COMMS

There are millions of people currently alive who simply cannot imagine a time when neither Sonic the Hedgehog existed or a company named SEGA not even registering a blip on the map when it came to video games, but believe me, I was of that time, and even when I actually was offered the chance to submit stories for a licensed series published by Archie Comics based on the Sonic the Hedgehog video games, I could not begin to imagine the paths it would lead me down.

I thought I’d submit a few stories, establish a track record that I was reliable and my stories were marketable, and I’d be on my way to a better gig at either Marvel or DC Comics. But things didn’t go as planned for a variety of reasons. For one thing, the gig with Archie proved more reliable than anything I was offered at either company. More reliable, in fact, than any company I was submitting work to at the time.

Fast forward a decade later and my family and I have relocated to the west coast, the kids are going to college, and opportunities in animation beckon. One of those possibilities is a SONIC animated film. Unbeknownst to me, the next few years would be a period of great upheaval which pointed me in a direction thinking my involvement with Sonic the Hedgehog was over only to find the character would mark a major turning point in my life.

It’s now the present day. I’ve returned to the east coast for a comic convention while experiencing a greater demand for me to take on commission art assignments as well as selling my art at higher prices. Beyond that, people are coming up to me expressing greater appreciation for the work I and others have created for the Archie SONIC series. I feel like most of the grief I’ve experienced for the better part of the past ten years from a segment of the Sonic fandom as well as from a few creators who worked on Sonic following my run was more the result from several factors beyond my control, including some self-interest from certain creators.

At my age, I’ve gained a perspective I didn’t have even prior to the pandemic, and certainly not when I first started submitting stories.

To illustrate, when I began writing my Sonic stories, artists would either give pages away or sell them for a few dollars to allay convention expenses or buy a meal. Today those covers and pages would command prices similar to an average DC or Marvel page on a mid-tier selling book. This is not hyperbole. This is what I’m experiencing first hand selling my own pages.

Likewise, artists would charge $10 to $50 for a commission piece depicting Sonic. Now? I no longer have the time to commit to anything that pays less than $500. And that’s just for a pencil rendering.

Previously, SONIC was considered simply a kid’s book. And while a lot of people still think of Sonic as just a kid’s character, there are a lot of adults that know better. Just as SPIDER-MAN and BATMAN were considered kids comics when I was growing up that have evolved into something aimed more at the older crowd, so too is Sonic experiencing a similar evolution.

What has also caught my attention are the number of people seeking out the Archie SONIC material instead of the IDW incarnation. It’s not that people are saying bad things about the IDW stories and art, but rather, they want something deeper than stories aimed at supporting the latest release of a SONIC video game, resulting in many people seeking out stories that were created before a lot of people were born.

It’s not just the older crowd. I sell a lot of copies of SONIC ARCHIVES – in fact, I’m sold out of a number of volumes – to kids who don’t know the difference between Archie SONIC & IDW SONIC. After they read that copy of SONIC ARCHIVES their parents have just purchased for them, they want more.

It’s when young people ask me how to break into the comics industry or ask me to review their portfolios that it really makes me stop and take stock of how much has changed since I first broke into the comics industry.

How I broke in vs what it’s like to break in now is the difference between night and day. I can’t recommend sending in samples or contact editors by phone the way I did because companies these days aren’t interested and lack the time to check out anything arriving in the mail. Editors want to see portfolios online and will make contact only if they are interested.

Aspiring writers and artists are better off doing their own thing and building an audience in the process if they hope to stand a chance of being discovered. The flip side is if one is successful building an audience that actually supports them with real money, they’ll find greater satisfaction achieving success from something they themselves have created than pursuing a million-to-one shot working on a specific title or character currently being published.

Again, using SONIC as an example, IDW already has more than enough creators they can assign work to without bringing anyone new into the mix. Even if they did hand an assignment to a new writer or artist, that assignment would be nothing more than a portfolio piece. It certainly wouldn’t amount to a career or a full-time job working on IDW’s SONIC series.

There is no such thing as job security working in today’s comics industry, not that there was more even when I started, but the market is a lot more volatile. There are more one-shots and mini-series than regular monthly ongoing series to work on.

