At this time, I’m currently getting ready for my annual appearance at the premier comic convention in the USA, namely the one in San Diego that begins on Wednesday, July 19, concluding at at 5:00pm on Sunday, July 23.
I’ve also received word today of table availability for me at the upcoming FanExpo Boston convention taking place from Friday, August 4, thru Sunday, August 6, as well as FanExpo Toronto taking place during Thursday, August 24, thru Sunday, August 27.
The only other convention pending on my schedule is the New York City Comic-Con taking place this October.
If all goes well, I’m not adverse to doing more of these. If any international convention organizers are interested in my making an appearance at their event, please contact me via my email KenPenders@kenpenders.com or KenPenders@thelara-suchronicles.com .
THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES SURVIVE! T-shirts are in and all those who pre-ordered theirs should be seeing them in a week, possibly less in a couple of cases and more likely a few days more due to international shipping.
There’s plenty of shirts still available as I planned for convention season. They can be ordered here:
THE REPUBLIC is the brainchild of writer Clayton Emery, who envisioned a family drama set in a primarily fascist-state America, with California the last holdout of going along with the plan.
Written in 2008, production began in 2009, with principal photography beginning in May 2009 and completed by mid-November 2009. Post-production would prove to be the most challenging phase of the project, with a rough cut completed in 2010, and then pretty much shelved for a variety of reasons until 2016, when Director Ken Penders recruited Sound Editor James Christopher, noted for his work on the first ROBOCOP film among many others, to the project.
James and Ken cut the trailer featured here as a marketing tool to draw attention to the project while they worked to rebuild the entire film to the version Ken had always envisioned.
When the script was being worked on prior to filming, Ken felt a non-partisan approach was called for with the election of Barack Obama as the new US President. With the candidacy of Donald Trump in 2016, Ken felt he had the perfect villain who could take America to the dark side to set in motion events as depicted in THE REPUBLIC. Those who had seen the rough cut were astounded not only by how timely the story was, but how prescient it was when initially filmed.
It was Ken who made the call to use Trump’s own words as a warning of what was to come combining it with a sequence that best illustrated where a demagogic figure could lead America if left unchecked.
At this time, THE REPUBLIC is in the final stages as it makes its way towards a release to the general public. In the meantime, here’s a look at the world to come that was envisioned and now may be on the verge of actually happening.
Cover art for Part One of the Knuckles epic THE FORGOTTEN TRIBE
I was raised a Catholic since my birth. I was baptized in the faith, enrolled in Catholic schools from Kindergarten through 8th grade, served as an altar boy from the 5th through the 8th grade, received the sacraments of Holy Communion and Confirmation while attending Queen of Heaven Elementary School. As did all my friends at the time. In fact, I didn’t know a single non-Catholic until I went to high school.
I bring this up not to to claim I’m a devoutly religious person – which I am most certainly not – but to establish my religious background as but one influence on my work. I may have issues with the Catholic Church, but I respect people who practice their faith in a consistent manner according to the teachings.
I do take issue with those who call themselves Born Again or currently engaged in trying to convert the United States into Christian nation. The former because I suspect rather than admit they have problems with the Catholic Church, they seek out a substitute they believe has the answers they were looking for when the answers could be found within if only they had true faith. The latter I have problems with because they seek to impose their world view on those who see things differently.
In the Knuckles series I primarily created, I depicted a society that was split into 2 halves: the Technocrats and the Devout. As the series was aimed specifically at young readers and I had limited pages with which to tell my stories – to say nothing of being careful not to insert my own personal worldview into the mix at the time – I couldn’t get into the nuances of various belief systems, including those who didn’t believe in an afterlife or a superior deity.
At the time I was writing the early issues of the KNUCKLES series, I established the lead character came from a broken home, i.e., his parents were divorced. I also established the lead character’s mother was a person of faith whereas his father was not, which pretty much mirrored my situation with my parents while I was growing up.
In continuing the storyline I began with in the KNUCKLES series to THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: SHATTERED TOMORROWS graphic novel I’m currently working on, I recognized religion was going to play a part somewhere in the narrative, so I had to decide the manner and belief system of the characters, especially since once I figured it out, chances were good some corners of the readership were going to erupt at my choices.
