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onedegreeofsoniccomics · 11 months

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My Little Pony/Transformers: The Magic of Cybertron #2 & #3: Retailer Incentive Covers

Cover Credits

Art: Adam Bryce Thomas

Editorial Team

Editor: Megan Brown

Consulting Editor: David Mariotte

#IDW #IDW Publishing #My Little Pony #Transformers #Starscream #Megatron #Pinkie Pie #Rainbow Dash #Fluttershy #Twilight Sparkle #Arcee #Optimus Prime #Unicron #Adam Bryce Thomas #Megan Brown #David Mariotte #2021 #Archie Sonic Contributors #IDW Sonic Contributors

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thankskenpenders · 6 months

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How did you feel about the recent 'Sonic's 900th adventure' issue of IDW? Personally I thought the story was a little underwhelming but the callbacks to locations from the games were fun and as a huge Starline fan I loved the little nod to him at the end with the 'Greatness Began Here' carved into the rock.

I liked it, but I did feel like it ended up being a bit underwhelming, mostly because of the note it ended on.

It got hyped up by IDW as this big event celebrating decades of Sonic comics with wildly varying contributions from both old and new contributors, switching between all these crazy visual styles due to the reality-warping effects of the Warp Topaz with some of the best art in any Sonic comic ever. They even got Nigel Kitching and Richard Elson back to make it a big event celebrating Sonic's legacy in comics! It was really singled out as the Sonic comic EVERYONE should read this year.

And then it's all building to... Sonic fighting the Babylon Rogues in a cave? And also Shadow and Rouge show up, and Shadow is smug and annoying? And then Sonic just puts the Warp Topaz back in the cave where Starline found it, and that's it? I was expecting something more creative, or some kind of big reveal or twist at the end. I'm not saying I thought the Freedom Fighters or Tekno would show up (although... well, was I the only one wondering if that might happen, given the focus on Sonic's comic legacy and the reality-warping premise?), but I figured there'd be SOMETHING noteworthy at the end. Maybe that's on me for not keeping my expectations in check

I dunno. It's a fun romp with a lot of extremely cool shit in the preceding pages that makes it more than worthy of checking out, but it ends on the weakest story, and that kind of takes the wind out of its sails. It would've benefited from shuffling things around a bit

#anon #ask #tkp asks

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digamma-f-wau · 8 months

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Who Did What for Sonic the Hedgehog's 900th Adventure

So the 900th Adventure was basically this years Annual in spirit, but instead of multiple shorter stories, it told one big story, but with the number of writers and art teams that you would get in a multi-story annual anyways. Sure you could easily read the credits, but it's more fun this way. Obviously spoilers ahead so everything past part 1 is is gonna be under a Read More

Part 1 (pages 1-6): Set-up with Tails

Writer: Ian Flynn (the original main writer on IDW Sonic and post-Metal Virus continues to be one of the main writers, including being the main writer of IDW's Classic Sonic specials. Been with the franchise since becoming a writer for the Archie comics back in '06 and served as the writer for Sonic Frontiers)

Artist: Adam Bryce Thomas (one of the main IDW Sonic artists. been around since the latter half of Archie's reboot)

Colors: Valentina Pinto (initially a secondary colorist whose biggest credit was doing the Imposter Syndrome miniseries, recently seems to have graduated to being one of the main colorists this year)

Part 2 (pages 7-12): Amy and the Orca

Writer/Artist: Evan Stanley (the other main writer of IDW Sonic post-Metal Virus as well as one of the main artists, been around since late in Archie's pre-reboot era)

Colors: Gigi Dutreix (regular cover artist and occasional inker and has even written a few stories; co-authoring Victory Garden from the 2019 Annual and its follow up Future Growth, which they also colored, and solo-writing The Catalyst from 2020's Annual)

Part 3 (pages 13-18): Knuckles and Metal Sonic

Writer: Nigel Kitching (one of the main writers of the old UK Sonic the Comic published by Fleetway Editions back in the 90s)

Artist: Mauro Fonseca (regular artist, major credits so far include Sonic Learns to Drive from the 30th Anniversary Special, co-designing Surge & Kit, doing the A-covers for the Imposter Syndrome miniseries, and doing a bunch of stuff in the concurrent and upcoming main book issues. Also relevantly used to be a regular contributor to the Sonic the Comic-Online fan continuation)

Inks: Rik Mack (recent regular inker, being the main inker on Mauro's more recent interior art for the comic as well as inking other artists, most notably on Tails' 30th Anniversary Special. Recently did some coloring on the back-half of issue 61 as well. Also another former StC-O regular)

Colors: Reggie Graham (one of the main colorists on IDW Sonic post-Metal Virus, after having been a regular on covers beforehand, as well as being another former StC-O regular)

