Archie Comics writer and artist Ken Penders has just wrapped up his latest chat with the fan community, and as usual has been rather candid about upcoming story arcs – as well as what-could-have-beens. Not only is Kragok’s son’s identity revealed, but Penders also talks about a rejected pitch to write a Sonic vs Mario satire, opines on what he would do with the Sonic storyline and opens up about the direction of Knuckles after issue #125.
First, Kragok’s son. Penders reveals the identity of the much-discussed character after announcing that – due to the current format of the Archie comics and the state of the comics industry in general – he and the rest of the Sonic Archie team likely won’t get around to revealing it for quite a while.
In answer to the question… Who is Kragok’s son? Because I probably won’t have the space to reveal it for a long time…. I’ll answer that one here and now. It’s Constable Remington. Only he doesn’t know it… yet. Rem was raised in Echidnaopolis by his single mother, [who] was sworn to secrecy as Kragok didn’t trust Lien-Da as far as his secrets went.
On Sonic, Penders said that he would want to explore a different romantic angle for that series if he had control of the storyline.
If I were doing Sonic, he would be dating someone else right now, and he may yet do so. I was trying to take the relationship in a new zone when I [proposed] the King arrange a marriage between Sally and Antoine. And there’s been some discussion on following that one up… Bunnie would be upset, and it’s thinking about the character dynamics that would get me to do that one.
Talking about Mario, apparently there was an old idea to lampoon the Nintendo mascot in the Sonic comic some time ago, but it got canned. Penders said…
I have no plans for Mario, nor do I suspect Karl or Benny either. I would have done a Sonic-Mario battle originally as a satire way back when, but those days are long gone. In the satire, Mario and Luigi were dentists. I think I still have that story outline in my files, along with Sega’s rejection note.
The most information we got though was regarding the Knuckles comic strip, in which Penders is currently running the show. He has big ideas for the character in the coming months, including re-working his Echindaopolis canon into a future-based series to allow fans old and new to enjoy Knuckles’ rich universe.
Justin has been suggesting I take Knuckles retro back to his pre-series appearance. Not just his design, but the set-up as well. No Julie-Su, no guardians, no other characters that appeared in his series. I’d say the stories he wants would be along the lines of what we did in the Knuckles’ Chaotix special. Nothing definite has been decided, but that’s how the discussions have been going.
What I want to do is reboot Knuckles 20 years later starting with issue #126. My thinking for this is that the longtime fans get the payoff of seeing where everything was going, while new readers could jump on without having to know the whole backstory. Not only would Lara-Su be a regular, but so would Knuckles’ sibling.
Actually, jumping 20 years later only puts you in the middle of an overall storyline I’ve had in mind since I was asked to develop Knuckles into a series. There’s plenty of Julie-Su coming up, along with the Chaotix. Dawn just illustrated a story which shows Mighty’s first meeting with Knux… They weren’t really close buds back then. Also, Julie-Su and Vector will resolve their differences.
More information from Penders’ chat included the following:
- “Basically, we’ve locked in all the stories for SONIC up to issue #125”
- “Knuckles will be red on a more or less permanent basis by #125”
- “The Shadow plot is something I can’t get into right now”
- “The Ultimate Power storyline will resolve whether it’s Mammoth Mogul, Lien-Da or someone else”
- “I think we created such a rich environment for the characters that there’s more than enough material to keep the book going for a long time”
Finally, Penders explains the reason behind a lot of lagging storylines. Simply put, the team is scrambling to finish off a number of story arcs that are still open-ended…
We’re trying to answer a lot of the questions we set up in earlier issues, but lately it seems like such a difficult task to answer them all now. It’s not like the heyday where we had three series running. Karl and benny are resolving The Chosen One, but can’t really say how or when just yet. We’re trying to tie up as much as possible by #125.
Via Sonic HQ