Kenneth W. Penders, II is an American comic book creator and writer. In addition to his comic work, Penders has worked in television on storyboards, backgrounds and character design, and worked on screenplays for his own unpublished films. He is noted for his work on the

Archie Comics Archie Comic Publications, Inc., is an American comic book publisher headquartered in Pelham, New York.''Sonic the Hedgehog'' and its spin-offs, which he worked on for over fifteen years, along with his subsequent lawsuits involving the works.

Career

Prior to working in the comics business, Penders's earliest jobs as a commercial artist included silk screening T-shirts at age 16, serving as a technical illustrator in the US Air Force, and working as a graphics illustrator at an unspecified Boston engineering firm. According to Penders, he first got work in the comic book industry working on

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with their f ...

' ''Who's Who In Star Trek''

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...

in 1986, later working on their run of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' comics in the early 90s. He was hired to work on the latter at the request of regular ''Star Trek'' author Robert Greenberger. Penders also accepted a contract illustrating for DC's ''

Captain Atom Captain Atom is a superhero appearing in American comic books, first in the 1960s by Charlton Comics before being acquired in the 1980s by DC Comics. Captain Atom has existed in three basic incarnations. Publication history Captain Atom was cr ...

'' series, after being selected as a finalist in a comic book drawing contest sponsored by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in 19 ...

in 1989 and agreeing to visit weekly seminars. Penders was hired to work on the comic series ''Sonic the Hedgehog'', published by

Archie Comics Archie Comic Publications, Inc., is an American comic book publisher headquartered in Pelham, New York. He served as lead writer for much of the series' early life until he switched focus to working on side-series '' Knuckles the Echidna'', which ran from 1997 until being cancelled due to poor sales in 1999. Penders would still produce stories and artwork for the main title during and after ''Knuckles'''s initial run, eventually resuming his role as lead writer of the comic issue #145 onwards after then-lead writer Karl Bollers left the comic in 2005. Penders continued to work on the comic as lead writer until he left Archie in 2006, with his final contribution being inks and lettering for the back story in issue #169. Outside of the comic, Penders illustrated the cover of the complete series DVD set of ''

Sonic the Hedgehog is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games are platformer ...

''. In addition to his works for ''Sonic'' and ''Star Trek'', Penders wrote and illustrated comics for DC, Marvel,

Image An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensio ...

and

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

for series such as '' Disney Adventures'', ''

Savage Sword of Conan ''The Savage Sword of Conan'' was a black-and-white magazine-format comic book series published beginning in 1974 by Curtis Magazines, an imprint of American company Marvel Comics, and then later by Marvel itself. ''Savage Sword of Conan'' starre ...

'', and ''

The Green Hornet The Green Hornet is a superhero created in 1936 by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell. Since his 1930s radio debut, the character has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of me ...

''. Penders created his own original comic IP for Image in the early 2000s, ''The Lost Ones'', releasing a single issue before it was cancelled. He has also worked in other media, including producing children's

activity book An activity book is a type of book, generally aimed at children, which contains interactive content such as games, puzzles, quizzes, pictures to colour and other elements that involve writing or drawing in the book itself. The book may, or may not ...

s and creating graphics for CD-ROM games. Penders also has credits for storyboards on two episodes of ''

King of the Hill ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It aired its original non-syndicated run from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, and centers on the Hills, an ...

'', and created concept art for advertisements for the

Motorola Razr The Motorola Razr (styled RAZR, pronounced like "razor"; codenamed Siliqua) is a series of mobile phones by Motorola, part of the 4LTR line. The V3 was the first phone shown in the series and was introduced in December 2003 and released in t ...

Sonic movie pitch

In 2002, ''

'' writer Ben Hurst attempted to pitch an animated film continuation of the series, proposing his idea to a Sega executive. Hurst stated the executive was interested in the project, and that he was later called about the film by Penders, at the time lead writer of the Archie Comic ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series; the comic originated as an off-shoot of the animated series. Hurst said of the call that he "generously offered to include endersin the effort and told

enders his Enders or Ender's may refer to: Literature and film * ''Ender's Game'' (series), a series of science fiction books by Orson Scott Card, also known as the Ender saga ** '' Ender's Game'', a 1985 military science fiction novel ** '' Ender's Shadow ...

strategy." However, he stated that after calling Sega back, his contact's demeanor had completely changed, angrily stating that Sega is paid to develop Sonic projects, rather than paying others to do so. Hurst theorized that, "Penders had related my strategy to them in a less-than-flattering way... Then endersdropped hints that he would be the writer for a big Sonic Feature Film." Penders would later pitch Sega his own concept for a movie in 2003 based on the Archie comic, under the name ''Sonic Armageddon''. Not much is known about the pitch, except that the film would have followed Sonic and friends after their home planet of Mobius explodes, something shown in pitch art and stated by Penders himself. According to Penders, he had the support of both ''

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in ''The X-Men'' #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in 1970 due to ...