Part 4 (pages 19-24): Eggman and his Mech

Writer: Daniel Barnes (writer of Weapons from the 2022 Annual and the Scrapnik Island miniseries)

Artist/Colors: Min Ho Kim (fairly recent addition of the IDW Sonic crew, being a regular cover artist since Scrapnik #1. Also the character artist on The Murder of Sonic)

Color Assistance: Evan Maly

Part 5 (pages 25-30): Blaze and Cream

Writer/Artist: Aaron Hammerstrom (regular artist, most prominently being the main artist for IDW's Classic Sonic stuff. Also previously wrote/drew the 2022 Annual story Rough Patch)

Inks: Matt Froese (regular inker, mainly works on Aaron's art. Most notable non-Aaron credits include the two Yardley-drawn issues of Zeti Hunt and the first and last parts of Trial by Fire)

Colors: Nathalie Fourdraine (The 1:10 Retailer Incentive variant cover artist for every issue the main book as well as semi-regularly doing covers for side books. Served as the colorist for the Classic Sonic stories Dr. Eggman's Brithday and Amy's New Hobby, as well as the colors and A covers for the Scrapnik Island miniseries)

Part 6 (pages 31-36): Babylon Rogues & Shadow/Rouge

Writer: Caleb Goellner (writer of the Team Sonic Racing one-shot, the 2019 Annual story Jet Set Tornado, and the 2020 Annual story Reflections)

Artist: Abby Bulmer (regular cover artist, as well as artist of the 2020 Annual story The Catalyst and the 2022 Annual story Hero Camp. Notably way back in the day was the artist of the very first StC-O story, and her time on 2000 AD often involved her serving as a colorist for Richard Elson, one of the main StC artists.)

Colors: Heather Breckel (IDW MLP's main colorist, who's been a recurring secondary colorist throughout IDW Sonic's run, often filling in for other colorists)

Part 7 (pages 37-40): The Warp Topaz Cave

Same team (Flynn/Thomas/Pinto) as part 1

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tailschannel · 1 year

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"Surge the Tenrec is a walking disaster, but she’s our walking disaster."

With only one more issue to go, the “Overcharged” arc is drawing to a close.

By way of summary, most of this arc has featured the new antagonist Surge getting into fights and then losing them.

Using a piece of stolen Eggman tech called the Dynamo Cage, Surge has been supercharging her powers to put herself on equal footing (power-wise) with other Sonic characters—and then losing whatever fights she has with them.

Given everything that has happened so far, the name “Overcompensated” may be better suited for the story.

Read more in our issue 55 roundup by guest contributor Ringpenz:

#idw sonic #idw sonic the hedgehog #sonic the hedgehog #sonic #idw publishing

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egg-emperor · 1 year

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So, some of the people that judged you badly actually posted some form of similar Eggman content. Sounds like they only want to have the right about it I don't know how to explain this. Like it"s ok for them because they may see theirself as righteous or morally good I don't know so if it's from them it's ok no worries it's all love and peace but if it's from you or someone else it's not because you and others wrote something they don't like and that makes you the 'bad' guys and since they are the good ones they have to stop you regardless of the methods used because hey, they are the good ones they can't be wrong even if they truly did fcked up stuff to you right? Seriously, what the hell?

That sh"t is scary and you're actually right for calling out their behaviour, especially for all the things they did to you and spreading false things so others sided with them, making things worse than what they already were.

Who started that I don't know but no wonder they are full bullies and more.

Yeah it's just hypocrisy. Because while failing to tag something correctly is an issue like I have but always make sure to fix, some act like all my darker creations are wrong for me to make at all, despite having themes just as dark in their works.

I'll respect privacy but a few years ago there was an AU focused Sonic imprisoned in Forces and the tortuous abuse from Eggman. I was interested as someone who explores the concept too. But people tried to call this out and accuse the creators of all kinds of horrible things, just like what happened to me.

One main contributor is with the group that take issue with me and blocked me because of my take on Eggdad and possibly my staregg/eggline concept too. The other person I mentioned who is also involved with them, also blocked me after I interacted with their post where Metal bloodied up Sonic, which is ironic.

And another person in the circle drew "problematic content" years ago that I won't detail but some tried to bring it back and make accusations too. Like me, they even said they didn't like when people caused drama behind their back but proceeded to do the same as they contributed to the spread of the worst accusations I've gotten.

In both times people in that circle were called out, I defended their right to create/how it doesn't represent them as a person. They're not obligated to defend me but all I wanna know is if they can depict an actual 15 year old being abused or attacked with gore, why am I a bad guy for writing ageless AI Sage being manipulated by Eggman and a darker staregg/eggline concept?