Other realities younger creators never consider: there is no steady paycheck. Sometimes there’s no money because the publisher has cash-flow issues. There’s also no health care. Or 401K plans. Forget pensions. As for royalties? What royalties? There would’ve been no legal battle between Archie and myself had they issued a monthly royalty check of $1.98 before the battle even began, and they couldn’t bring themselves to make even that tiniest of gestures. I’ve yet to hear any creator submitting work to IDW receiving any royalty check.

I certainly didn’t consider these things. Or if I did, the freedom of working for myself on my own schedule more often than not prevailed because it allowed me to work around family events and kids in school and other occurrences of daily life that is not possible with a 9-to-5 job.

Sitting on the Sonic panel at the Manheim Convention Center alongside my colleagues before an audience full of questions, it became clear there isn’t just one Sonic audience. Instead, there are several, each one as legitimate as the other.

Both SEGA and IDW can regard the IDW Sonic comic series as nothing more than just a commercial for the games, but that approach is only going to limit future growth of the comic series, as not all, or even a majority of Sonic fans, are into the games.

The films and the cartoons also have their audiences, and in many ways, the numbers following these are even greater because anything on TV and films has a greater audience penetration. That was true when I first began working on SONIC.

Meanwhile, the Archie SONIC series has not only not lost its hold on their audience, it continues to draw new members to it. As a result, more people are making contact with me for various reasons, mostly positive and constructive, which has led to acceptance of my creation THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES as a legitimate heir to my Archie SONIC stories. People were seeking me out at the convention specifically to obtain a copy of THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS and didn’t blink at springing extra for the autograph.

Because of conventions and EBay, this past weekend pushed me into charging for my autograph for the first time. Sure, it was only $10 per autograph per piece, but this was something I had never done before at a convention.

One other change: I’m no longer tolerating the trolls. They’re immediately blocked on my social media accounts. Life is too short to even give them one iota of attention. The trolls are a major reason the people who would like to engage with Sonic fandom don’t, and it’s why I provide a safe space on my website for those that do. That’s why I’m no longer on Twitter. I can’t deal with trolls of any kind. Instead, I can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and BlueSky in addition to my own personal domain here.

I’m still in the process of changing and adapting to the new world order, but I plan on being here for the duration. And if anyone has any questions, they can always email me. It may take some time, but I do respond to legitimate questions, criticisms and comments.

Thanks for taking the time. Take care.

I’ve been in a funk since the election as my worst fears have been realized. Clearly at least 50% of the American population doesn’t know right from wrong or an understanding of history. Nor does the working class by and large understand the enemy isn’t Democrats or Republican, but the ultra-rich. I’ve lived through many historical events and saw this country change over the course of my lifetime to the point I no longer recognize it.

It used to be one could disagree over politics without considering the other side the enemy, that at least everyone had an understanding of right from wrong and truth from a lie, but ever since the Reagan era, that commonality has evaporated to the point where people have not only voted to make a criminal our President, but don’t even recognize his bad acts as such. Worse, they don’t see aligning with dictators as an issue even though Americans have died over more than a century in the cause of fighting dictators. It’s like the voters are spitting on their ancestors graves.

When I wrote my Sonic stories, there was always a clear sense of right from wrong. Kids needed to know there are some constants in this world, as they clearly weren’t seeing it from a lot of grown-ups around them. When I was growing up, I wasn’t taught to hate from the Catholic School I attended or the women in my family. The men, on the other hand, including my father, were another matter. But I learned to think for myself and know the difference because of the good people in my life.

I can’t relate to people who think life is unfair, too hard and unaffordable. Life was always those things when I was growing up. It was difficult at times living in the home I was growing up in. It’s why I joined the military at age 17. My parents couldn’t afford to send me to college and I had a difficult relationship with my father. No one handed me anything. I had to earn everything the hard way. I made choices every step of the way and had to accept the consequences of my actions. I’m where I am today because of decisions I made as far back as grade school.

I am now 66 years of age. I’m a father as well as a grandfather, in a relationship with the woman I love going on for almost 30 years, with family and close friends I enjoy. At this point in my life, I’m in the twilight of my life. I’ve been taking care to eat right, exercise and do all the right things that hopefully will allow me to enjoy more time on this planet. But life is short and it could all end tomorrow. And if it did, I don’t want to spend my time arguing with people whose values I don’t recognize.

