#... it'd be fun to reread the second book i think. or watch more of the anime even. maybe even check out the return to oz movie

[welcometogrouchland]

I am going to be dragged back, kicking and screaming, leaving claw marks in the floor, into my Oz hyperfix when the wicked movie drops, aren't I?

[thankskenpenders]

Happy new year, everyone! Welcome to 2024, the year that will mark the 10th anniversary of Thanks Ken Penders. I'd like to go over my plans for the blog for this year.

First of all: in the very near future, I'll have a post with my thoughts on Sonic Dream Team, and I'm sure I'll write one last Sonic Prime review once the final episodes drop on the 11th. I've also been sitting on an unfinished piece about the Sonic LEGO sets. I wanted this to be longer and more detailed piece that not only reviewed the sets but also went into the weird disconnect between homogenized image of Sonic the Brand and the actual fiction it's based off of, but it'll probably end up getting cut down a lot just so I can put something out. Let's just say I did a fun little thing with one of the sets.

Second: yes, I would like to return to regular TKP updates this year. As I've said many times, I wanted to do this in 2023, but I've been suffering from creative burnout after finishing SLARPG and have generally been unable to focus on any of my creative goals this past year. I'm hoping that this year will be better and I'll be able to get back into the swing of covering Archie Sonic issues. Even doing one issue every week or so would be vastly preferable to continuing the hiatus. I'm still only halfway done!! But aside from burnout, my other main hurdle is that I need to reread my own archive to refresh myself on all these things after nearly three years away. This will take some time.

The thing is, though, this year I'll have an extra incentive to go back through my previous writing and brush up on all things Archie Sonic. Because you see...

I've decided that I want to make a video essay about Penders. The comics, the copyright battle, The Lara-Su Chronicles, everything.

The why

I've thought about doing this before, but I never committed to the idea. I was too busy with gamedev, or I thought it'd end up being too long, or I figured that there were already enough videos on the subject, or I just lacked confidence in my ability to put together a video essay. So I told myself it wasn't meant to be, and let the multiple YouTubers who have cited me as a source on their own Penders videos fill that void.

Recently, though, a few things have happened that have convinced me it might be time. For one, YouTube video essays/media retrospectives/etc. are just getting longer and longer. When Quinton Reviews is out here doing 21 hours of videos on Sam & Cat, a subpar Nick sitcom that only lasted one season, I don't feel so crazy for wanting to make a video about several hundred comic books and two lawsuits that'd be at least an hour or two long lmao. Admittedly, I've also been self-conscious about doing a long video essay like this as a trans woman who has yet to do any vocal training. But these days I feel like I see a lot more transfem YouTubers who have done little to no vocal training, and that's given me more confidence on that front.

But the big one was Hbomberguy's recent plagiarism video. As I sat there watching it, I kept thinking about the time I found a CBR article that was just a crude 800 word summary of my two previous articles on Penders, published by a CBR writer who's put out over 4000 articles since 2019. If I've already been plagiarized before, and my writing is so frequently passed around as a go-to source on Archie Sonic drama, then I wouldn't be shocked if there were YouTubers out there straight up just plagiarizing me. I don't watch other peoples' videos on Archie Sonic, so I'd never know! So if people are just gonna paraphrase me when covering these topics anyway, why not take matters into my own hands and make what I would consider to be the definitive video on the subject? If hacks like James Somerton and iilluminaughtii can churn out these shitty video essays and people will still watch them, surely it can't be that impossible to make my own, right? (And also, uh, Hbomb literally told me I should make the video lol. If you're reading this, thanks for the encouragement.)

The what, how, and when

So here's the plan.

Part of this video essay will be an adaptation of my Medium article on the recurring themes of Ken's Archie Sonic run, with its content touched up and expanded upon. There were a few things I skimmed over in the article because I didn't want it to get too long, but again, people are out here watching ten hour videos about bad Nickelodeon sitcoms now. I can get away with elaborating a little more. I can add a few paragraphs talking about the Chaos Knuckles arc, or throw in a little more historical context I've discovered in the years since.

After covering the comics, the back half(-ish?) of the video will be dedicated to the copyright battles and their ensuing controversies, trying to give an accurate picture of what actually went down, the sheer scale of how bad Archie fucked up, and what our takeaways should be. This will have some similarities to my New York Magazine article on the subject, but I'll be rewriting it from scratch. I REALLY had to keep things short for that article because I was already way over the expected word count, and my tone was a little more straight-laced than normal because I was trying to keep things Professional. I can riff more and insert more of my own opinions this time, like I normally would.

I'll inevitably have to touch on some of Ken's Bad Tweets when discussing things that have happened after the lawsuits, but I don't want the video to just devolve into a list of times people got mad at him on Twitter, so I'm gonna try to keep that to a minimum in favor of focusing on his actual work. Things like the Scourge the Speed Demon incident and his continued statements on certain characters' copyright statuses probably warrant mentioning, though. And finally, assuming that the book really does come out this summer, I would like the grand finale of the video to be about those first couple chapters of The Lara-Su Chronicles.