The more I reflect on how hypocritical it is, the better I feel. Because I feel like some may only be taking issue with what I create as a reason to hate on me for other things about me that they don't like, or they're just against me because others say they should be and they want to avoid drama like before happening to them again.

A lot of them also seem to express moral righteousness too, so it's confusing and a bit concerning that they're okay with some things but not with others, and punish the others even if what they're okay with can be on the same level as or even worse. I just wish they hadn't fallen into this purity and call out culture and reflect on how we've actually been in the same boat.

And it's very sad for me not just for the horrible things I've been accused of but also because of how I looked up to these creators. Now I can't look at certain art on my blog I reblogged or the IDW cover without sadness and anxiety remembering what they did that hurt me.

But at least now I know to just stay in my little corner doing my own thing because these fandom cliques aren't worth the time when stuff like this happens lol

#asks #rant

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iasminomarata · 2 years

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Do you work for sega or something because all your drawings look like you do

i don’t work for sega, but it’s a huge compliment to hear that my art seems that way! (and maybe one day -- that would be pretty cool!) thank you very much ✨

(update: as of 12/13/2023, Sonic Winter Jam released, which i wrote, and i also illustrated the R-10 cover for it! so i don't work for sega necessarily, but i am now an IDW Sonic contributor 🎵 here's hoping i get to do more!)

#asks #askbox #cristianstuff

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samanddeaninpanties · 2 years

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FTH 2022

An assortment of contributors using f/f (full list) or poly (full list) specialty tags

@fandomtrumpshate says: we have over 800 auctions offered by over 600 unique creators this year, in 400 fandoms. (yes, literally 400!) With that volume of offers out there, it's pretty easy for smaller things to get overwhelmed.

I decided to browse through a couple of my favorite specialty tags and highlight some folks (22 people to be exact, although there’s far more than this in the tags so please do check out the full list for each)! I’m gonna put asterisks next to people I personally know and can vouch for, if that’s something you care about. (My heart is so damn full about that, btw, that I get to participate in this awesome event with some people I adore.)

Some contributors are have multiple offerings/are technically in more than one category but for simplicities sake I only mention them in one.

Artists

Megadee is offering fanart and up to an M rating for Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda, and Lucifer. Check out their works on tumblr.

Mshmaek is offering fanart up to an E rating for Yu Yu Hakusho. Check out their works on google drive.

Sadiered is offering fanart for ANY fandom up to an M rating. Check out their works on insta.

Secretartlair is offering fanart for ANY fandom up to an M rating. Check out their works on tumblr and insta.

Skelligiri is offering fanart for Good Omens, Undertale / Delta Rune, and Sonic the Hedgehog up to an M rating. Check out their works on deviantart.

Tea is offering fanart for ANY fandom up to an M rating. Check out their works on tumblr.

Trickzill is offering fanart up to an M rating for Gundam Wing, Attack on titan, Haikyuu!!!. Check out their works on insta.

Fan Labor

**Tapnbluesnlindyhopdancer is offering Betaing, Specialist Expertise, and Sensitivity picking for ANY fandom up to an E rating. Check out their fics on AO3 and reach out to them on Tumblr ( @tapnbluesnlindyhopdancer ) if you have any questions. One of my favorite brainstorming buddies, Lindy is an absolute go-to for kinky ideas. You’ll be in good hands, especially if you dabble in darker territory or like niche kinks.

Writers

Aadmelioraa is offering less than 5k words and up to an E rating for The Last Kingdom. Check out their fics on AO3.

**Alwaysthrowsscissors is offering less than 5k words and up to an E rating for Supernatural, and Gilmore Girls. Check out their fics on AO3 and reach out to them on Tumblr ( @alwaysthrowsscissors ) if you have any questions. An absolute must for the Wincest obsessed, Scissors will give you the horny pwp you crave. I have the gift fics to prove it.

EikaPrime is offering less than 5k words and up to a T rating for Splatoon, Hunger Games, and Original Work. Check out their fics on AO3.

Land-Locked_Martian is offering a variety of lengths and up to an E rating for Transformers Prime G1 IDW and Animated. Check out their fics on AO3.

Leithlovesyou is offering 5-10k words and up to a T rating for Critical Role, Dungeons & Dragons, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Check out their fics on AO3.

Liana-Medea is offering less than 5k words and up to an M rating for Teen Wolf, Hannibal, and Star Wars: Original Trilogy, Prequel Trilogy, Sequel Trilogy, Rogue One. Check out their fics on AO3.

Lollercakes is offering a variety of lengths and up to an E rating for Hunger Games, Star Wars: Rogue One, Anne with an E / Anne of Green Gables. Check out their fics on AO3.

Mirjam is offering less than 5k words and up to an E rating for Good Omens. Check out their fics on AO3.

