was thinking of.

[horridus]

 

I think this is the Ken's request you are talking about: http://mokat01.tripod.com/saveknux.html

 

Quoting it here for posterity: 

 

The ancient Knuckles website you are talking about should be Knuckles Haven, from True Red. The above message from Ken should also be in this site somewhere.

 

 

Ooh-ho man, Knuckles Haven. Now that brings back memories. That was like, one my first internet hangouts waaaay back in the day. 

 

Geeze though. That meandering, rambling list of justifications for why Knuckles is getting cancelled and why none of it is his own fault... how the hell can he claim its not primarily motivated by Self-Interest when it so very nakedly *is*?? It's kind of astounding that he proceeds in virtually the exact same manner then as he does now. 

[Mauro Fonseca]

It's worth mentioning that a lot of the old stuff gone from the forum isn't intentional deleting- IIRC, some 10 years ago the forum had a wipe not unlike the one we just had, which is where a lot of stuff important in realising drama of the time (like Bollers' attitude against Dan Drazen, etc) ended up gone

[Paul-Agnew]

And speaking of blasts from the past, It's done. All is as it should be. At last.

[Your Vest Friend]

Lara-Su was intended to be erased from existence at the end of the story? Wow.

[horridus]

And speaking of blasts from the past, It's done. All is as it should be. At last.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Lara-Su was intended to be erased from existence at the end of the story? Wow.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Wow. That was one long post.

 

It's a good one though. I've only begun reading the comics full time after Worlds Collide so I haven't seen much for the Penders era (Which I'm perfectly fine with, looking at the Archives, his stories are...let's say less than good in my opinion). But It's definitely good to see your point of view. I'm can't really say anything about your past posts though because really, this is the first time I've actually seen your posts, but whatever the case, seeing your point of view here and seeing that you're sorry for whatever happened in the past, I hope that they'll forgive you.

 

It definitely sucks that despite you being there to defend the guy, he basically shoves it back into your face, I mean, the guy is getting criticized by the majority of people and despite that, he's still being an asshole about it.

 

If there is one thing though, I don't really think it was fair to mention Adamis in the post to be honest. Adamis hasn't said anything about if he's going to work with Penders or not and even then, it seems Penders just wants him to proof read the french translation. Adamis hasn't mentioned a word about if he's going to take the job or not (It was mentioned here before the server wipe that he didn't know if he was going to do it or not). I just don't think it's really fair to drag Adamis into this, regardless of the intention when he really has nothing to do with Penders' bullshit.

 

Reading the post though, it really shows Penders as a backstabbing prick. Thanks for showing your side of the story Paul.

[Gabz Girl]

Thanks Paul, that's a long but great read. Sadly I don't think Pendurrs will even bother to read it. 8(

[Sai Start Marker]

And speaking of blasts from the past, It's done. All is as it should be. At last.

 

I'm sorry that it took you 20 years to realise Ken Penders is an awful idiot. That's a purgatory that I wouldn't wish on anyone.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

On another note, I wonder when we'll be seeing the next laughable page of ''THE STORM''

[Verb & Noun]

Paul- your post was very interesting and heartfelt. But the thing that struck me the most, much more important than anything about Pendejo, was the bit about your health. I'm glad you seem to be doing alright now and I hope it stays that way. You're right that time is a valuable thing.

 

Whatever you choose to do now I hope it brings you happiness.

[Adamis]

Wow. That was one long post.

 

It's a good one though. I've only begun reading the comics full time after Worlds Collide so I haven't seen much for the Penders era (Which I'm perfectly fine with, looking at the Archives, his stories are...let's say less than good in my opinion). But It's definitely good to see your point of view. I'm can't really say anything about your past posts though because really, this is the first time I've actually seen your posts, but whatever the case, seeing your point of view here and seeing that you're sorry for whatever happened in the past, I hope that they'll forgive you.

 

It definitely sucks that despite you being there to defend the guy, he basically shoves it back into your face, I mean, the guy is getting criticized by the majority of people and despite that, he's still being an asshole about it.

 

If there is one thing though, I don't really think it was fair to mention Adamis in the post to be honest. Adamis hasn't said anything about if he's going to work with Penders or not and even then, it seems Penders just wants him to proof read the french translation. Adamis hasn't mentioned a word about if he's going to take the job or not (It was mentioned here before the server wipe that he didn't know if he was going to do it or not). I just don't think it's really fair to drag Adamis into this, regardless of the intention when he really has nothing to do with Penders' bullshit.

 

Reading the post though, it really shows Penders as a backstabbing prick. Thanks for showing your side of the story Paul.

 

Thanks.

 

As I've just said on Ken's forum, I've accepted nothing because... there haven't been any discussion for weeks. The last time I talked about it here was the last time I got any message from Ken. (And believe me, I'm being cautious about that since there have not been talks about remuneration. I'm not greedy, but work is work)

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

That is one long post.

 

In all seriousness... I feel bad that you were supporting Ken before, only to find he didn't really bother. It was the right thing you typed out how you really feel and stating why you're leaving. Unfortunately, Penders will probably ignore it, another version of TL:DR.

 

So, Lara-Su was meant to be erased from existance? O_O

 

Wasn't really sure if I should point this out, but you forgot to mention the redesign of Lien-Da, and how... bad it was. But your post is fine as it is.

EDIT: And get well soon and all the best!

[biznizz]

Reading your post, Paul, was most definitely a very interesting experience. Very illuminating in many regards.

 

I didn't know that the title was actually a years long fanfic you did, and had actually mentioned to Pen; I was under the assumption that it was a title you mentioned on either his forum or Twitter that he never gave you credit for. A fanfic that you spent years trying to get him to acknowledge.

