#AD Thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring! Check out squarespace.co... for a discount on your order! Today we are looking at one of the most insane stories ever put to a comic book. You do not want to miss it.
I remember the time when Sonic the Hedgehog popped out of my screen, grabbed me aggressively, and attempted to drag me into the static of my TV for no reason all while smiling as if he's done this thousands of times.
I have a VERY funny relationship with this comic. When I was a child, my dad would take me and my brother to comic-con every year. One of our first years, we went to artist’s alley and saw a sonic comic writer’s booth where he was selling signed copies of sonic comics he made. I got one and put it in a plastic bag. Only now that I’m older so I realize the significance: That man was Ken Penders and that comic was Sonic Live. And because of that interaction, somewhere in my parents’ basement is the worst issue of Sonic the Hedgehog written by its worst author, in VERY good condition.
I mean, since everyone who was a fan probably trashed theirs, you could probably sell it to a collector who never read the series and just wants a full set.
@@forkalamari6093 When I'm at least truly hungry, I'd eat a cooked bun Hot Dog with the usual ketchup, a bit of mustard, tomatoes slices, and whatnot sure... But I never tried Chili Dogs, are they even that good? There are such in the actual Sonic Restaurants, but never tempted to try it.
They literally said that the creators of Sonic were so unoriginal that they had to use a device that could connect different universes to make money off of somebody who existed in another universe, without their permission.
@@icetweiz That and I imagine good old Ken Penders would be infuriated to hear the music of the game that "stole" his "ideas" in a video about his peak fiction comic.
Here’s how I’d do this story- when the kids come home from school, they spot Sonic on their otherwise blank TV screen, waving his arms and calling to them. He explains he ended up there after being zapped by Robotnik’s robots and needs help getting home to save his friends. The kids try turning on their Genesis- it doesn’t work, but Sonic does see changes in the static realm he’s in. One of the kids volunteers to go with Sonic to help him out while the other stays behind to keep their mom from turning the Genesis off. Sonic muses over this but eventually agrees. The kid brings his Genesis controller with him into the TV, and when he and Sonic get to Robotropolis, it turns out the controller can affect reality, kinda like Captain N. From there it’s a story of Sonic and the kid kicking Robotnik’s butt and setting the Freedom Fighters free- maybe have Sonic go Super and fight the giant bot the actual comic had, aided by the kid. In the end, Sonic thanks the boy and sends him home right before the portal closes. The last panel is the kid sitting down to tell his sister everything while the Sonic 1 or 2 title screen comes on behind them, a sign everything is back to normal.
Penders is the gift that keeps on giving. Imagine writing a story that straight-up isekai's your own kids into Blue Rat's World Also, as you noticed, they're using a regular-ass remote controller instead of a Genesis one. That's because Kenny Boy didn't allow video games in his household. Says a lot about how much he actually cared about the series and title character.
He makes me wish we had the inter dimensional cable from Rick and morty. Just imagine looking into a world where penders was still on the sonic comics.
That first live page is candid look into what the 90s were REALLY like. Brown shag carpet. Bowl cut. Wood grain box TV. Being too poor to have a Genesis. Still loving Sonic anyway. Playing pretend video games with a sideways TV remote.
Those kids are actually Ken Penders’s own children so he probably took the pictures. He also used them in his “trailer” for sonic Armageddon. REALLY professional there dude……
@@alexisislas-gonzalez5991 well it makes his extreme version of "father knows best" themes and kidd should listen to their elders thing make sense. That also comes from his issues and reconcialiation with his own dad, what the knuckles and locke stuff is based on, but it plays a role.
The 'instant archeologists' '''joke''' gives me insane Chris-Chan writing vibes. I still find it really funny that Ken basically roped his own family into this, but couldn't be bothered to ask someone in the office if he could borrow their Genesis.
An important thing to keep in mind Ken didn't want to play the sonic games, as he wanted the comic to be its own thing. Was so dedicated to this, he couldn't even get a fake controller for his kids.
