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

this video brought to you by Shopify four lawsuits three fake writers drama feuds lies why is the Sonic comic of all things so controversial how did a Sonic writer of all people become one of the most hated men on the internet I saw so many misconceptions online that I ended up reading hundreds of comics dozens of legal documents decade old Forum threads and ultimately decided I needed to interview the key participants myself and this might be the most messy ridiculous behind the-scenes story of any comic ever and it all starts with a corporate Feud it's 1991 and SE of America and SE of Japan are at each other's throats they've been clashing over the marketing of the new genesis console and Sega of America has been unhappy with the direction of sega's new mascot Sonic the Hedgehog and so when the first Sonic game comes to the US Sega of America makes a fateful decision they toss out the story that Sega of Japan had put in the Japanese manual and decideed to give Sonic his own American backstory and this decision is the first ingredient will make Sonic so interesting and so controversial because now Sonic has no Canon backstory he's a character design an attitude a blank slate onto which fans creators and entire corporations will graft vastly different interpretations in case you need proof of this Sega couldn't just make one show about Sonic through a tortured development process they actually end up making two vastly different shows about Sonic one is a lighthearted after school weekday show a low stakes comedy in which Sonic loves chili dogs and cracks jokes the other is an action drama in which Sonic is a member of a band of militant Freedom Fighters locked in Desperate struggle with a despotic tyrant whose intent on destroying the planet's ecosystem but they don't stop at just two shows they hire Archie Comics known for Comics such as Archie to turn Sonic into a comic little do they know that this will become one of the most epic insane and controversial comics of all time now this is a hot license for Archy and they know exactly what to do with it they hire the guy who'd been writing Alf these early Sonic comics are deeply strange you might think it would make sense to make Sonic into some kind of superhero but these books are squarely funny animal comics just loaded to the brim with painful puns and yes a big part of me loves it and because this is Sonic we're talking about within three issues there's already behind the scenes controversy the original artist on the series Scott Shaw excuse me Scott Shaw is working in advertising while doing Sonic on the side for his advertising work he's paid $10,000 per page Archie is paying him $200 per page for Sonic but Shaw is okay with that because it's a lowprofile job and they're not printing that many copies except without Shaw's permission Archie begins using his Sonic comics as giveaways apparently printing millions of copies and using his art and advertisements he's furious with Archie and quits the series in protest this is hardly the last time a Creator will get into a dispute with Archie but we'll get back to that Scott Shaw may be gone but Archie knows what to do they hire the guy who's been drawing Al look it feels like what it is a lowbudget tight deadline corporate product produced by people without a lot of fondness or familiarity with the video game it's based on it seems destined to only last a few issues and be lost to time like so many other licensed Comics but that all changes with issue number 11 11 reading through these issues in succession the jump in quality in Issue 11 is astonishing in it Sonic runs through a game inspired dimensional portal and warps into a not very game inspired alternate universe where he meets an evil version of himself look I'm not saying it's Watchman I mean there's a freaking maze in the middle of it and it's pretty derivative but it feels like someone finally sees that the Sonic comic has the potential to be more than just a throwaway gag book by issue 17 they're delving into the unexplored backstory of this planet it's still goofy but you can see that they care enough about these characters to try and ground them in some sort of reality so who's behind this massive transformation from disposable gag book to Sci-Fi Action who is the savior of Archie's Sonic comics a man named Ken penders and his writing partner Mike canovic now hold on hold on if you know the name Ken penders and you know where this is going I promise we're getting there but before we get to the lawsuits to the hate to everything that comes later let's meet Ken penders Ken penders just wants to be a good dad that more than anything else seems to be his driving force in life he has pursued a career in comics because it would allow him to stay home and be involved in his kids lives but before Sonic penders hadn't really quite found his defining gig he'd shown promise as a pencor and gotten work at both Marvel and DC and had even started taking on writing assignments but he hadn't found the comic that would come to Define him that would secure his place in the industry then one fateful day Pender's phone rings it's his writing partner Mike cerovich who'd been asked to pitch some stories for Archie Sonic comic cerovich doesn't know anything about Sonic but he thinks it could be a good gig and wants to know if penders wants to work with him on a pitch and penders is absolutely thrilled why because his son Steven loves Sonic Steven has played all the games and every night before bed Ken and Steven read the Archy Sonic comics together this is an opportunity to write on his son's favorite comic a chance for him to be the cool dad so penders and canovic huddle together and come up with their pitch and Archie accepts their first work runs in Issue 11 and then Archie wants more and more and more gradually without knowing it penders is becoming the head writer on Sonic and soon he uses his growing influence to make a pitch He suggests to his editor that they move the comic away from the Sonic comedy show towards the darker more serialized Saturday Morning Show the editor agrees and so penders and the writers begin taking the ongoing plot more seriously which is absolutely insane because it still feels like the different writers aren't even reading each other's work I'm worried that you think I'm exaggerating so let me give you an example the book flips between things like this awesome two-page spread of meca Sonic facing off with Mecha Knuckles to the 40 fathom Freedom Fighters facing off against eel Capone and his hired muscle this is not just in the same universe it's in the same issue Argie son is like taking six different puzzles and dumping them together and still somehow making a cohesive image out of it and it's penders more than anyone else who's committed to making those puzzle pieces fit every single element gets a backstory like it turns out that Sonic's lovable Uncle Chuck actually was secretly complicit in the robotization of Sonic's long lost parents and had been living with the guilt and burden of secrecy the whole time he'd been whipping up chil dogs for Sonic look I'd be lying if I said this all works for me the book absolutely