'' director Larry Hudson and Sega of America licensing manager Robert Leffer behind him, and cites the opportunity to make the film as to why he left his position as lead writer of the ''Sonic'' comic at Archie. He created four pieces of

concept art Concept art is a form of visual art used to convey an idea for use in films, video games, animation, comic books, or other media before it is put into the final product. Concept art usually refers to world-building artwork used to inspire the d ...

and a homemade pitch video, but the project never materialised due to the death of Leffer and what Penders described as "massive corporate upheaval" at Sega sometime in 2007.

''The Lara-Su Chronicles''

In July 2010, after the US Copyright Office had certified his claims over his work for the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' Archie series, Penders announced his intentions to continue the story of Lara-Su, one of his original characters created for ''Sonic'' and the in-universe daughter of Knuckles the Echidna, along with the other

echidna Echidnas (), sometimes known as spiny anteaters, are quill-covered monotremes (egg-laying mammals) belonging to the family Tachyglossidae . The four extant species of echidnas and the platypus are the only living mammals that lay eggs and t ...

characters he had created for the Archie comic. In December 2011, Penders announced the continuation would be in the form of a graphic novel series, entitled ''The Lara-Su Chronicles''. The series also is set to feature many other characters created during his time at Archie, with it serving as a continuation of a story he had written for the ''Sonic'' comic, "Mobius: 25 Years Later". Penders stated that the series shares the same starting point with his ''Sonic Armageddon'' pitch, beginning with the planet Mobius exploding. On March 5, 2014, Penders announced on his

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account that his characters were no longer echidna but Echyd'nya, an alien species. Penders stated reasons for the change were that he needed to make some adjustments to broaden the audience, that he wanted to give longtime fans answers and resolution, and because of the apparent difficulty he has seen with people pronouncing the word echidna. Penders stated in a later interview that his goals with ''The Lara-Su Chronicles'' are to "

nspire The TI-Nspire is a graphing calculator made by Texas Instruments, which was released in July 2007, notable for featuring a non-QWERTY keyboard and a different key-by-key layout than its predecessors. Development The original TI-Nspire ...

the next generation to do their own thing as opposed to playing in someone else’s sandbox" and sees an effort to finish what he began with "Mobius: 25 Years Later". He also stated that the series may be his last "comics project", and that the series will be seven parts long. Penders plans to release a compilation of all his "Mobius" stories at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con as a hardcover booked entitled ''The Lara-Su Chronicles: Beginnings'', along with an app developed for the series containing a sneak preview of the first book in the series, ''Shattered Tomorrows''. Despite officially being in development for over 12 years as of July 2022, the full first volume remains unreleased.

Lawsuits

Archie Comics vs Penders

In January 2009, three years after leaving

Archie Comics Archie Comic Publications, Inc., is an American comic book publisher headquartered in Pelham, New York. Penders planned on continuing his "Mobius: 25 Years Later" story independently of the publisher, and declared that everything using his copyrighted works since issue #160 of the main ''Sonic'' comic was "essentially unauthorised". He had been prompted to do so after fans of his had contacted him asking if he had anything to do with the release of '' Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood'', which he did not; Penders alleged the game used concepts and characters similar to those he had written for the comic series. Archie Comics filed a lawsuit against Penders in the fall of 2010 in an attempt to retain their copyright holdings of his characters and concepts; Archie alleged that Penders had violated his contract with them. However, the only copy of this contract that Archie could produce for the court was a photocopy, which Penders claimed was a forgery; the reproduced nature of the photocopy meant that its validity could be questioned. As Archie were unable to produce the original copy of their contract with Penders, nor those of any other artist who had ever worked on ''Sonic'' prior, they were open for future lawsuits. As a result, in the fall of 2012, Archie Comics fired and subsequently replaced its entire legal team. When asked by a judge in a later trial, on the topic of the contracts, if "prior counsel blew it", replacement Archie counsel Joshua Paul agreed. In 2013, the lawsuit ended with

prejudice Prejudice can be an affect (psychology), affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived (usually unfavourable) evaluation or classification (disambiguation), classi ...