 

The sheer amount of disrespect he's show an ongoing fan for 20 f*cking years, even after all the loyalty you had shown him.

 

I sincerely hope that your health will stabilize for the better. I've dealt with medical scares in my life myself; a few years ago, my father had his spleen and part of his adrenal gland erroniously removed due to his doctor's concerns (was actually water cyst in the end), and last year, he had a problem with his kidneys that went untreated for months because the doctor didn't order the proper tests because he was concerned with his own recent stroke and was more concerned about his face drooping. May you get the best treatment and care you can get; and my condolences to your losses over the years.

 

And congratulations of getting a job working on creating for the Ghost Who Walks! I am so glad that despite Pen's crushing indifference, you've made your way into the industry.

 

I can't really speak for him or what he'd say, but I'm sure that if you ever do decide to join Bumbleking or talk to Ian Flynn, he'd understand even if you still don't like the way he's wrote the character(s) you were talking about (I won't ask, but I'm assuming that it was probably a Penders-created character. Maybe an echidna?). Hopefully, you and he would be able to work past your past disagreements. You never know unless you try.

 

I understand that even without the new comic tarrifs and lack of avaliablity in Australia, you've lost the spark for the comic and its new continuity. I've seen plenty of people who just can't, so you are not alone. You've handled it better than some. I hope that, if you ever get the chance down the line, you can rediscover that spark again. It's not easy seeing a property you love chance into something you feel slapped you in the face; personal experience with the whole of the Mass Effect property.

 

It was hilarious that you brought up Palcomix, tho I'm almost positive that Pen's fans have probably (tried) to bring it to his attention before. It'd be interesting if he really did try to sue, if only to see just how low he's trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel for money and attention.

 

And most of all, I really think you've got serious huevos for calling out the man, for all his douchebaggery all these years, on his own forum, and finally dropping the mic and walking away to focus on your own life, your own career.

 

Even if you decide that you'll be finished with all things Sonic and not come back here at all, I just wanted to let you know:

 

You're a cool guy Paul Agnew. May you have all the best, little of the worst, and most of all, may you treat your fans better than your former 'hero' treated his. To quote a man the world and I still sorely miss, Live Long And Prosper.

[MightyRay]

And speaking of blasts from the past, It's done. All is as it should be. At last.

 

Speaking as a fellow aussie, you're a bloody legend for saying all that. I doubt that Mr Penders will respond but I reckon he should at least properly read it through and have a long hard look in the mirror. 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Speaking as a fellow aussie, you're a bloody legend for saying all that. I doubt that Mr Penders will respond but I reckon he should at least properly read it through and have a long hard look in the mirror.

It's Penders. I'd say he'll look at it, shrug it off and claim that he's overreacting. After all, he did the exact same thing to Horridus on his forums.

[QuantumEdge]

First thing I'd like to say is good on you Paul.  It was a darn long post, but is sure had heart thrown in there and never stopped being interesting throughout.  So sorry to hear your health hasn't been perfect.  Hope you're doing okay, but on the bright side, congrats on the job. 

 

Biznizz probably made a better reply, but I must praise you for the gutsy post.  Frankly, I haven't a clue how Penders will react.  You rightfully called him out on so many things, I suppose he'd be shamed into silence, but time will tell I guess.  What makes me feel sorry though, is how your views on him just corroded in the span of a few years.  Not a nice feeling.  The good news is you seem perfectly ready to leave this all behind and get on, whereas Penders just can't seem to at all.  What you did was pretty cool Paul.  I take my hat off to you in respect.  I've seen a lot of people stick it to the guy, but no one quite as much as you did. 

 

Best of luck to you in life Paul.  You deserve it.

[Verb & Noun]

of course Lara-su was supposed to be erased from existence she's a girl being written by Pendejo

[Xeric]

I'm still reading through it, but I hope Paul made another copy of this. It must of taken him hours and quite frankly, considering Penders and BobR's reputation of deleting comments and topics they don't agree with/ don't want others to see(all the crap with Bollers etc years ago) , you just know Penders is going to remove this.

[TCB]

Wow. Just...wow. I've been reading this thread for months now, and while I never really engaged in it I was always informed by what has been going on.

 

So reading that mammoth of a post over there by Paul not just reaffirmed what I've felt about Penders since this whole debacle but it opened up new things I've never though I'd expect. At the same time that was heart and soul of a once-loyal fan of a writer he's looked up to for more than 15 years now completely burnt out due to said writer's utter douchebaggery. That's really unfortunate to hear.

 

As for Xeric said...I thought this was way too good of a post Paul made to risk being wiped (if he didn't save a draft of this anyway) so I saved it via screen capture in sections. I know it's not the best way of preserving it, but I really don't want something this heartfelt to be shamefully wiped out of existence by some people who are afraid to face the truth.

[Sunwalker]

I'm still reading through it, but I hope Paul made another copy of this. It must of taken him hours and quite frankly, considering Penders and BobR's reputation of deleting comments and topics they don't agree with/ don't want others to see(all the crap with Bollers etc years ago) , you just know Penders is going to remove this.

 

As for Xeric said...I thought this was way too good of a post Paul made to risk being wiped (if he didn't save a draft of this anyway) so I saved it via screen capture in sections. I know it's not the best way of preserving it, but I really don't want something this heartfelt to be shamefully wiped out of existence by some people who are afraid to face the truth.

There is a site called archive.is that is exactly for saving webpages for the case they are deleted or modified. I have saved a copy of the post there: https://archive.is/hnOPk