sags under the weight of its own continuity as more and more pages are spent with over narrated flashbacks explaining lore that I didn't really need to know but when it works it's absolutely glorious in sanity look I know there are those of you out there who will wreck me in the comments for saying anything nice about Ken Pender's work and I'll admit he's written some Comics I really do dislike but I'm also the guy who made a video defending Rob lield so I don't really have a reputation left to lose and while it might be easy to laugh at today we have to remember how cool and unique this would have been to kids in the 9s kids media was generally simple nonviolent and self-contained but here's a book aimed at kids that took itself very seriously that took its World building seriously oh and it takes its romance very very seriously as well penders and his collaborators had turned what could have been a throwaway paycheck gag book into something that was deeply engaging to thousands of kids every single month but sadly the fun wouldn't last forever so help our own country CNN sight has it's 1995 and Sonic Mania is dying down Sonic and Knuckles the last great Sonic game is already a distant memory and his attention shifts to the upcoming 3D Systems it becomes clear that Speedy Sonic can't keep up with Mario Archie breaks the bad news to penders and the Sonic Team both Sonic cartoon shows are going off the air everyone knows what this means licensed Comics don't Outlast the shows and toys they're meant to advertise they know that any day they'll get word that their comic is dead this is going to be rough on penders in particular he had taken on very little outside work Sonic had become his job and his passion and of course away for him to bond with his son as they reviewed each issue together but penders in the team decide to go out in style in the run up to issue 50 penders leads the team to create an unprecedented did four-part story arc in which they raised the stakes to Epic levels this story arc is the culmination of everything good bad and weirdly beautiful about Sonic comics it's fully unclear if this is still even a kids book Dr quack is revealed to be a traitor and the villain shoot him in front of his crying children The Lovable down under Freedom Fighters are found in prison having been subjected to months of brutal torture Sonic's girlfriend Sally dies in a terrible fall during the assault on Robotnik City and in the final issue Sonic succeeds in killing Dr Robotnik in Revenge for Sally's death it took less than 5 years to go from chil dog jokes to the Grim realities of armed opposition against an authoritarian dictatorship I absolutely love it they wanted to go out with a bang and they succeeded and then something funny happens the call never comes the Sonic comic isn't going to end I can't overstate what a big deal this is penders and his collaborators had succeeded where almost every other licensed property had failed they had Justified their own continued independent existence and now unburdened by games or TV shows penders and his collaborators would begin taking the book into all sorts of controversial new directions and begin planting the seeds that would grow into an epic legal Showdown Archie decides based on Sonic's popularity to split it into two books one about Sonic the other about Sonic's friendy Knuckles the editor gives penders his pick of which to work on and he chooses Knuckles and it's here on Knuckles where Pender's work will become more controversial emboldened by his success on Sonic he'll take everything that had worked on that book and turn it up to 11 in Sonic he' taken a comedy book and added a layer of seriousness that fans appreciated in Knuckles penders would explore housing crisises racism aging and divorce and perhaps most infamously the Holocaust he opens one issue with his own reworking of Martin n Muller's famous poem first they came without attribution changing the words to Sonic stuff first they came for the Hedgehogs but I did not speak up for I am an a kidna it's a lot as I mentioned earlier fatherhood is deeply important to penders so in Sonic he often gave his characters parents parents who tended to look just like their kids with a different hairstyle or outfit and he focused a lot on these relationships in the same vein knuckle's previously unknown father lock and his estranged wife would become key figures in the knuckle comic often upstaging Knuckles himself but not only would Knuckles get parents he would get a grandpa a great grandpa a great great grandpa in fact there's a whole Council of grandpas again I'm worried you think that I'm exaggerating so here's the actual guide to all the grandpas that Archie later published this whole focus on Fathers and Sons peaks in one of Pender's most derided Works Sonic live in it he writes a story in which his son meets Sonic and even puts photos of Steven in the comic this obsession with fatherhood would become one of Pender's most ridiculed traits online but to understand where he's coming from and the battles he's about to get into it helps to understand Pender's own background see penders had a difficult childhood and was witnessed to regular physical violence between his parents which led him to a confrontational a strange relationship with his own father to escape home at just 17 years old penders joined the Air Force after his s in the Air Force penders returned and began his career as an illustrator but soon after he got a call from his mother his father was dying of cancer I practically lived in the hospital after that and my father and I we came to an understanding I mean he told me things I had not expected to ever hear from him and as time has passed I have found myself missing the lost time his experience convinced him that he wanted to be a great father the opposite of the kind of father that he had this is why it was so important to him to get a job in comics where he could work from home this is why working on his son's favorite comic meant so much to him this is why he would dedicate a whole issue to having his son meet Sonic even if the fans didn't like it in any other world this kind of raw autobiographical work be a quirky black and white Indie comic with a small but loyal readership but somehow Pender's got a major Comic publisher to publish it in continuity with their most popular comic and that's kind of amazing I mean I do kind of wish we live in a world where we got Joe Matt's Transformers Comics or Harvey PE car's Captain Planet because well yes this isn't what every Sonic fan wanted looking back on it today I can appreciate this deeply personal weirdness but in what I'm sure comes as a huge surprise to you this children's comic about divorce Parenthood and the Holocaust was not a s success and was canceled after 32 issues so now penders who had grown deeply attached and invested in these characters is sent back to the main Sonic book where he'll be forced to share writing duties prompting a power struggle that will alter not just the Sonic comics but all Sonic media forever now I have another question for you do you want to sell comics online because setting up an online store has never been easier thanks to today's sponsor