And it’s not just people. Organized religion has become a main source of problems in our society. When religious figures can’t tell the difference between a criminal and someone who has spent her life serving the public good, that’s when I know religion has gone seriously off the rails. For my money, if a person has faith, true faith, what do they need with a Church or a priest in order to commune with the deity of their choice? That deity hears them and recognizes true faith. A middle man isn’t needed.

I wrestle with what I was taught growing up to what I have learned in the intervening years at this current stage of my life. Whether there’s a Deity or not is beside the point. I have buried numerous relatives, including both of my parents, and just recently, I had to journey over a 1000 miles to say goodbye to a very close friend of almost 50 years by scattering his ashes into the wind. That is how my life will end, as dust scattered in the wind. The life I know will have ended, and there’s no proof there’s anything beyond. And I’m at peace with that.

Thus, I’m taking the first steps to reshaping my world. Dealing with angry, hateful people is not on my agenda. If you believe immigrants are a problem in this country, I can’t deal with you, as I know they’re not. If you believe schools are encouraging kids to change their sex, I know you’re not dealing with reality. If you believe the criminal lost in 2020, I know you have no cognitive reasoning skills. And if you think a President can make the cost of housing or the goods you buy more affordable, I have a bridge to sell.

I’m focused on the projects I’ve developed and seeing through to their completion. THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES is my priority, both as a digital app and graphic novel format. The KEN PENDERS KNUCKLES OMNIBUS Vol. 1 is also on my to-do list, of which I’ll have more news about soon. At some point I hope to revisit THE LOST ONES in whatever format I think will work best.

But most of all, the time I spend with my loved ones matters more than dealing with people who lack perspective and can’t truly appreciate what they have.

I don’t usually get that introspective in public, but I needed to get that off my chest. I couldn’t deal with discussing other matters until I did. If you’ve read this far, thanks for hearing me out. Take care until next time.

Every project starts with an idea. What separates someone’s casual idea into an actual reality is the work one puts into that idea to bring it to life. THE LOST ONES was initially my concept of an Asian-based team of superheroes that I brought to reality as a comic book that was published by Image Comics.

Since I didn’t have the funds or time to self-publish after the 1st issue was released to the public, the concept sat on my shelf for several years. Around 2006, I was hired to do storyboards for the series KING OF THE HILL, and during that time, I had access to various classes that taught how to utilize a number of software programs which I took advantage of.

Learning how to use Adobe After Effects, Nuke, Final Cut Pro and other software programs would demystify the process of how a film utilizing visual FX could be made on the cheap and with equipment I had immediate access to. By the time I finished those classes, I decided to move forward with putting together a live action trailer featuring THE LOST ONES. By creating the trailer, there was the hope of selling the concept to a studio or production company with the intent of me expanding the trailer into a feature length film.

The first step involved putting together a cast and crew. It was now 2008, and the economy was in the toilet thanks to a crashing real estate market. Everyone was looking for an opportunity that could hopefully lead to better things. IRON MAN and THE DARK KNIGHT had hit theaters and became massive hits, so when I showed people what I wanted to do, I had their attention. Here was a project that was different from anything else they submitted themselves for.

After meeting with a number of actors, I soon had my cast.

For whatever reason, I can’t seem to find the title card listing Tracy Bautista as TSUNAMI at the moment, requiring me to dig further through my files. In my defense, I suspect part of the reason is due in part to her changing her professional name to Malia and in part due to the number of visual FX I was working on with regards to her character.

While I was selecting a cast, I was also recruiting a crew. The most important addition would be my Director of Cinematography Chris Leplus, followed by Costume Designer Mike Philpot and Make-Up Artist Abigail Bradley. Josh Glass and Josh Van Meter were also invaluable filling in on a number of positions throughout the process.

I also had a script featuring scenes I wanted to showcase in the trailer along with storyboards. I had also recruited Patrick Luque to construct a couple of CGI set models that were designed to be composited with live action photography.

Patrick provided the following clip so I could shoot the live action photography to match the camera movement in the clip.

And here’s a shot showing live action composited with the set model.