I don't currently know when this video will get done, but it'll probably be in the back half of the year, especially with me waiting for the book to either drop or get delayed yet again. But I've actually already started writing a bit of the script, and will keep chipping away at it for a while.

So, uh, yeah, look forward to that? Wish me luck?

[cor-ardens-archive]

hi mari. do you have any good thriller-inc'est book recs? i have finished rereading sharp objects and although i liked it a lot more in a second read, I've been thinking a lot abt amma. if you have read and liked anything with characters like that recently, I'd be happy to know!

i don't think i'm the best person to answer this because i actually don't read many books similar to sharp objects. i can recommend flowers in the attic, which is not a thriller but did serve as inspiration to gillian flynn (this would be obvious even if she hadn't stated it out right) and also involves family drama, abuse and incest. in fact, all of vc andrews books could more or less fit the bill, not just the dollaganger saga. they all focus on dysfunctional, abusive families and incestuous (or very suggestive, as is the case in my sweet audrina) relationships.

note that vc andrews wrote, i believe, nine books (including the ones finished by andrew neiderman), but ghostwriters published several more under her name. i'm not familiar with andrew neiderman's solo work, but i think it'd be safe to guess there are some strong similarities with andrews. i did watch the film adaptatin of his novel pin and it was really fun, though significantly different from sharp objects and much more humorous.

in the vein of books centered on family, we have always lived in the castle by shirley jackson is perfect and might scratch the itch for weird girls and dysfunctional families.

the mafu cage is a film based on a play (which i haven't read) and it's also a psychological drama, though not a thriller, involving two sisters in a dysfunctional relationship.

i can't think of more right now, though maybe i'll remember something later. but it's easier to think of books similar to sharp objects in terms of style and atmosphere, and which have interesting relationships between women, but which don't center on family and don't have anything suggesting incest. gillian flynn herself has recommended a lot of books (here & here) and many of them contain elements that you can find in her own work.

@alaynestone i hope i'm not bothering you and let me know if i should delete this, but maybe you have some recs? i just thought it might be something up your alley, as you are a sharp objects understander.

[reiuruseiyatsura]

11-15: Favorite Anime Art style, Favorite Supporting Character, Least Favorite Anime Song, Highest Rewatchability, and Favorite Manga

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11. Favorite Anime Art style

<> I put this one here mostly because I thought it'd be fun to figure out. There's a lot of anime with art that I love...

<> Ping Ping the Animation has such energetic animation... Redline is so so bold... Nanbaka is just a whole explosion of color... Mononoke is really fun and unique...

<> I'm gonna go with Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun because I've gotten 2 art books for it and the coloring style continues to be something I want to pick up in my own art! All the character designs are fun, the coloring is fun, the way the creators do their stand-alone character illustrations is just so so good... it's all great 10/10

12. Favorite Supporting Character

<> Ginta from Inuyasha owns my entire heart and I've been told multiple times that people are surprised I remember his name. I love him.

<> Shiranui from Dororo is my special boy so he's the special mention

13. Least Favorite Anime Song

<> Another one I wanted to put here just to make me think. I've literally never hated a song- disliked sure, but neutral-dislike is usually as bad as it gets... this is gonna take a lot of thinking on my part..

<> Ok this is a cheap pick. Everlasting Love blasting my ass every couple of minutes 12 episodes in a row kind of ruined it for me LMAO

<> For context it's from the show Vampire Holmes which is about a minute and a half long with a 30 second theme (same theme) bookending it. I was rolling it on autoplay to get through it and it started eating my soul at some point.

14. Highest Rewatchability

<> I don't like rereading books and I don't like rewatching shows BUT. Baccano. I've rewatched it a couple times dubbed and subbed and everything I could watch it forever.

<> This isn't counting movies because those are actually super easy for me to rewatch as long as 1 or more months have gone by- I've seen Redline several times.

15. Favorite Manga

<> Mermaid Saga<3 It hasn't gotten a full anime adaptation but there are a few scattered ones that I enjoyed!

<> And my favorite Manwha is Noblesse! The anime hurts me but the spontaneous basketball episode made me laugh.

[gravedangerahead]

1, 2, 19,20

All questions of the book ask game here

1. book you’ve reread the most times?

I've actually never been a big re-reader. So there aren't many books I've read an astonishing number of times. I think the book I've reread most times might be Romeo and Juliet due to my childhood/early teens obsession with it, I basically knew it by heart, and I still remember a hell of a lot whenever I watch a new version.

Flor de Poemas (Flower of Poems) by Cecília Meireles was a poetry collection that I checked out of the library an inordinate amount of times and then bought.

Good Omens as a comfort book.

Other Shakespeare plays that are among my favorites, like Hamlet, Much Ado and Macbeth, would probably would make it since they're short.

Some books I went out of my way to reread were Machado's books (see below) and Tolstoy's.

And the Bloodlines series is a YA series that was important to me in a formative time and has characters I love very much, and I got involved with the fandom during the pandemic, so I reread it a few times, it was fun :)

2. top 5 books of all time?