Shopify I love independently owned comic shops and bookstores and I also know it's been harder and harder for them to compete with the big guys while a lot of shops just choose to list their products on major Online Marketplace places more and more shops are turning to Shopify why because rather than being lost in a sea of competitors these shops use Shopify to set up their own custom online store easily putting together a customized look and feel that matches their in-person experience and shopify's tools allow small stores independent businesses to compete with the big boys Shopify is the best converting checkout on the planet and with over 8,000 apps in the App Store pretty much anything you can dream up you can accomplish with Shopify they also have Shopify point of sale so retailers have the option of linking their in store online and on the-go sales like comic conventions into one unified system please support the brands that support me making these videos and check out Shopify today by clicking my Link at shopify.com with4 TS that's shopify.com mttt here's the other thing to know about Ken penders the man is a fighter either because of his difficult childhood his time in the military or his Fierce dedication to providing for his children penders is never shy about standing up for himself in his own interests and what often come into conflict with Archie his first big fight with Archie had come a few years earlier when he had vocally supported Dan De Carlo when he had sued Archie Comics in the 60s Dar Carlo had created Archie characters Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Josie and the Pussycats as well as helping develop the iconic house style of art for Archie but when in 2001 he sued Archie for some of the proceeds of the upcoming Josie and the Pussycats movie he not only lost his case but Archie fired the 80-year-old Dar Carlo he died shortly afterwards bitter and resentful Pender's vocal support of Dar Carlo not only put him at odds with the Archie exec but would perhaps provide a template for the actions he himself would take a decade later but now with Knuckles canceled the headstrong penders is going to be forced to share writing duties on the Sonic book this is a recipe for disaster but before we get to that let's meet the man who would end up in Pender's line of fire who had taken over Sonic while penders was on Knuckles Carl Ballers Carl Ballers is the kind of guy so determined to work in comics he would do whatever it takes he had started as an internate Marvel gotten a job assistant editing on some books had been teaching himself how to letter and eventually he taught himself how to color Comics which is how he got a job at Archie Wally was the colorist he' pitched story after Story to the editor of Sonic and eventually a few got bought but then as penders is going over to the knuckle series Ballers gets the call he is going to be the new headwriter on Sonic and he does not have an easy task ahead of him since no one had expected the series to go past issue 50 they really have no plan for what to do Robotnik is gone and with him the main conflict for the comic baller struggles a bit at first but eventually finds a darker more aggressive tone that really works for the book pulling influences from everything from 80s anime Battle of the planet Hong Kong action movies classic superhero comics I was being dumped into this shared World Universe there were ton of backup characters that were created many not even by me I wanted to respect all the writers who had come before even Ken yes Kenny even you but there's a portion of Sonic phandom pushing back on how dark things have gotten and so Ballers introduces Benny Lee a new writer who leads sharing the writing duties who immediately begins Penning lighter easier goinging adventures in contrast to baller's own except that Ben Benny Lee doesn't exist Benny Lee is Carl baller is trying to appease the Sonic fandom it's worth mentioning that appeasing the Sonic fandom is becoming increasingly difficult again because Sonic is such a wonderful Blank Slate fans have very different opinions on what real Sonic media should look like but over time Ballers along with his alter ego Benny Lee really figured the book out and begin taking it in all sorts of exciting new directions but just as things are really getting good Knuckles is canceled and now Ballers is going to have to share writing duties with Ken penders now at this time penders was already in the midst of another Feud with Archie they had demanded that he reboot Knuckles back to the original Sega version penders by this point is deeply personally invested in his version of Knuckles and told Archie that they need to fire him and find someone else if they wanted him changed this is the man Archie is dealing with he's not only a fighter but a prideful man dedicated to his vision and proud of it however strange you may think it is eventually the editor comes up with a plan to both keep penders on the book and far away from coming into conflict with Ballers penders will write backup stories that take place 25 years in the future where he can be free to do what he wants with the continuity while Ballers will write the present day stories closer to how Archie wants them this solution will in fact only worsen the conflict between Ballers and penders but before we get to that we have to take a look at mobus 25 years later this is perhaps the peak of Pender's unique storytelling sensibilities it has very little action and even less interest in the characters from the Sonic games there's a little here that seems like a kids comic there's a lot of marriage and divorce material and pages and Pages dedicated to dinner parties to be fair one issue's title is a pun on the famous kids movie My Dinner with Andre the Highlight arguably is Father's Day in which Pender has Knuckles and his father lock Reen the deathbed forgiveness scene penders went through with his own father that was all pulled from my experience you know with my father that when I after I did that story I was in tears that was the first time I just broke down and I recognized this was something I needed to get out of my system penders frequently cites it as his favorite among his own works this is Peak penders a story that is deeply personal and autobiographical even therapeutic for its author but which has only the most tenuous connection to the property that's spondo but Carl Ballers isn't happy with this multiple timeline solution for obvious reasons how can his stories matter if nothing he does will impact the future version that penders is writing a fan on penders Message Board jumps in to ask him this very question Ballers himself replies stating that mob's 25 years later is just one possible future penders blocks him from The Message Board things feel tense and just as this battle between the two writers is coming to a head a new editor with a new plan joins the fry in 2004 assistant editor Mike pel is promoted to main editor on Sonic apparently the book is close to cancellation at this point and pelito seems determined to do whatever it takes to get it back on track I'm in caveat here that I wasn't able to speak with pelito directly and he's given very few interviews