Chris committed to the project because despite his 40-plus years in the business, he had never shot with a green screen, and so he was eager to try something new. In hindsight, even though we had problems with lighting the green screen properly, Chris was a great teacher regarding all other aspects of filmmaking. He even liked the fact this was my first film, as – from his perspective – I had not been corrupted by attending any film school. He believed experience was a better teacher.

As the project grew and developed, other people wanted to get involved. One person tackled making my car design into a 3D reality as his main project for his Maya software class.

This model was featured in no less then 3 different sequences, including this one:

As you can see with the shot above, we actually shot on a rooftop of a parking lot near downtown Los Angeles in the middle of the night. The base layer is the shot without the car. Then a shot of the car properly positioned and animated was placed over the base shot. Finally, the base shot was duplicated with everything rotoscoped out of the shot except for Vito’s portrayal of Agent Sikorski.

What I’m showing here is but the tip of the iceberg of the work that was done. It wasn’t completed because I was offered a chance to make a full film based on what I accomplished with THE LOST ONES. The film I ended up making is titled THE REPUBLIC.

At this time, THE REPUBLIC’s footage previously had been upgraded from 720dpi to 1080 and is now being upgraded to 4K. Once that process is completed, I will be announcing its public release.

As for THE LOST ONES, at some point I hope to revisit the project. But first, I have THE LARA-SU APP, KEN PENDERS’ KNUCKLES OMNIBUS Volume 1 and THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: SHATTERED TOMORROWS to take care of.

So let me know if you want to see more. Thanks for your time and consideration. Take care.

While I was working out the settlement with Archie Comics, I began work on the early version of THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES, starting with the character redesigns.

Above is an early version of the evolution of Dmitri, who was established for all intents and purposes as Knuckles’ greatest enemy in another form.

Recently, I asked readers who have followed the stories featuring Dmitri, his brother Edmund and all their descendants, including Knuckles, Julie-Su, Lien-Da and Lara-Su, how they felt if I made a change to those stories. A tiny change, at least from my perspective, but a change nevertheless that a lot of people felt strongly about to express how they about it.

Over the years, I’d been hearing complaints that Knuckles and Julie-Su’s relationship was incestuous despite Knuckles born 16 generations later on the Edmund side of the family tree and Julie-Su born 5 generations later on. For my money, I didn’t see this as I felt the family history mirrored European monarchies where power was consolidated among certain families through many generations. But still, the accusations persisted.

So I opened the subject up for the readers to express themselves. Those who preferred me establishing Dmitri and Edmund as the closest of friends as opposed to brothers still expressed their opinion they had no problem with the original relationship, but they were tired of the accusations as well.

Since the vote was essentially 50/50, my preference was to leave things as they are. what sealed the deal for me is how the issue of marriage between 1st cousins is dealt with here in the United States.

The surprising answer is that marriage between 1st cousins is legal in the majority of American states, with sexual relations between 1st cousins allowed in a greater majority of the states whether married or not.

So Dmitri and Edmund remain brothers, with all the tragedy of the family history preserved.

And as readers will eventually learn, K’Nox and Julie-Su weren’t the first members of their respective sides of the family tree who had a relationship with a child the result of that relationship. That’s a story I’ve been sitting on for quite awhile that will unfold in THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES. The excitement is only just beginning so stay tuned.

The song NOW AND THEN has stuck with me ever since its release, representing the official end of The Beatles song catalog. Very few acts ever get a chance to close the book on the sum total of their work.

I think one of the reasons the song persists in my head – beyond my enjoyment of it on various levels – is that one of the items I’ve been bothered over the years is I never really got the chance to close the book on the work I did for the Archie SONIC series. Specifically, I never got to close the book properly with KNUCKLES.

Some say the story AFTERLIFE was closing the book, but it didn’t. Not really.

Recently, while looking through my art files for various pieces, including unseen layouts and script pages to add as features to the KNUCKLES OMNIBUS volumes I’m putting together for release, I came across the script and page layouts to the one story that would close the book on my tenure with the Knuckles character: KNUCKLES TWENTY YEARS LATER.

As you can see by the layout of page 1, I wasn’t pulling any punches with this one. I open with Julie-Su learning she’s pregnant with Knuckles’s baby. At the time this page was written and laid out, I had depicted Julie-Su riding on a Streaking Pasha, and I wanted to retain that element as part of her character. It also lent a feeling that not everything operated on hi-tech in the society.

