Mr. Penders, we need to discuss something.

Posted by ''OnyxBomb'' Vermilion on August 20, 1999 

In Sonic #76, there appears a character named Mina who all-too-closely resembles Mimic the
Moonrat, a well-known furry artist. Seeing her char ripped off (although probably not intentionally)
has taken a lot of heart out of her. She's a really good frined of mine and I can't bear to see her going
through this.
If an apology or character recognition can be issued, it would be appreciated. Please, I can't stand
seeing her so unhappy. 
---------------
Setting the Record Straight

Posted by Ken Penders on August 21, 1999 at 13:32:43:

I just discovered that a certain segment of readers believe someone's character has been ripped off
and used either illegally, without permission, and/or without acknowledgment of the original source.

Having checked out the page and character in question, I can honestly say no such thing occured at
all.

Neither writer Karl Bollers nor artist James Fry ever referenced anyone's work in the creation of this
sequence. For those of you who would say I'm either disregarding what they consider solid
evidence, or merely supporting my fellow colleagues, let me clarify a few items on the how and why
of it all.

First off, neither, Karl nor James ever see ANY of the fan art before publication. Only after the
individual issues come out are they able to see who's done what. Second, neither Karl or James, to
the best of my knowledge, interact with any Sonic and/or Knuckles fans, nor do a number of other
Sonic writers and artists, because of the very fear that they may indeed be accused someday of
ripping someone off, as evidenced here.

Another factor to take into consideration is that the books are produced months in advance under
tight deadlines, so a timeline would have to be established when someone's character was created
versus when a specific segment - such as this page - was being worked on.

Also keep in mind that around the time ENDGAME was being produced, I had been toying with the
idea of using characters created by the fans, simply because so many of you were asking me if their
character could appear in a story. After much consideration, all parties concerned agreed it might
result in precisely a situation where someone would say we exploited them and file a lawsuit, so the
idea was vetoed, and never brought up again.

This is why I myself do not read ANY fan-fic. As for fan-art shown to me, I pick out the best and send
it to Justin for use on the fan art pages. I don't accept anything with a fan-created character ever.

As for fan-created characters, at the risk of hurting someone's feelings, there are only just so many
different variations of squirrels, foxes, etc. that can be done, and considering how many readers
show off their characters to me, there's no way I can even remember what one looked like half an
hour later, let alone weeks or months later when I'm creating a character for a particular story. Many
of you do very nice work, but I simply can't keep track of it all, and both Karl and James are exposed
to much less of it than I am.

Finally, think before getting riled up, because if a big enough stink is made over an innocent
coincidence, and it truly IS at best an innocent coincidence, then you may force Archie's hand to do
away with the fan art pages in both SONIC and KNUCKLES, to say nothing of the website. I don't
think this is something any of us want.

I know this person may be upset over the belief his/her character was stolen, but such was not the
case. These things do happen, even to professionals such as myself.

Case in point: Image has just released a book called RISING STARS. I found myself unable to read it
after a few pages because the themes it dealt with - not to mention a couple of sequences - seemed
eerily similar to what I'm doing in my own book THE LOST ONES. A friend of mind who read both told
me while there were similarities, there were also a number of important differences. (He preferred my
book, in any event.) Was I upset initially over the matter? You better believe it, but I moved on with the
attitude of figuring out how to make it more different and individualistic from the other effort.