so everything here is based on other people's Recollections well from what I could find criticism of Pender's writing wasn't as harsh as it would become after his later actions there was a portion of Sonic fandom pushing back on his approach lots of mysterious figures watching the action on big arrays of monitors the new characters were just old character designs with the different hairstyle outfit oh and a lot of floating heads but fundamentally it seems they resent that pages and pages in Sonic's comic are taken up by an autobiographical sci-fi soap opera that has almost nothing to do with the games they love and it seems that pelito is sympathetic to those complaints he grew up with the Sonic games and so he plans to bring the comic closer to the game continuity and by necessity away from Pender's vision for the book his first move is to bring fresh young Talent onto the book Sonic has been running for about 12 years at this point and so the first CR of kids who grew up with the Sonic games are finally beginning to enter the workforce his first hirees 25-year-old John Gray who he pairs with Ballers for the Epic return to Angel Island Saga in it Ballers uses Knuckles lock and a number of other characters that penders had created and makes big changes to the continuity changes that directly conflict with the future penders is writing in the 25 years later story penders would later refer to the storyline as Ballers hissy fit well we don't know what happened behind the scenes the relationship between Ballers and penders is likely untable someone has to go and so after the return to Angel Island art concludes Ballers is gone from Sonic and penders is back in as lead writer he would say of this run when I resumed writing Sonic as a main feature I made it clear I was aiming to correct the Fiasco Carl had foed upon the fandom penders would abruptly trim the story Line's Ballers had spent the past few years building and quickly redirect things back towards his own Vision but just as penders was working to erase Ballers Legacy from the book behind the scenes pelito was moving other pieces into place insurance against penders John gry had been a success and he was looking for more fans of the game to come work on the book and his search for Sonic fans is about to lead him to one of the biggest Sonic fans on the internet Ian poto in his real life PO is a normal college student finishing up his English degree and trying to find a job so he can adopt a cat and get an apartment but online he is one of the biggest names in Sonic fandom he's active in pretty much every corner of the growing Sonic internet Community including Pender's message board penders has even printed Po's letters in the Sonic letters page but Po's biggest claim to fame within the community is Sonic Other M Sonic fan Comics had become this big wonderful scene in their own right most of them were Nothing Like Other M now it's obviously amateurish and don't go read it like poto the artists are mostly in college or even high school but there's a glimmer of something here it's not what perhaps you might think of as typical fanfic there's a serious dedication to Archie Sonic lore it builds on the concepts of alternate universes that penders had introduced into Sonic's world but here's the other thing about Other M which I think gives us some key insight into P's personality well most fan Comics would last one or two issues poto had published 30 issues of Other M along with writing and contributing to numerous other Sonic fan comics and over the past four years po had been sending writing submissions to Archie there's even a whole thread on his personal form dedicated to following his multiple attempts to get a job there Ian has like shown in anime protagonist levels of persistence but he's never heard back from Archie and now it seems like his journey is about to come to an end he's begun applying for real jobs ones that will inevitably force him to leave Sonic fandom behind but then he gets an email because I had been so public with my desire to work on it I thought it was spam I thought somebody was trolling me and nearly deleted it and thought eh I'll give it a read it's like oh wait no this is legit Panic Joy but Panic Pito doesn't have a glamorous writing job for poto but he wants him to come on to write encyclopedia entries and research materials does he want the job of course just like the Fateful phone call penders got over a decade earlier Archie was going to pay an enthusiastic Creator to do a job that they probably would have done for free but p is still determined to land that job writing an actual Sonic comic so he writes his encyclopedia entries he shows script after script to Pito but Pito is tough and isn't going to give him work until he's ready but he's willing to give poto notes and PO is receptive sponging up everything he has to offer pelito also apparently brings penders in to help poto grow he says to me I'm thinking of bringing a new writer on but he's not ready you know for the main thing I was just thinking of trying him out on a couple backup stories would you be willing to help him out work with him I said yeah sure at least from my vantage point I was trying to make things work eventually Po's persistence is rewarded and pelito approves a six-page backup story B's elated but every time it gets scheduled to see print it gets bumped pelo keeps promising it will run soon but poto maybe feels like the day might never come why was pelito being so evasive with poto probably because his plans to change Sonic's Direction had finally brought him into open conflict with penders penders first three editors on Sonic had allowed him pretty much free reign but pelito was a different Beast he told penders what direction to take his stories what characters to use and was constantly shuffling work and giving him new assignments this conflict between the firm pelito and an indignant penders would produce in my opinion some of the worst comics in the Sonic catalog the low point is probably the infamous issue 150 see Sonic was always big into these anniversary issues in issue 50 they killed off Robotnik in 125 they sent Sonic to space in issue 150 they bring back evil Sonic and he pretends to be the real Sonic to try and sleep with all the women in the comic book it's implied that he succeeds hey kids comics soon after penders gets the call from pelo you know that kid whose letters you printed who's been a huge fan of yours who's been helping out on the research he's going to be the head writer going forward and you'll be on back us this has got to be a tough pill to swallow and the igny of being replaced by a fan has got to make him hurt and even angry he takes a night to think it over he's got opportunities in Hollywood and he's gotten sick of putting up with pel's demands and so after 11 years of architecting Sonic's comic Universe of pouring every element of himself into this work penders quits he claims he tried to keep it amicable but the archex for their part would describe his departure as not very friendly now this won't be the last time we hear from Ken penders not by a long shot but for the time being he'll be quietly watching events play out on I assume a huge array of