@@publiccrown2382 "I tried, Mr. Gorelick. I really did." "Oh, what now??" "The lettering in this comic was supposed to be inked medium but I inked it in bold; I INKED IT IN BOLD!! I've soiled the good Archie name! SOILED IT! SOILED IT! SOILED IT! SOILED IT!!"
I remember "Sonic Live in Sydney" that used to play at Sega World Sydney actually involved Robotnik kidnapping Sally so he could marry her! Robotnik even drinks a love potion (actually a sleeping potion) from Sonic disguised as a Doctor to rescue her hoping she will actually love him. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fq4g6-uKVQM.html
Actually overlanders are a separate species in Archie lore then humans. Overlanders where humans affected by the Xorda Gene Bomb after Robotnik’s ancestor dissected the Xorda ambassador sent to earth making regular humans on Mobius rare. Honestly this lore is….weird.
You can certainly make the argument it's the "worst" Archie issue, it's so inconsequential that's it's hard to really be mad at it. It's just a weird fever dream half remembered in a pile of other bad comics that do active harm to the series as a whole. The real issue is, Ken... buddy. When you take this job, you tell them you need a Sega Saturn for the photoshoot! Get a free Saturn from the gig! That's half the reason to do it at all!
Well here’s the thing: he actually forbade video games in his household, so I hear on the grapevine. He really out here, hating “mindless video games”, while being so stuck up about how fun and cool comics are because of their “deep narratives” (read: incomprehensible Knuckles lore) and “emotional connections” (read: blatant projections of own past personal issues not even handled in a relatable, mature way) or some shit.
@@Somerandomjingleberry Yes if you ever read anything Ken wrote since End Game will you very quickly notice that he is pretentious moron that things adding big words, dramatic narration and mature themes automatically makes a story well written, mature and intellectually satisfying.
I mean it it really inconsequential when it is the source of Locks's bad nightmares that made him microwave Knuckles to turn him into a living Super Weapon?
@@Somerandomjingleberry Imagine this scene playing out if he _did_ get a console just for the comic: *Ken:* "Hey kids, I have some great news!" _(brings a box with a Genesis/Sega Saturn)_ *The kids:* "WOAAAH! Thank you dad/uncle!" 😍😄 *Ken:* "Oh, this isn't for keeping - I didn't change my mind about video games. I just brought it so that I can take some pictures of you playing for my comic book." *The kids:* "Huuh?!" 😧😧 *Ken:* "You'll star in a special issue! Isn't that amazing?" *The kids:* "Y-yeah, of course, daddy..." 😮💨😓
I really wish I could talk to Ken Penders, because I have SO MANY questions for the MANY choices he made. And damn near the top is WHY DID YOU WRITE THIS STORY KEN??????!!!
@@InsanePigeon the only other one is pulling a YandereDev and saying “yoU aRe aN InFamOuS idIOt wHo DOeSn’T KnoW aNYthing abOUt wRiTInG!!!!! I aM beSt wRItEr!!!!!!! 😡😡😡🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬”
Those are his kids in the comic. That’s why. It’s a wish fulfillment thing, just like Knuckles and Locke’s relationship was his wish fulfillment thing.
@@austinkaos3682 I'm not exactly perfectly capable of speaking Japanese, but I'm pretty sure the guy's name is almost literally trasnlated to Fox the Fennec
Yes that cover is straight up Beta-Creepypasta material... I also first seen it in the Mega Collection Plus... *Such a melancholic song for it though.*
This feels like something Chris-chan would conjure up. Adding real photos to a comic, the idea that fictional characters exist in their own reality and that we just steal their likeness for stuff in our world, that “instant archeologist” joke feeling just like that “In the Stone Age” joke, self inserting yourself(or in this case, your kids) into your fictional world. But at least Chris played the games she was writing about
Its comics like that that makes me wonder, how tf did penders keep his job at archie for so long like, like who saw his stuff and said "pErFeCt" this is what we need for our sonic the hedgehog comics.