, with Penders gaining the rights to an estimated over 200 characters from the comic in a confidential settlement with Archie Comics''.'' He would later turn the "Mobius: 25 Years Later" continuation project into ''The Lara-Su Chronicles.'' Archie would initially write his characters out of future comics, rewriting issues mid-lawsuit to remove any references to them and not republishing stories involving them, before rebooting the canon entirely to

retcon Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in which established diegetic facts in the plot of a fictional work (those established through the narrative itself) are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subs ...

out not only his but any other former writers' original characters and concepts fully. When asked about this reboot in an interview, Penders stated that the retcon wasn't necessary, and that Archie could have continued using his copyrighted characters and concepts to some degree. Pender's success in his lawsuit would inspire fellow Archie ''Sonic'' alumni, Scott Fulop, to file his own copyright infringement lawsuits against Archie and Sega in 2016; Fulop's lawsuits were dismissed a year later due to insufficient evidence.

Penders vs SEGA and EA

Penders filed a lawsuit against Sega and

EA Games Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

in 2011 for alleged copyright infringement in the game '' Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood'', which was developed by EA's subsidiary

BioWare BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated Doctor of Medicine, medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zes ...

. In particular, Penders claimed the game had stolen the concept of Nocturnus Clan from his own Dark Legion, along with many other concepts from the '' Knuckles the Echidna'' spin-off series he had written; something brought to his attention after fans of his asked if he worked on the game based on the similarities. The case was dismissed without prejudice September 26, 2011, then again in February 2012, after the case had been refiled four days after it was originally dismissed, despite warnings from Judge Otis Wright who dismissed the case both times. In October 2013, the CA 9th Appellate Court upheld Judge Wright's initial ruling.

Other potential lawsuits

In October 2015, Penders made a post to his

some interpreted to be directed at Archie Comics, about comic publishers not "believ ngin living up to their side of the bargain", and to not "blame imfor what happens next"; the tweet was believed to be in response to planned reprints by Archie. However, no lawsuits against Archie have been filed by Penders since. In April 2022, after the release of the ''Sonic the Hedgehog 2'' movie, fans noted the film gave the character of Knuckles the Echidna an on-screen father, something no media for the series had done since Penders's lawsuit had given him copyright of the Archie Comics incarnation of his father, Locke. Penders took to Twitter to state that he believed the character in the film to be a version of Locke, and that he believed another echidna in the film to be another character of his, Enerjak. Upon a user asking him if he had grounds to sue, Penders responded that he would "let the attorneys hash that out", leading many to believe he was preparing for another lawsuit. However, as of 2023, no lawsuit has materialised.

Impact

Penders and his work for the Archie ''Sonic'' comics are considered controversial within the wider ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' fandom. While his work garnered praise during the series' run, his lawsuits against Sega and Archie are regarded as souring his standing with fans, serving as the subject of regular criticism from fandom. Fans blame the lawsuits for both the eventual cancellation of the Archie ''Sonic'' comics and a collection of rumoured mandates limiting all post-lawsuit ''Sonic'' comics, although the existence of these mandates has been refuted by former lead Archie and IDW ''Sonic'' writer

Ian Flynn Ian Flynn (born May 31, 1982), also known by his Internet pen name Ian Potto, is an American comic book writer. He was chief writer for Archie Comics's ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' since issue #160, after the departure of the previous chief writer Ken ...

. The outcome of the Archie lawsuit meant that hundreds of characters created by former Archie contractors were removed from the ''Sonic'' canon, something that Penders recognizes upset fans, but has stated was a decision made by Archie rather than himself. Content created for ''Sonic Chronicles'' has also not appeared in ''Sonic'' media since Penders's lawsuits against Sega and EA, likely due to any new material allowing Penders to file a new lawsuit within the

Statute of Limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Penders, Ken American comics writers American comics artists Living people Sonic the Hedgehog Year of birth missing (living people)