monitors with penders gone and his story lines unfinished p has to scramble but just as he is the villain in Pender's story he would get to be the hero in someone else's I'm sure poto had a hard time comprehending what pelito was telling him 8 months earlier poto had been a college student writing Sonic fan Comics a few weeks ago he was crossing fingers hoping his six-page backup story would run now pelita was telling him he was about to become the sole head writer on his favorite comic series he decides to drop his pen named poto and write under his real name Ian Flynn Flynn is nervous he knows he's been thrust Into the Fire and the Sonic Phantom is not easy to please and pelito isn't going to let him play it safe pelito wants to reboot the universe to wipe out all of penders Ballers and everyone else's work and give the book a clean slate Flynn of course wants to please pelito he desperately wants to hold on to this incredible job that has landed in his lap but he disagrees with him about rebooting and despite his youth stands up to pelito so I didn't want to start from scratch I wanted to take these characters and stories that I loved and take them to their next chapter so pelito and Flynn compromise he can keep working the existing continuity but he has to very quickly clean house and streamline things this decision could be blamed for what happens later but for now Flynn goes to work he trims plot lines he kills off characters in The Grand Sonic tradition he uses wild sci-fi mumbo jumbo to stitch the universe together it's like an accelerated version of the same thing penders did when he started on the book 11 years earlier this puts him right in the line of fire for the difficult to please Sonic fandom his work finally hits STS and the online reaction is super positive Flynn's work is an immediate hit with fans just as penders had once been the book's savior Flynn is hailed as the new savior of Sonic comics pelito is apparently pleased and makes Flynn the permanent sole writer on the series and so begins one of the most epic runs in comic history this run will come to a tragic end but before we get to that let's actually take a look at what makes Flynn's comic so special because I think a lot of people actually get this part wrong the prevailing narrative on Flynn's work is that he was a huge Sonic fan so he's able to make great Sonic comics but lots of super fans have tried writing their favorite properties and the results can be disastrous but Flynn is not just an Uber fan Flynn is a writer he's a lover of the English language of literature of theater when I spoke to Flynn he was polished and professional he knows when to hit a sound b or make a joke but when we talked about writing and The Works he loves he rambled passionately in all sorts of interesting directions I don't know if I've ever spoken with someone who lights up talking about the Poetry of E Cummings and then Raves about Rob lield an executioner song in the same conversation who celebrates the mass entertainment value of Shakespeare and Full Metal Alchemist at the same time who rapes about the World building in vaget and Stephen King's Dark Tower he can reconcile High art and low art craft and fandom and that is what makes him so perfect for Sonic this is Ian Flynn talking about the Sonic comics he had grown up on worked by Ken penders and Carl Ballers there were these big sweeping melodramatic stories with large casts lots of interconnected uh relationships and conspiracies and these Larger than Life memorable characters and I feel like you can draw parallels to Shakespearean structure this is a guy who spent 4 years studying Shakespeare comparing Sonic comics to Shakespeare but his literary appetites are just one half of the puzzle for Flynn the other is theater Flynn grew up in a theatrical household his grandparents were actors and his father was an actor Flynn himself was big into theater in high school but didn't want to commit himself to the grueling life of an actor but when Flynn writes he acts he was a student of method acting where instead of building a performance through active performance choices the actor seeks to truly understand and become that character and let the performance choices flow naturally from their embodiment of that character and Flynn brings that approach of method acting to his writing he becomes the character he speaks in their voice I tell you doc I feel like I'm going crazy it's like there's a bunch of voices in my head man you may think me doed but after a h Day's Night I can't close me smiling hi's eyes this approach makes his work feel grounded realistic and authentic but it's Sonic so yes I'm talking about the realistic authentic voice of The Tragically roboticized Tommy the turtle now in many ways and reductively the Pender approach and the Flynn approach are opposites penders is a World Builder chucking new and disperate ideas from a vast aray of influences together and using his imagination to make it all work Flynn is a character writer deeply concerned with the voices and motivations of his characters penders puts himself in his work pouring his own thinly failed traumas hopes and fears onto the page Flynn by contrast disappears he tries to hide himself and let the characters speak their own truths both of them would probably cringe to hear me say this but what makes Archie Sonic so special is the merging of these two Styles penders and his collaborators had created this hug huge diverse world with lots of interesting characters but it never delv deeply into their personalities then Flynn comes along and breathes life into these characters makes his world feel real cohesive and lived in for me as a fan of both it's not penders versus Flynn but penders and Flynn which makes what happens next extra sad to me because Flynn Yardley and a growing list of very talented collaborators had spent 6 years contributing hundreds of issues of stories and lore and a grand tradition that had been unbroken since 1992 and all of that work was about to come to a screeching halt penders is mostly quiet during this period And I can only imagine what he's feeling as he watches this all play out once he had been hailed as the savior of the Sonic comics but memories are short especially in those early days of the internet and now here's Yan Flynn a kid 24 years as Junior a super fan of his work being Hil as the savior of Sonic not only the savior of Sonic but the savior of the Sonic comics from him penders had poured 11 years of his life into Sonic put his most personal stories into the book only for the editors and the fandom that had once embraced him to toss him aside for the younger model after quitting the comic penders had tried to stay involved with Sonic he had been working as a storyboard artist on shows like King of the Hill while working on his pitch for a Sonic movie he'd been working on that pitch with Sonic executive Robert leer but but sadly leer passed away suddenly in 2008 and Leer's replacement at Sega stopped responding to penders not only is his Sonic movie Dead not only is he watching Ian Flynn gain Fame and respect but his finances are deteriorating soon he'll have less than $500 left in his bank account and as his bank account drains