The story as originally written was also much darker, a SONIC equivalent of the film THE DARK KNIGHT, if you will.

Interestingly, the version of Robotnik seen in this story was the giant robot version seen in Chapter 3 of the SONIC LIVE! SPECIAL. What surprised me even more – and I had forgotten about all of this when creating THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES – was the sequence where Knuckles is conversing with his version of Alfred as he’s trying to figure out and understand what Robotnik’s endgame is. The Alfred character, whose name is Isaac in this story, essentially replies “Some men just want to see the world burn.”

Considering this story was written in 1999 and originally slated for publication in SONIC SUPER SPECIAL issue 9 – and I have proof – I bring this up because when I read what I wrote back in the day, my immediate reaction was I’m going to hear a lot of complaints I ripped off THE DARK KNIGHT. Sorry, but no. I wrote it first and I’m leaving that conversation in.

As I read the script, I couldn’t help but notice which elements of the story I kept and those I didn’t over the years, evolving from K20YL to M25YL to finally THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES. The main reason for the changes was that Sonic Editor Justin Gabrie wanted me to use Sonic in the story in exchange for writer Karl Bollers being able to use Knuckles in the present day Sonic stories.

The important part is that KNUCKLES TWENTY YEARS LATER represents the last KNUCKLES story I created and was paid for. While it’s new in the sense it never saw publication due to the cancellation of the SONIC SUPER SPECIAL series, it’s still part of the body of work I created and submitted for publication.

As a result, the inclusion of KNUCKLES TWENTY YEARS LATER in the KNUCKLES OMNIBUS set will mark the closure of my work on the KNUCKLES series I created and developed as a vehicle for Knuckles, his friends and family, his enemies and all his adventures. I couldn’t ask for more. I hope the readers will enjoy it once it sees print sometime by 2027 by my estimation.

Keep checking back here for further updates.

I used to be willing to meet gun owners halfway but not anymore. I have grandchildren, including a grandson who started 1st Grade this week. If it’s a choice between someone’s right to own a gun or ensuring my grandchildren won’t be killed in their classroom, it’s not even a contest.

Fuck the 2nd Amendment.

George Lucas famously got himself into trouble with STAR WARS fandom when he changed two of most famous moments of the original film, which was retitled A NEW HOPE in the altered version.

Of the two moments that infuriated fandom, Leia kissing Luke on the cheek instead of the lips ranks a distant second to his infamous decision resulting in his most egregious editorial change, resulting in Han not shooting Greedo first, which fandom has yet to forgive him for.

I bring this up because I found the initial reaction to the recoloring of pages from the story THIS ISLAND HEDGEHOG, in which Sonic meets Knuckles for the very first time, to be most fascinating.

Over the decades I’ve followed media franchises as a fan, I thought Gene Roddenberry’s decision to upgrade the look of the Klingons in STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE to be one of those “but of course” decisions. He now had the budget and time to present the Klingons as the alien race they were as opposed to some offshoot of humanity. It made sense. And fandom as a whole appreciated it. (Killing Spock, however, proved to be a bridge too far that fandom was not going to tolerate.)

When Paramount upgraded the original classic STAR TREK episodes with new state-of-the-art CGI VFX, this was yet again another decision that was a no-brainer. It made the episodes more accessible for a younger generation while original fans like myself could imagine Gene Roddenberry wishing he had access to the tech that made the FX possible.

So as I read the reactions to the recoloring of THIS ISLAND HEDGEHOG, I found myself thinking about the early days when Mike Kanterovich and I were crafting the story pitches and scripts, when we had no idea there would even be a next issue, or if there was, if we would still be working on the book. Everything looks better in hindsight, but when you’re actually living through events, you have no idea how everything will all play out.

Which brings me to Edmund and Dmitri, the pivotal characters in the formation of the Brotherhood of the Guardians and The Dark Legion.

At the time Mike and I were writing the stories that lead into the SONIC’S FRIENDLY NEMESIS KNUCKLES mini-series, we were working on an issue-by-issue basis. The Dark Legion wouldn’t even exist as a concept until I had to come-up with an idea for a follow-up Knuckles mini-series.