His interview with a yotuber Midnight something (can't remember the real name) Penders basically said Archie really didn't care. As long as he met the deadlines, they kept rolling. They did reject some stuff that went too far (insert the whole canceled plot of Sally losing her virginity to Geoff, who was an adult, while Sonic was thought to be dead for a year)
You know, for all the darkest-timeline filth, legal bullshit and mind-breaking weirdness Ken Penders inflicted upon us, the thing that haunts me the most is how the way he draws faces unilaterally end up being dead-eyed corpses. Okay I take that back, that's the second most haunting thing. The way he unilaterally draws Sally with one hand under the table is at the top of the list.
Yeah relating to what you said at the end, Ken does seem to be oddly proud of Sonic Live considering when the Sonic movie came out he said Sonic Live did the Sonic with humans idea better. Then about a year after that he tried to publish a Scourge comic where Scourge's design was changed to look like movie Sonic.
I can't believe that Naoto Oshima has a prototype omni-dimensional scanning device in his basement and he didn't tell us. I'll have to ask where he gets his stuff from.
This issue…this gaia-forsaken issue. For the longest time I thought this was merely fanfiction, and I promptly ignored it. I eventually learned it was official and decided to glimpse it…and that’s when the horror began
Additional "weird fact"; as far back as 1999, Penders tried to write his own outline for a 'Sonic' movie, and it was based roughly on this exact story. (=O) Also; I think the framing is really just an ego-trip, but what do I know? =)
I'm curious if someone covered Ken Pender's history before he made the Sonic comics. I just want to know how! How has this man made it this far, and gained so much trust before burning it all down?!
@@fightingmedialounge519 Could you link me to one? Because the few I've seen only cover when he did the Sonic Comics while only glossing over his previous works with I think Marvel Comics
@@fightingmedialounge519 It's a good documentary, but I want to know how Ken was during the DC and Marvel days, and not while he was working at Archie. What DC/Marvel comics did he work on? How much control did he have with those comics (if any)? Did his weird fetishes get into those comics, or was it only when he did the Sonic comics? What made him get renounced enough to get an offer at Archie comics? There's so many question still missing from this man, but everyone is only focusing on the time he worked at Archie and beyond, and not his DC/Marvel days.
@@thepuzzlemaster64 I don't think Ken actually worked at both DC and marvel. Also what you see archie comics aren't his fetishes, but ideas he had for original comics that never got made. Also that documentary should cover how and why he started working for archie
Love how the kid seems to have gone through that level multiple times and there being no game with the freedom fighters in it. This means that the kid was just replaying the same episode of Sat AM where Sonic actually dies.
Since you brought up Robotnik's weird relationship with Sally Acorn. You got to discuss Sonic Live In Sydney (at least the CD release) since it actually involves Robotnik kidnapped Sally Acorn so he could marry her. He even asks Sally "Why do you love Sonic, but not me!" and drinks a sleeping potion (disguised as a love potion) in the hopes of Sally falling in love with him.
You know what I'd love to see, nick? I would love to see you do a video called like, "Why Ken Penders Matters". That way you can get the whole kenny pendy talking point out the way and you don't gotta worry about it when you dive into archie.
This was Ken Penders' first Sonic gig. Those kids that Sonic pulls into the TV are Penders' kids. Someone at Archie seriously looked at this literal self-insert fic and said "Yes, please keep writing for us! We don't foresee any bad coming of this!"
I'd love to know how well this issue sold at the time. While 90s comics were going through that boom/bust phenomenon and Marvel was filing bankruptcy, Ken was pumping out these timeless classics.
18:10 I don't recall the movie, but there was a moment where the villain promised not to harm a single hair on the kid's head. "Yeah, I promised. And this is that one hair." This is the reverse of that, Eggman's just tearing up that one quill out of spite and comedy. It's beautiful.