Oh, god, making me choose things, on no, no, no

Both Machado de Assis' Dom Carmurro and Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas or Epitaph of a Small Winner depending on the translation) are up there, 2 of of my favorite books of all time for sure.

Flor de Poemas by Cecília Meireles. I actually bought her complete poetic works this year and I'm still reading the second volume, but that collection was the one that made me fall in love with her.

I'm gonna cheat and count my copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare that's absolutely falling apart as one book, and obviously I haven't read all of it, but it includes all my faves

And Anna Karenina keeps coming to mind, so I'll add that, I really did love it a lot, it was so beautiful

If I read a book a really long time ago I'm not sure I would still count it (Like Pride and Prejudice and Vanity Fair) but if it's too recent I'm not sure if it'll actually stay with me (like As Meninas/ The Girl in the Photograph and The Dawn of Everything). I was gonna cheat even more and make both Machado's books one since I own them in one volume, but I need to actually finish this answer at some point lol

19. most disliked popular books?

I don't have the attention span to finish books I'm not enjoying. It's hard enough to get the time and energy to love read, much less hate read. So I kind of don’t build up that much resentment since I just drop the book, and it'd also feel unfair to hate on a book I didn't actually read all the way through. I was forced to read Inocência in high-school and hated it, not sure it counts as popular except among Portuguese teachers

20. what are things you look for in a book?

I did answer that here, but I think my choices to these other questions illustrate the point very well

In short, I'm mostly drawn to characters and prose first, themes second, and plot and world building third. Characters that I care about or am interested in and/or beautiful language will get me through basically anything. It's okay if nothing makes sense, I'll just vibe.

[yellowloid]

A couple more Q's 🥰

- what is it that draws you in to write about milex as a pairing?

- do you have any wips at the moment?

- what are you currently reading?

- what is one fic you keep coming back to?

- when it comes to writing about milex, i really don't know how to explain the feeling, honestly. i guess it's different for everyone, but i'd say for me it's the fact that they have this magnetic energy that draws you in and you just fall for them, y'know? platonic or romantic, whatever, they have this insane chemistry that just captivates you. people talk about it being for clout, for PR etc., but i don't think you can fake something like that. maybe it's because they're clearly very comfortable with each other (even just as friends) but there's also so much romantic/sexual tension there, it'd be difficult not to notice it. they play with it, and they have fun with it, and it just feels genuine. idk how to explain it, but there's something so raw in it that it oozes through the screen, and it makes you want to know more, to see just how many lines they can cross - and they've crossed so many you can't help but wonder how far they're willing to go before it's too much. they just have this game going on, always tring to outdo each other - and it's absolutely fascinating. it pushes you to daydream possible scenarios and well, sometimes you just need to put said scenarios on paper bc you can't stop thinking about them and you need to share them with other people who are in the same boat 👀

(obviously i'm talking about their antics on stage! i'm interested in their dynamic when they're performing, not their actual private lives. if they have/had something going on between them then good for them, if they didn't then good for them too, idc. we don't know and we're not entitled to know what they really do when they're not working) (just to clarify lol)

- i do, actually! i'm almost finished editing the second (and main) part of my series, Satin and Lace. i've been working on it for a few months now, and it's really special to me for a lot of reasons, so i've kind of become emotionally attached to it lmao. i honestly can't wait to share it with you guys!!

- these last few weeks i haven't had much time to read, so i'm a bit behind on fics, BUT i absolutely need to catch up with the last few chapters of @kisameanslight college au. i have one or two one-shots that are waiting for me, and i've also been waiting for your skiing holiday fic to be completely posted so i could read it (i have zero patience, sorry 😅). basically i have so many beautiful fics to read and so little time, guess i'll just proceed at a sluggish pace 🤷‍♀️

- aaah it's so difficult to just name one! so many milex fics stuck with me, to the point that i think about them almost daily. it's rare for me to reread fics (even though there are some i read far too long ago and i definitely need to reread them bc they're just Too Good)

however, there's this one fic that haunts me. it's The Boy Next Door by AM505, it's not a complete work and at this point i doubt it'll ever get finished, but it's just a pity because it's so good it's one of my favourites. it's definitely not for everyone, and if anyone is curious and wants to check it out PLEASE for the love of god read all the tags because it's rough, and our boys don't have it easy in it. it's based on a book which if i remember correctly is also based on a true story. it's really dark and twisted, and it could be very triggering for some people.

i have a PDF copy of it, and sometimes i just randomly think about it and open it. i read a couple of random sentences, even just the incipit, and i swear it feels like a punch in the gut. i love whump and i love dark stories - and this one made me sick. i actually cried, which doesn't happen often when i read. it's tragic, heart-wrenching and infuriating, and it's just so frustrating to watch the events unfold in front of your eyes without being able to do anything to stop them.

it's been a year since i read it and i can't stop thinking about it, but i still haven't found the courage to reread it. i really hope the author will come back and finish it, eventually- i need to know how it ends, and most importantly i need a happy ending😭

thank you so much for all these lovely questions, sending you lots of love!! ❤❤