Thus, when we worked out the plot for “A SENSE OF HISTORY Part II” that was published in SONIC issue 35, we saw Edmund and Dmitri as a version of Cain and Abel from the Bible, making the relationship that much more tragic. When it came to naming them, Mike insisted on calling them Edmund and Dmitri. When I asked his reasoning for selecting those names, he replied, “They’re twin brothers on my favorite soap opera ALL MY CHILDREN.”

Considering everything else I had already contributed to the story, I was not about to say no to Mike on this matter. I also never considered what a headache establishing Edmund and Dmitri as brothers would create for me down the road.

Which brings me to the actual purpose of retelling this bit of Knuckles’s history.

I’ve taken a lot of grief over the years about the nature of Knuckles’s relationship with Julie-Su and how some readers consider that it borders on incestuous. If you look up at the page displayed at the beginning of this article, you’ll notice all I need do is change the word “our” at the start of Panel 1 to “my”, and the word “brother” that’s also used in Panel 1 to either “cousin” or “friend”, and suddenly the relationship can not be interpreted incestuous in any way, shape or form.

Two little words creating significant impact.

I’m very much inclined to make this change, but I’d like to hear from the readers before I do.

So what do you say? You can email me your thoughts and I promise to read every one. Thanks and take care.

I know there are some people who feel I post things just to piss them off specifically or troll them in general, but that’s really not the case. I post either to inform or seek out commentary to guide in my decision-making process where my projects are concerned. I mean, if I’m going to invest time and money in a project I’m working on, I want to have some idea the effort will be worth it at the end of the day.

Case in point is the KEN PENDERS’ KNUCKLES OMNIBUS VOLUME 1 project that’s one of three projects I’m moving forward on at this time.

I recently posted two of the pages my colorist Ethan had finished to gauge what the general reaction was. Before I say anything more, I want to make it clear I was originally inclined to go with the original coloring used on the story THIS ISLAND HEDGEHOG, but after the release of THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS, I was receiving a lot of requests about future reprint plans of previously published material.

The people contacting me stated for the most part that the coloring and editorial changes made to the stories for the SONIC and KNUCKLES ARCHIVES and other reprint collections didn’t exactly float their boat, and were pushing for something better.

When Ethan submitted his samples while expressing an interest in taking on the task of recoloring the stories, I was impressed with his approach, making the coloring match as close to the original games as possible. I was also intrigued, because on the one hand, people were contacting me to be absolutely faithful to the original color version, whereas on the other hand, some people were making out the final printed version in SONIC issue 13 to be the work of art it never really was.

A bit of back story is necessary here. Prior to the writing of the story THIS ISLAND HEDGEHOG, my then-partner Mike Kanterovich and I had already submitted a number of story pitches to Paul Castiglia, who was the Archie Editor designated at the time to deal with the writers of the SONIC stories. Paul gave us the go-ahead to turn in complete scripts for 3 stories, all of which represented the complete contents for SONIC issue 11. Once the scripts for those stories were faxed to Paul, he requested we do an adaptation of the new SONIC 3 game featuring a new character named Knuckles.

As we were writing the story, Paul was replaced by Scott Fulop, who was charged with being the new editor of the SONIC series. While Paul handled the writers, Archie Comics Editor-In-Chief Victor Gorelick dealt with the artists. Victor was never comfortable editing SONIC, so with Scott’s hiring, Paul became the odd man out while Scott was figuring out the direction he wanted to take the book in.

Since there were no inventory stories to help ease the deadline crush, Scott had to run with what he had, which meant THIS ISLAND HEDGEHOG didn’t receive the care and attention later stories would receive. As the story progressed from writing to penciling to lettering to inking and finally to coloring, it wasn’t until the story was set up on the printing press that SEGA decided the story needed to be pulled.

At that point, Scott informed SEGA he would have to pull both the cover and the story off the printing press, thereby incurring a cancellation charge as well as late fees. On top of that, release of the issue would be delayed by two to three works as Scott would’ve had to commission a new story to replace the one on the presses.

Realizing the cost of pulling the story outweighed simply letting it run, SEGA capitulated and the story was published.

