The Sonic fandom HATES this man. Does he deserve it?

Shortly after I posted the video, Ken Penders contacted me his thoughts on it. With his permission, I'm posting them below verbatim: Matt, I appreciate the video. If I do take issue with anything, is that you make it sound like I’ve been bitter the whole time since I left the book or that Karl and I have been mad with each other all this time. Did Karl & I have differences during the run of M25YL? Absolutely. I also don’t recall banning him from my message board. If he made that claim, I take responsibility as I had a Web Administrator who monitored my message board. From my perspective, Karl and I cleared the air between us during a meeting in NYC when my legal battle was going on and I asked if he would be willing to submit an affidavit, which he did. We’ve encountered each other over the years since at conventions and I recall each encounter as a pleasant experience. Karl & shared similar experiences while at Archie and I’d liken that to the experiences I shared with guys I served with while in the military. What I disliked most of all is how you ended things, with Ian continuing on SONIC, and Karl on continuing to work on comics for major publishers while I just released THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES as an afterthought. What you failed to mention - and that I’ve been very public with - is that the book contains every MOBIUS: 25 YEARS LATER chapter that was originally published in SONIC issues 131 thru 144, establishing my right to reprint the works I had a hand in creating. (As for the other creators, my business dealings with them are private and will remain so.) Your comment that I didn’t have the right to reprint my stories ignores several facets of the copyright battle despite the legal assistance you had. Beyond Ian, I also helped launch the career of artist Dawn Best and encouraged other fans beyond Ian, including Jonathan Gray, who also posted on my website and I invited to share my table space in Artist Alley during one Comic-Con back in the early aughts. One omission that bothered me was not mentioning how I was the only creator who had a hand in every aspect of the book beyond just the writing. Neither Karl or Ian ever illustrated a story for any SONIC comic. The biggest difference between my scripts and Ian & Karl’s was that every script I created prior to ENDGAME also included unpaid, uncredited layouts which the artists used as the basis of their work. The final pencils resembled my layouts to such a degree that the US Copyright Office considered me a legal co-creator of the art as well as the story when they compared samples of my layouts to the finished pencils. Also, not only did Archie not respond to the US Copyright Office over my claims, but neither did SEGA, who received the same letter the US Copyright Office sent out to Archie. Had their lawyers challenged my claim, that would’ve made my battle easier as they would also have to prove a transfer of ownership of which they had no documents to cover. Copyrights are still the Wild West, and when it comes to comics, especially so. The main problem is that companies settle. Work-for-hire is not the hill they wish to die on. Not even Disney. When Ruth Bader Ginsburg decided to hear the Marvel v Kirby case, that’s when Disney folded. They did not want to open Pandora’s box despite their army of lawyers. Same with Warner Bros when it came to the Seigel / Superman case. They ended up spending $30 million dollars only to end up with the resolution DC Comics originally negotiated with the Seigel estate. To date, no one has ever asked why SEGA didn’t go after Archie for the loss of an asset that took 25 years to create. While you did a great job of research throughout, I was amazed you missed the court transcript posted on the bleedingcool.com/ website which revealed the real reason why SEGA eventually took SONIC away from Archie. During the legal battle, Archie was on the hook to pay for all of SEGA’s legal costs. When it came time to renew the license in 2017, Archie looked at the revenue they were getting from Warner Bros and Netflix for RIVERDALE and SABRINA and decided SONIC wasn’t worth indemnifying SEGA from any and all future legal costs. Since the legal battle, I’ve been more concerned over my personal life and relationships. My better half, Bernadette, who went through the legal battle with me, hated the thought of me doing work-for-hire, which I was in complete agreement with. We’ve seen 3 children grow up and graduate from college. 2 own their own homes with Steve married and the father of 3 beautiful children of his own. My work in advertising is mentioned in the book COMICS MAD MEN, in which I was a designer for the Motorola Razor ad campaign. I’m also sought out for commissions from SONIC fans the world over. THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS was able to go forward to print and eventual release because of Sonic fans pre-ordering the book. As I write this, the cargo ship carrying the copies of my book is scheduled to dock at the Port of Los Angeles with eventual arrival at the warehouse they will be stored at on June 15. Copies are tentatively scheduled to begin shipping to those who pre-ordered starting June 17, going to readers in almost all 50 states as well as 7 countries on 3 continents. (I’ve just been asked to add Ireland to the list of countries I ship to.) Since the legal battle, I’ve also been overseeing a film I directed through post-production. It would've already been released but technology has improved to the point where I’m now upresing the film for 4K monitors. Do I take pride in what I do? Guilty as charged. But if one doesn’t ring one’s bell, will anyone notice? I actually liked your Penders & Flynn comment. However, after my experience making a film, it’s only reinforced my attitude to work on projects where I make the decisions. You have to understand I’ve come to accept my association with Sonic is lifelong and beyond my control. When I stopped submitting stories to Archie, I was still working with SEGA on a potential Sonic film. Not just with SOA, but also with SOJ. I have the documentation to show for those efforts. I broke bread with SOJ executives when we met in Hollywood long before Ian dealt with them. (I even sold original art to Sonic Team members at a Comic-Con, including the original art to the cover of SONIC issue 98 - the SONIC ADVENTURE 2 adaptation - which I also inked.) When the film project died on the vine, it was due to SEGA corporate upheaval. Even though Robert Leffler had passed, SOA President Rob Lightner was still willing to go forward until other executives decided getting into bed with Marvel was more important at the time. There could've been a KNUCKLES film based on my comics from Dreamworks back in the early 2000s but SEGA killed that baby before it could even leave the womb. It comes down to a lifetime of experiences as a result of my connection to Sonic which I never anticipated when I wrote those early stories. That's something that has yet to be properly conveyed. Maybe someday.