he feels like he's watching others get rich off of his creativity Archie is reprinting his Sonic stories and trade paperbacks and not paying him the reprint fees he feels he's owed he feels Flynn is building reputation off the groundwork he laid he resents Flynn for not rebooting the continuity he feels that two of Flynn's stories are directly based on scripts he had submitted to Archie before quitting without any credit or compensation Ian can say whatever he wants but I know that his story tracks with the two scripts I turned into Mike pelito and as we know with penders Sonic is about more than finances to him he he absolutely did not understand the relationship of Knuckles and his father and that um I was extremely bothered by to top it all off in 2008 Flynn kills off lock Pender standing for his own father thus making his 25 years later Saga Lock's deathbed confession reconciliation issue all non-canon but the last straw comes later that same year fans start messaging penders asking him about his involvement in the latest Sonic game Sonic Chronicles the Dark Brotherhood so penders checks it out there are characters and elements in the game that to penders seem heavily inspired by his work on the comic no I know a lot of people take issue with that claim but I do think it's important to view it in the context of the developer diary that was published at that time the world of Sonic is much broader and richer than most people realize mean there's a lot of folks that are of course fans you know there's a lot there so it was a great chance for us actually to look at this huge huge bunch of stuff and pick really cool things that's a Ken Pender's Archie comic right there he had St quiet but this was too much and so he makes a fateful decision he calls his lawyer and so begins one of the most insane dramatic legal sagas in the history of comics now a quick simplified legal overview before we dive in when anyone makes a creative work they own the copyright to that work the only way that changes is if they sign a contract stating that it's work Made For Hire that's why it's standard practice in big Comics to have creators sign work for hire agreements before they start working that's why Marvel owns Thanos and not Jim Starin so here's where it gets interesting penders has no recollection of signing a work for higher agreement he believes Archie paid him only for the right to print his work once not for the ownership of his copyright to confirm his recollection he surreptitiously emails the Archie execs asking for copies of his work for higher contracts he follows up with a phone call he would later claim that on that call the Archie Executives told him that no such contracts exist the Archie exec would later emphatically deny saying that either way after a number of calls and emails no one had produced any contracts of his assuming they don't exist penders begins filing all of his Sonic works with the us copyright office now this is not a small task it takes months of filing an organization back and forth conversations with the copyright office they want to be sure that these claims are legitimate so they send a notice to Archie giving them an opportunity to contest Pender's filings Archie never replies why did Archie not reply and what becomes kind of a theme Here seems like Archie has not great attorneys and so in the absence of any opposition penders has granted the copyright to 173 works now let's be clear these copyrights are only worth so much to penders himself his work is derivative in the legal sense of existing work he doesn't own Sonic he doesn't own Knuckles he doesn't own the characters that originated in the cartoon show he can't republish these Comics himself because they contain characters and ideas whose copyrights belong to Sega or Archie the main party who could benefit from Pender's characters is Archie themselves and so on July 2nd 2010 his attorney sends a demand letter to Archie Comics including all of his copyrights in the letter he claims they've been reprinting his stories without payment and creating games based on his work without compensation he wants to be paid and he wants him to keep paying him to to keep using his characters and Concepts now a lot of people online paint this as Pender's vindictively trying to shut down Archie and revenge for firing him but given his financial situation it could just be about a Payday we don't know what we do know is that Archie responds by sending penders copies of to work for hire contracts he had signed in 1996 case closed but penders isn't satisfied he asks to see the original copies of the contract he's adamant that he has no recollection of signing anything like that R responds that they would try and find the originals but it's been 13 years and they weren't sure where they were more to the point whether they are Originals or photocopies doesn't matter in the eyes of the law he had signed those contracts and they clearly State this is work made for H higher and then in his next letter penders makes a very strong claim he accuses Archie of forging his signature on those contracts in response Archie sues him penders himself would file two lawsuits against Sega and BioWare for copyright infringement in the dark brotherhood but the judge would dismiss them until penders had resolved his fight with Archie the battle for the future of Sonic between Archie and penders had begun they meet to try and settle the matter without going to trial Archie has a five figureure number in mind Pender's team counters with a seven figure number they walk away from the negotiating table without making any progress they're going to fight out no there's a lot of legal technicalities but the case really turned on a simple Point were the contracts real or were they forgeries if they were real penders owned nothing and was owed nothing if they were fake as penders claimed he owned the copyright to all of his work and Archie owed him significant compensation either penders is lying that he signed those contracts or someone at Archie know knowingly forged his signature on a contract so each side begins making their case Archy has Mike pelito as well as a number of other Executives and staff members write affidavits testifying that even though the originals could not be found the copies of Pender's contracts were not forged and that they had been found in the same filing system that contained hundreds of similar work for higher contracts I've seen people online just read the Archy side of the case and assume it's a slam dunk because it absolutely seems like one but then penders presents his side of course Scott Shaw Scott Shaw yes the exclamation point makes it into his legal filings great and affidavit swearing that Arch didn't require Freelancers to sign work for high contract Pender's early collaborator Mike cerovic says the same thing then the two editors who Pender's worked with before pelo Scott FIP and Justin gabrie also write affidavits in supportive penders testifying that Archie regularly did not get Freelancers to sign work for higher contracts then perhaps the most surprising person of all throws his weight behind penders creators rights are are very important to me um and I felt like I'll just