Just how the hell is this possible? How is it that Ken Penders get's rights for characters created and published through Archie Comics? Why did Archie backdoor him a deal?
With any company you work for, anything that you create that is published through that company is owned by said company unless written otherwise in a contract. As such, copyright of said material is owned by that company and you have no say in what happens to that material. The only way I can see that such a thing possible was if somehow Archie comics screwed up and screwed up badly. While I doubt he'll be successful is his lawsuit of SEGA and EA, although the characters he could claim (video game wise) are the Dark Legion, which had many similarities to the Echidna's from Sonic Chronicles. Such things are why SEGA never made a game with Archie characters. Certainly it makes sense why Archie has done a series of 'DC Reboots' in it's attempt to fade many of these characters off, much to my annoyance.
I have nothing against Penders as a person, but I never saw the point in Penders' actions and it certainly hasn't improved his image amongst the fan base. I'm surprised that he'd be allowed to use the characters in any paid form without SEGA's permission as their designs (e.g Echidnas etc) are associated with SEGA owned character designs (and could count against the copyright of their characters). All I know is that I've long since lost respect for the man (lost it when he first launched his bid for copyright control) and will now have to endure the painful demise of some of my favourite characters within the Sonic Universe.
One must also wonder what effect it could have on the comic book future too.