Try as I might – and people are welcome to provide examples proving me wrong – I can’t come up with a single example of a major character proclaiming themself an atheist as my character K’Nox is. The same applies to his lifemate Julie-Su, who professes no faith in any deity nor has she raised her daughter with any belief system.
In fact, the Echyd’nya society does not allow children to be indoctrinated in any belief system, as they believe only as adults can they make rational decisions where one’s belief system enters into the picture. It’s only when they begin studies in their cultural heritage (what we would call the Humanities) and philosophical studies that Echyd’nyas make the decision to subscribe to a belief system or not.
As I am depicting life literally on another world in a far distant galaxy from this one, I would expect those societies to have developed far different from ours in a number of ways.
But – I can already hear a number of longtime readers of the SONIC series ask – what about the story AFTERLIFE, in which Knuckles died, encountered the deity of his ancestors and was returned to life? Is that story no longer canon?
The answer is yes, those events did happen, but Knuckles never retained any memory of those events. If one has faith, no further explanation is needed. If one never believed, no explanation is required.
I myself have come to terms that when I die, that’s it. I’ve had my time and then it’s over. In the meantime, I will enjoy the time I do have working on something that will exist beyond my lifetime along with my family and friends.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some drawing to do.
Early scene from THE MENU starring Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult & Hong Chau.
One of my biggest complaints about horror films is they go for the cheap scare, depending more upon a character committing a stupid action instead of exercising common sense. This film is different, building up an atmosphere of dread and danger in a gradual way. You sense something is coming but you’re not sure what, not even when it’s about to smack you in the face. All the while when you’re expecting something to happen, a very dark, very twisted sense of humor comes into play as you watch a group of diners being served at a very exclusive, very high-end restaurant named Hawthorne’s which is located on it’s own special island. To say anything more would spoil the fun, but Bernie & I felt it was the most intelligent horror pic we’ve seen in some time and much better than we expected.
There’s this thing called life that happens to intrude every now and then. While trying to get this site up and running as well as getting work on the Lara-Su app & storyline pushing forward, my better half Bernadette (AKA my beloved Bernie) took a spill a few days ago and broke her kneecap. If you know Bernie, you know she’s not the type to let something like this get her down. That said, she still needs a helping hand with some things, so I’m asking for patience as we work our way through this, especially as this happened at the worst time prior to the Holidays as this is her favorite time of the year.
Please feel free to post your comments and questions in the meantime and I’ll do my best to respond ASAP. Thanks for your patience and consideration in the meantime. Take care.
Back in the mid-90’s, I was able to construct a website as a convenient, efficient means to interact with others online. It was a simple effort, but it wasn’t until my friend, the late and dearly missed Bob Repas, added upgrades that allowed for a functioning message board and chat room. With these upgrades, I was able to converse with people all over the globe. I was also able to add a store page for selling original art, back issues and other items.
Eventually the website ended up shutting down for a variety of reasons. For one thing, it required a lot of time to update, which I didn’t really have back then. So I looked around for something that would allow contact with others quickly and efficiently without imposing on my schedule. Thus, I settled with Facebook for awhile, and then discovered Twitter, which I signed on more than a decade ago.
Twitter served my purposes for the longest time, especially when I was appearing at the San Diego Comic-Con annually and other events over the years.
Recently, however, with the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk, it has become a decidedly toxic environment for both myself and those I interact with, not to mention many other individuals who aren’t happy with what they see and are heading for the doors.
So now I find myself transitioning to the next phase of interacting with others online.
At this time, I’m in the process of creating a safe, friendly environment where people can check out my work as well as interact with me & others on this website. I also have a Discord account which I’m tying in with this website, and there’s a good chance I may add another social media platform or two connected to this website.
Once I have this site up and running within the next few weeks to the point I’m happy with, I’ll then begin shutting down both my Facebook and Twitter accounts after giving everyone sufficient notice.
In the meantime, feel free to email me with your questions, comments, suggestions and even – yes – criticisms, as I’m always looking to improve my site, my work and myself, as I believe one never stops learning and growing.
Email me at kenpenders@kenpenders.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