say in that moment I had to stand on the side of Truth and what I did that's right despite their differences despite the feud Ballers saw the legitimacy in kender's fight and rote in affidavit in support of him in light of all this Archie probably begins to see that penders might actually have a case not a slam dunk but a reasonable chance that a jury might find that Archie had been historically sloppy about getting contractors to sign work for hire agreements it's a risk Archie is not willing to take they settle their lawsuit and Dro their case against penders and while we don't know the terms of that settlement we do know what happened next as Flynn approached his H 100th issue on the title he was building towards a massive crossover the conclusion of a deeply emotional Arc that was going to take the book in all sorts of new directions of course Flynn is worried about the lawsuit but time and again Archie reassures him tells him that they're going to work it out so he and his team keep working keep building towards this Grand moment and then it all falls apart in the settlement Archie and Pender seem to have agreed to negotiate a license that would allow Archie to keep using Pender's characters but for some reason those licensing talks failed they had the ability to use the characters okay that they didn't was on them and yet everybody was blaming me art was already finished on some issues and Pender's characters are just hastily removed Flynn would ultimately be forced to reboot the series The reboot that he had argued so passionately against 6 years earlier would finally come to pass he had no choice in the matter the beautiful weird tapestry that had defined Archie Sonic the weird mishmash of characters and ideas that had made the book so special was over after 243 issues not only is Flynn devastated but so is the fandom who had grown and loved and been invested in these characters and Not only would Archer remove Pender's characters but they would remove characters from all the other creators including Ballers perhaps in that we can read some admission that they really didn't have signed contracts we don't know this is a fascinating study into how fandom works because what happens next functions almost like a war shock test when you look at this situation you see a Creator who had been taken advantage of by a big Corporation who Brave and clever enough to take the fight back to them who unlike so many who had tried before actually succeeds or do you see a bitter artist who signed away his life's work and later came to regret it abusing the legal system boldly lying in court vindictively destroying a beloved property in the work of his fellow creators just so he can get Petty revenge in a Payday I believe Pender sees himself as the former but the majority of the Sonic Phantom definitely see him as ladder while there had been plenty of vocal critics of Pender's writing art prior to the lawsuit from the time he started copyrighting his characters the Sonic Community really turned on him perhaps he thought his legal Victory might vindicate him but the fact that he had now killed the Sonic Universe increased the vitriol the penders not only became Public Enemy Number One for the Sonic fandom he viewed one man as largely responsible for the treatment that he got Ian Flynn Ian's actions during the legal battle spoke volumes to me about his character when Dan De Carlo was going through his battle with Archie I was publicly supportive of Dan angering Archie's Publishers to the point of kicking me off Sonic Ian on the other hand was throwing me to the Wolves during the lawsuit Flynn had gone out of his way to assure his fans the penders had no claim that his suit wouldn't go anywhere as Lun was the biggest celebrity in Sonic comics his words had weight even speaking to penders about this a decade later it's clear just how much this hurt him Ian had been contacting me when he was a fan he was looking for advice how to break it you know and I was supportive of his efforts and I saw comments made online you know basically knocking my claims people were taking whatever he was saying as the gospel truth that annoyed me a lot Flynn for his part did eventually come to regret speaking out about this situation that was my own mistake and I will own it I wanted folks to be able to enjoy the book and to not worry as much but eventually I just had to back off because I was not in the loop for some of the decisions and the clarity and the comfort that I'm trying to bring it only bringing confusion so it's better to just keep my mouth sh because it's not something I can control or really inent whoever is to blame by the end of the lawsuit penders once the hero of the Sonic fandom is now its villain and being Ken penders proud combative he won't quietly disappear he will argue he will block he will fight with anyone who comes at him online and like most online arguments this hardly helps Pender's Public Image well Pender's goal often seems to just remind everyone of his importance in the history of Sonic I feel it's this period on Twitter that really cements the offre repeated criticisms of penders himself that he's egotistical that he's bitter that he's arrogant that he's just a regular old jerk unlike other controversial comic person of the' 90s penders never seems in on the joke never willing to laugh at himself and the criticisms about him and because I have to mention it in his most infamous tweet penders would complain that Sega wouldn't let him tell the story of the 20-year-old skunk taking the 15-year-old squirrel's virginity that one's been discussed to death I have nothing to add and I'll leave it up to you if you want to go down that rabbit hole sorry poor TR swords it also doesn't endear him to the fandom that he regularly throws shade at Ian Flynn and his collaborators you can decide for yourself if these are legitimate criticisms or just an extension of the personal enmity he felt because of Flynn's actions but I'm curious how all this felt for Flynn himself here is this guy a guy whose work you grew up on who supported you when you were a fan whose work is inexorably intertwined with your own just constantly putting you down on Twitter maybe Flynn has thick skin and maybe it's easy to write off penders as just a guy with a grudge I imagine it still hurts but Flynn's not done Flynn goes back into anime protagonist mode it got to a point where it's just kind God uck your head and keep at it tell the best story you can and hope that that eventually uh stands on its own Merit remember this is the guy who made 30s something fan Comics who spent 4 years pitching Archie to get a job no one is going to take Sonic away from him and so in the wake of the lawsuit without missing his beat he and his collaborators restructure the book they give an in Universe explanation for why all of Pender's characters suddenly disappeared it's a bit Rocky at first but they fight on and they make this new continuity work Flynn Works to prove perhaps to the fandom perhaps to himself perhaps to penders that he can make a great Sonic comic even without Pender's characters they succeed going into Christmas 2016 Flynn gets on a call with his editor this celebrate the work they've