From my perspective, there were numerous flaws with the story, chief among them the coloring as well as artist Dave Manak not correcting my mistakes in the layouts, to say nothing of inker Jon D’Agostino’s approach to the inks. But you get what you paid for. Colorist Barry Grossman was as professional as they come, but he was only getting $20 a page for coloring, and Archie was more interested in volume, not quality. Barry was never supplied with the proper reference to go by for coloring the SONIC stories. Likewise, Jon D’Agostino was content receiving $55 a page inking Dan DeCarlo’s Archie pages, but balked when asked to take on SONIC for the same page rate. Even with the extra $20 per page he received, Jon was a journeyman who simply cranked out to meet a page count for the bottom line on his paycheck.

When reviewing the pages with Ethan, he pointed out the corrections he felt needed to be made, and as you can see in the corrected page 11 displayed above, I approved Ethan removing the foliage in the background in the panels where it was clear our heroes were inside Robotnik’s ship instead of outside in the jungle.

Ethan’s samples also were rendered to establish further continuity with the games, including making Tails appear more like his game self. While I had no issue with the change, my app programmer Patrick pointed out as much as he liked Ethan’s coloring and some of the changes he made for the sake of consistency with the games, including Tails design, he hated the idea of losing Dave Manak’s approach and asked me to at least restore Dave’s interpretation of Tails.

After Patrick expressed his sentiments, I knew a much broader reaction was called for, and so I posted two of the pages featuring Ethan’s recoloring to gauge the general reaction. What I came away with was the following:

• Overall, the reaction to Ethan’s work was overwhelmingly positive. If I was surprised by anything, it was the greater appreciation of artist Dave Manak’s work that resulted from the recoloring. Going forward, as Ethan was already 2/3rds of the way recoloring PANIC IN THE SKY, I told him to continue doing what he had been doing, especially with regards to Tails, but commencing with all the stories following, he was not to make any changes to any penciler & inker’s work unless he had my prior approval.
• With regards to those who want to see the stories with their original coloring, THIS ISLAND HEDGEHOG will feature its original coloring with no changes when it sees print eventually in SONIC OMNIBUS VOLUME 1. (And no, I’m not saying anything more about this because that book is at least two to four years away from seeing print.)
• The main changes going forward will be evident with the cover art, featuring the removal of all Archie-related trade dress. The KNUCKLES covers especially will only feature the KNUCKLES LOGO when printed individually. That said, as a special feature, I’m looking to see the covers of KNUCKLES THE DARK LEGION 1, 2 & 3 collected as one image and printed as a foldout with the logos. The same applies to the covers of KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA issues 4, 5 & 6.

Lest anyone expect everything in the KNUCKLES OMNIBUS to be recolored to the extent displayed in the current samples, based on the timeline set for this project, that’s simply not possible.

Right now, I’m working on the book layout, figuring out how many pages I need for the additional material that will be included in the book so I can provide a page count to the printer so we can begin to work on the specifics including shipping and pricing. I anticipate if all goes well that pre-orders for the book will begin sometime mid-to-late September.

The book itself has 20 weeks starting now to get into shape to ship for the printer, as we’re looking to turn over the final digital files to the printer by mid-January with an eye to having copies on hand available for Wonder Con 2025 in late March and throughout the convention season.

While everyone who orders a copy of KNUCKLES OMNIBUS will have the ability to select which version they wish to order, I will be reminding people of one condition required to be in the running for a copy of this cover version:

As there will only be 100 copies featuring the above-displayed cover, it will be sold on a 1st come-1st served basis only to those who previously purchased a copy of THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS. If someone orders this and is not on the list of previous buyers, their money will be refunded.

I feel this is the fairest way to handle the limited availability situation considering the amount of people who have already purchased BEGINNINGS.

Also, anyone wanting a signed copy can purchase a signed bookplate they can then place inside their book once they receive their copy. The only other way to obtain a signed copy will be by purchasing the book at one of my convention appearances.

This book will be the first time I supply a Certificate of Authenticity with a Mobian Line publication.

In addition, I am also working to get THE LARA-SU APP ready for release sometime later this year, which will include additional pages from SHATTERED TOMORROWS as well as at least 2 or 3 new Data files.

Once the app and KNUCKLES OMNIBUS are released, my focus will be solely on completing SHATTERED TOMORROWS for release sometime late 2025 or early 2026 at the latest.