All that prototype plot reminded me of an episode of Darkwing Duck, where he, Gossalyn and Megavolt travel to the “real world”, where the creator of the Darkwing Duck cartoon said he has a helmet that allow he to hear what happen in Darkwing universe, and inspired by that he created the cartoon.
Hmm, the worst story? It was pretty bad, but the worst? Personally I think the lost in space arc from after issue 125 was the worst, even though it wasn't a single issue, and when I asked some other fans they would say the "slap heard round the world" where Sonic and Sally broke up, which came right after in fact...
This story is the equivalent of Rudolph and all those other stop-motion Christmas cartoons from the 70s--things just kind of happen and random characters are introduced for no reason.
seeing how Ken tweeted about getting Lawyers involved to sue Paramount because he was told the second movies had a plot about the Echidnias using the Master Emerald similar to what he wrote. It's safe to assume he has no ideas how the video games were
your reactions just made this video much better 🤣and the fact that at the end you found one thing to appreciate about this issue reminds me why i love this channel 👍
I think it's very telling that, when collecting the older comics into trade paperbacks, they reprinted the two backup stories from this book, but _not_ the main story.
Allegedly, the reason the kids were using a remote control was because Penders wouldn't allow video games in the house. Not even for this. Again. Ken Penders was writing a comic about a video game and he wouldn't let video games inside the house. No wonder his stories were so off base from the games.
I remember seeing this comic in a pavillion's grocery store back when it came out. Just the cover got me to say "What the hell is this?" even as a kid. I was a huge collector of sonic comics at the time, and this was the only one I just simply decided I wasn't going to buy.
I am on 32 of 35 minutes into the video, and I am still stuck on the fact that I missed out on so many live events in my childhood. Yes, one could say "they were all terrible", but they would have been wonderful memories for me.
I’ve seen that comic cover before, as well as the Knuckles and Substitute Freedom Fighters stories, but never have I seen this particular story. I think it’s pretty safe to say that it’s not canon, it’s just too bizarre to fit into the Archie storyline.
I remember playing sonic+ collection for the playstation 2. I was looking through the little behind the scenes stuff and info on things inside. Then I stumbled upon this image, as soon as I saw this image, i immediately threw it inside the trash, thinking that the game was cursed and he was going to get me. (This was when I was around 6-7 years old)
This entire video has just been a roller coaster of emotions and laughter while listening to this poor soul read out one of the stupidest Sonic Archie comics in history. We all salute you for your sacrifice of brain cells of having to relive the traumatic stress of this books entire existence. This was entertaining to watch. 😂💙
I almost became one of those kids who believed that Sally Acorn and the Freedom Fighters were characters from the video games, but when I realized that they did not actually appear in the games (except for the Sega Genesis version of "Sonic Spinball", anyway), that's when I stopped being a fan of them due to them being non-existent in the original source. :P
That thumbnail is cursed. It looks like Sonic is trying to drag you into his horribly written comic book world. Archie certainly has its moments, both good and bad, but this story might very well be the worst they've ever produced.
The Crappy thing is. The Robotnik Mech is part of Knuckles origin in the Comic as Locke had a vision of it destroying Mobius causing him to experiment of Knuckles Egg.
C'mon, as if there isn't at least one Sally Acorn fursuit out there. It's not too late to live your dream and hug Sally Acorn. At a furry con probably.
Has anyone else noticed this storyline resembles the Darkwing Duck episode Twitching Channels where a human TV exec uses a machine to *tap* into audio of DW's world and makes a cartoon series of his adventures? Maybe Penders used that same machine to do this story? 😂
The whole thing about a company using a device to tap into another world to use as inspiration for their entertainment ideas was seemingly lifted entirely from an episode of Darkwing Duck.
14:54 Clearly, Sonic pulled the kids into the Video Zone, a place between our world and the video dimension. Waiting to challenge them for control of the Video Zone is one of the game wizards. Is it…Merlock…Scorchia…or Mongo?