done over the past year the challenges they've overcome in building this new continuity the excitement they have for 2017 will they'll reach the Milestone issue 300 they hang up and get ready to enjoy their holidays 2 hours later his phone rings again uh he calls me back incredibly upset because he just learned that Archie have lost the license and that was it that was all she wrote and a terrible early Christmas present the Sonic comic is dead after 25 years Sega had pulled Archie's license to to publish Sonic comics their Journey was over Flynn was unemployed his stories would never be finished his entire body of work the past 10 years of his life will go out of print why did Sega pull the license again we don't know but we can speculate one thing seems clear to me this was not Archie's Choice a tight-fisted company like Archie would not be paying for finished art on books they never expected to see print in my experience licensing agreements have very delineate timelines so that wouldn't happen which means sega's cancellation was sudden why some people online blame penders is that true well we do know from the filing that Sega had renewed the license with Archie after Pender's filed suit so that part doesn't track but maybe they're concerned that Pender still had outstanding claims because Archie had never properly licensed his characters could it all come down to Robo Robotnik but there was another lawsuit against archery around the same time Scott fulop one of the early editors of the Sonic comic who had worked with penders also sued Archie also claiming that his contributions were not work Made For Hire fulop's case didn't go anywhere because the statute of limitations had passed but it's important to note that the judge did write in his decision that he had serious doubt that Archie had properly contracted fop as a work made for higher freelancer perhaps Sega was nervous that more creators might start coming forward in the wake of this maybe the sales just weren't good we don't know but what we do know is that the Sonic comic was dead and Ian Flynn was out of work 2 days later it was announced that Sega had given the license over to IDW could be starting a new Sonic series with a new continuity starting at issue one Archie helped Flynn and his fellow Sonic creators out by getting them work on other Archie titles but Flynn still had to wrestle with the idea of not only not being the one to write Sonic but to read someone else writing him after a decade of steering that ship I have to wonder if it crossed his mind that a decade earlier penders had had that same feeling about him it seems like someone up there likes Flynn and by up there I mean Japan and by Japan I mean Sega because he gets the call IDW wants him to pitch on the new Sonic series unlike the Archy series Sega would be heavily involved in idw's version of Sonic and so Flynn was invited up to Burbank the idw's headquarters to pitch his new take on a Sonic comic but no one told him that Takashi isuka the head of Sega Sonic team was going to be there in person Flynn does his best to not act nervous and gives isuka his pitch a few days later it's announced the new IDW series would be written by Flynn with art by Yardley and their other collaborators from the Archie days their Journey would continue on but it wouldn't be a walk in the park Sega had strict restrictions in place no characters could be used from Archie from the cartoon shows or from any other media was this perhaps Sega of Japan's belated revenge on Sega of America finally wiping out Sonic's American backstory whatever the case Flynn has yet another challenge he has to prove that he can write Sonic this time with even less building blocks to play with and once again he steps up he exchanges the so lore heavy Archie version for something action-packed in streamline it feels like a Shonen manga with a Brisk plot that builds big arcs that conclude with epic battles it's so different from the Archie series but great in its own way now the story isn't quite over so don't leave yet but I do want to just take a minute to plug this book because if you're looking to get into Sonic without reading 400 issues of Archie lore idw's made it incredibly easy these books are available digitally or in trade paperback but personally I really like these oversized hard covers idw's been putting out and I'll put links for everything down below back to our story because Flynn isn't done done yet well he had written the Sonic comic for years and he' even written on the Sonic TV show there was one more mountain to climb one more dream he hadn't gotten to fulfill his journey started like so many others as a kid playing a video game and now in 2022 it was announced that Ian Flynn will be writing the script for the new Sonic game it was I'd reached the Mountaintop you know I had achieved something I never thought I would I wanted to to be sure there was always that dream of oh now I've achieved writing for this comic that I've love for so long wouldn't it be great if I could for on games as well and here I am that 7-year-old kid playing Sonic with his brother buying Pender Sonic comics at Walmart had climbed the mountain but where's everyone else what happened to Ken penders after turning around Sonic Mike pelito is made president of Archie Comics and today is both Archie's president and editor-in chief Carl Ballers took some time away from Comics to focus on the craft of writing and a few years after he came back to the industry he wrote the Eisner nominated Watson and Holmes and today is an editor at Oni comics and Ken penders well he's still Ken penders going on Twitter to complain about the Sonic movies and vaguely threatening to sue Paramount but because of his legal Victory penders is working on his own continuation of his work on Sonic he's had to remove any references to Works owned by Sega so aidas are race Vance known as aidas but lock and the Gang will all be there the first volume of the L Su Chronicles is available for pre-order finally nearing completion almost a decade after it was announced but I like to think it's because penders has been prioritizing spending time with his kids and his grandkids being the kind of father he didn't have the kind of father who looks just like his child just with a different hairstyle thank you guys so much for watching if you enjoyed this video please hit like And subscribe if you want to learn more I really recommend the blog thanks Ken penders and I'll put a link below a lot of people help make this video possible I want to thank comic Drake who shared his research from his Sonic video with me as well as aaku web who helped me research Sonic and Japanese sources please subscribe to both of those channels I also want to thank my brother who's an attorney who helped me get access and interpret a lot of these legal documents and of course I want to thank Ian Flynn Ken penders and Carl Ballers for all taking the time to speak with me and I want to thank you guys for watching and I'll see you soon

Channel: matttt

Views: 192,940

Keywords: ken penders, archie sonic, sonic the hedgehog, idw sonic

Id: xzor44qgKnA

Length: 46min 55sec (2815 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 09 2024