As usual, if anyone has questions regarding something I didn’t address in this post, feel free to email me. Thanks for all your support and take care in the meantime.

These days – more often than not – I feel like a car salesman or a telethon host, pitching a product to sell or looking for a few dollars of support. But the honest truth is, if I don’t engage with the hustle, it becomes a matter of being out of sight, out of mind.

I’m in my own corner of the ‘net, trying to keep the whole operation going, otherwise producing more stories and art falls into the category of being a hobby that I’ll get around to when I can as opposed to an actual business looking to release an app, the next book, the latest chapter, a new print, whatever.

At the moment, there’s other people involved that I’m also doing my best for their efforts.

So far, I haven’t had to engage in doing a Kickstarter or a Go Fund Me effort. Nor have I resorted to selling on Amazon or trying to get a distributor like Diamond to place my books and other items in the stores. The reason for that is the people who enjoy my work have been all I need to keep going, and I’d like to keep it that way.

I like personally engaging with the people buying my books and art. I read all their notes and words of support. I generally respond with a word of appreciation or an answer to a question.

So if I sell just a book or two – or a book and a couple of prints or back issues – every day of the month, that sum total accumulated every month makes it possible to move forward and plan for the long term, not to mention take care of current expenses that crop up.

When I was looking to print BEGINNINGS, I had to put down over $2500.00 as a down payment to cover the cost of the paper which enabled me to lock in the cover price of the book. That money came from pre-orders and other sales from my website store, because I had no book yet to sell, but I needed the support throughout to ensure the book made it to the finish line.

So here’s the reason I am acting like a car salesman or a telethon host:

If I sell those couple of copies of BEGINNINGS, or a copy of BEGINNINGS and a couple of prints, or the equivalent of anything else I post on my website store every day, it helps with getting the app released and starting the fund to put down a deposit on the KNUCKLES OMNIBUS until I’m ready to go with the pre-orders.

The OMNIBUS is going to cost a lot more to produce than BEGINNINGS. It’s going to cost more to ship from the printer to my place here in Los Angeles, and it’s going to cost a few dollars to store because of the size and quantity being delivered.

So if you’ve been thinking of buying something from my web store, sooner rather than later makes it easier for me to deliver the product. As anyone who buys from me can attest, I offer fast, convenient service and haven’t disappointed anyone yet. It’s a track record I’m proud of and strive hard to maintain.

Thanks for checking this out. If you’ve got the extra bucks, I appreciate the support. If you don’t, take care of yourself first. I’ll still be around one way or the other. Take care.

While I’m gratified by the reception THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS has been receiving since it’s release, and very encouraged by the enthusiasm KEN PENDERS’S KNUCKLES OMNIBUS VOLUME ONE has received since I announced the project, there’s still a lot to get done on both before they become a reality.

Currently, I’m working with Patrick, my app programmer, organizing what remains to be done in getting THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES APP completed and released.

At this time, I’m working on completing the art on the pages I took short cuts on so I could get my book THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS to the printers in time for me to have something to release at this past Comic-Con. I’m also working on elements of the text that need to be updated and/or corrected.

Beyond the work that needs to be done, there’s new material that’s going to be included with the app release. That new material includes at least 5 additional pages of the SHATTERED TOMORROWS storyline as well as an additional character added to the Data Files beyond the 6 characters already featured in BEGINNINGS. And I haven’t even mentioned updating the SPECIAL THANKS section or the Art Gallery section.

While all this is getting done, I’m supervising the recoloring of the Knuckles story pages for the KNUCKLES OMNIBUS as well as designing and illustrating Cover B that most people will receive with the copy they order.

In case people haven’t gotten the memo, the cover art shown above is a prototype for the Variant cover for the KNUCKLES OMNIBUS that only the first 100 buyers will receive. In order to be fair to everyone, only those who have purchased a copy of THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS will receive an emailed notice alerting them when the pre-orders will begin. Only those with a confirmed email address on my end will have their orders accepted.

Those of you who haven’t yet ordered your copy of BEGINNINGS should do so if you wish to qualify for inclusion to the Variant cover offer. As with everything else, this is a first come-first served deal.

I’ll have further updates as events develop. As usual, feel free to email me with your questions and/or concerns. Thanks for taking the time to check this out and take care.