I don't know why, but god has just decided that the Sonic franchise needs to be this cosmically misaligned divine comedy. It never ends.

This whole saga becomes a lot funnier if you imagine “Archie” is not a company but Archie Andrews himself personally fighting against these writers.

Sonic aside, you took the time to Interview the relevant parties. You didn't make a lolcow out of a strange guy with strong passions. You deserve so much respect for that alone.

Gotta pity poor Karl Bollers. Has to share the book with Ken, gets forced at gunpoint by Sega to ram modern Sonic lore somehow into Archie's Pseudo-SatAM universe, and then gets fired over a fricken slap!

It's funny that the lore behind making the Sonic comics is almost as complex as the Sonic lore they created.

Not sure why it can't be both; Penders is greedy and Archie is a corporate bully.

Just think, if this series had been canceled after issue 50, Ken Penders would’ve gone down as a legendary comic book creator, and wonderfully devoted father, nothing more. You either die a hero, or live long enough to become a villain

Penders would be way more sympathetic if he hadn't screwed over SatAM writer Ben Hurst out of a Hollywood Sonic movie pitch before the lawsuit. Ironically, that probably came back to bite him, considering this may have indirectly contributed to the finalized Sonic movie having Ian Flynn contributions.

Reminder that the Knuckles TV show had a whole acid crack flashback segment about Knuckles' backstory and they made his dad look like Ken Penders.

When an 11 view, 1 minute old, 46 minute documentary about the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book hits your front page, you know you got a banger

This story is pretty clear to me. Penders had a vendetta Fellow creators have an interest in supporting creator rights Archie had a terrible legal team NO BIG COMPANY WANTS ENTER A LAWSUIT THAT THEY MAY REASONABLE LOSE TO A TECHNICALITY because it sets a precedent. Look at all the YouTube copyright controversies. These companies never let it go to court because they may lose control. It was clearly a business decision for Archie to admit they messed up and wipe their hands clean. Sega likely saw their incompetence and pulled the license. Ken Penders may be a great father (and I respect that about him) as well as someone who put their soul into their work, but he is still an egotistical weirdo who had a bone to pick and claimed characters like "anti-sonic" of the concept of Knuckles having a father as his own. You cannot own ideas/concepts under copyright. Only specific characters and works. The anti-sonic one is really funny because it's him claiming ownership of a god damn variant of a copyrighted character. Penders only had a case because of Archie's incompetence. He's not a sympathetic hero in their story. He's a guy who gets a little too emotionally involved and possessive.

“Where’s my contract?” “We can’t find it.” Files copyright “Well would you look at that. Here it is.” Seems extremely sus to me.

the fact that Ken penders was seeking a 7 figure sum for the lawsuit tells me those licencing talks broke down because he asked too much. Reminder, he wasn't seeking payment for the use of knuckles or sonic or amy, etc, he was seeking payment for them to use things like "an ancient echidnia society" and "knuckle's dad" etc. I'm not gonna say his stuff wasn't entertaining, but Ken has a history of VASTLY overvaluing his original creations and getting very petty about people talking critically about his work. In my opinion, Archie was probably the typical greedy corporation, but Ken was also a petulant child who threw tantrums when he didn't get free reign to write his stories using an IP that he ultimately didn't own.

The flynn reveal made me shit myself

Also to add, one stipulation that Penders demanded for the use of his characters was that his 25 Years Later plotline be the canonical future for the comic. There was no way that was going to fly.

I’m… in the middle. I side with Ken Penders on the creators rights issue, but I don’t see his work as this incredibly original saga either. He’s not a hack or a hero, he’s just a decent enough writer who did get egotistical towards the end.

"Archie comics who were known for comics such as Archie" hmm yes the floor here is made of floor

Honestly mattt is one of my favourite comic book YouTubers

Ian shows what companies and fans relations should be