Molly (itsthemxze) is offering less than 5k words and up to an E rating for Red White and Royal Blue, Teen Wolf, The Maze Runner. Check out their fics on AO3.

Mouseymightymarvellous is offering 5-10k words and up to an M rating for Naruto, Harry Potter: Original Series, MCU: All MCU Movies, All Netflix Defenders. Check out their fics on AO3.

Renquise is offering less than 5k words and up to an E rating for Critical Role. Check out their fics on AO3.

Sarai is offering less than 5k words and up to an E rating for Six of Crows Duology, The Old Guard, and Nikolai Duology. Check out their fics on AO3.

Themuller is offering 10-20k words and up to an E rating for James Bond, London Spy, 00QAD - London Spy/James Bond crossover. Check out their fics on AO3.

**WhoopsOK is offering 5-10k words and up to an E rating for The Witcher, 9–1–1, and Supernatural. Check out their fics on AO3 and reach out to them on Tumblr ( @ohwhoopsok )if you have any questions. @oddsocksandstuff and I worked with them last year and it was such a safe and joyful experience. Plus, the end result was fucking breathtaking. Highly recommend.

#fth 2022 #fandom trumps hate #fandom trumps hate 2022 #signal boost #you've still got time to place bids on some awesome people!!!!

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aquillis-main · 4 years

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To the Anon that tried to get me to post another contributor’s Yardley-encouraging to make people harass the guy -- First of all, how dare you. I do not want to send people off to attack/shame others for their behaviour. I’d rather let them know -- calmly, I might add -- that their behaviour is unprofessional and would prefer if they stopped encouraging bad behaviour, especially the chidlish antics of someone who works for a company like SEGA. Second, you also tried to get me to send hate to someone who was not part of IDW in the first place. I couldn’t care less who was the ringleader/cheerleaders of Yardley horrifically editing a Sonic Channel wallpaper, let alone someone who works on the fan-continuation of Sonic the Comic. That’s not fair to that person, and they wouldn’t know where the hate was coming from regardless of how people were telling them.

Don’t ever do this shit again.

#Aquillis Rants #Shady Guy #Opinion

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egalitarian-tomboy · 4 years

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Fans of Sonic: May I present my Ted Talk focused on the Comics

Archie =/= IDW Comics.

I feel like a lot of Archie fans are still bitter about the cancellation of their favorite series even after the nail was put into the coffin 3 years ago. Since that ask got me into a ranty mood, I figured it was only appropriate to delve into the big clusterfuck storm that was the Sonic The Hedgehog Archie Comics.

The comic series was published on November 22nd, 1993 by Archie Comics 4 months after DiC Entertainment’s “Sonic The Hedgehog” animated series started airing on ABC. Unfortunately, ABC would cancel the series prematurely at 2 seasons even though it was originally intended for a 3 season run. Leaving the fans of the animated series to rely on the comic books for answers regarding what would’ve happened if they’d gotten their final season.

The Archie series had an impressive overall run of #290 issues spanning across 24 years of publication. However, the true cancer was seeded after one of the main contributors of the comics took Archie and SEGA into a fierce legal battle.

Ken Penders vs. Archie & SEGA lasted from 2010 to 2012 after both companies failed to challenge his copyright filing to the U.S. Copyright Office in April of the same year. All parties settled outside of court which resulted in the continuity change in the comics with the Second Genesis Wave arc. This arc effectively removed many of Ken Penders’ now copyrighted characters and characters other contributors were also planning on copyrighting themselves.This arc would steer the longtime 1993 animated series focused comic into becoming more reliant on the game universe instead. A list of mandates were given by SEGA to Archie Comics about what they could and couldn’t do in their comic series after the lawsuit was settled. The Archie series would continue publication for a few more years until Archie cancelled all planned issues for Sonic in 2017 in 2016.

SEGA of America confirmed on July 19th, 2017 that they were terminating their comic book publishing program with Archie Comics on their twitter account. In that statement they confirmed to the fans they were planning to “...take a different direction for the series that will be announced at a later date.”

On July 21st, SEGA and IDW announced they would be collaborating together to bring a whole new era of Sonic comic books. The first issue was published on April 4th, 2018 and has continued to be one of the highest selling comic series on the market today.

So why is the IDW series performing much better than the Archie series even though they were going strong for 24 years? There’s 2 reasons.

1. The new IDW series is reliant on game lore and ONLY game lore. At the time of writing this in January, 2020 there has been no sign of the freedom fighters making their comeback in this new era of sonic comics. However that isn’t to say that SEGA might not allow IDW to include them later on. But I don’t think it’ll happen. Especially if they planned on taking this series into a new direction away from what Archie was doing. Now that the comic is being rooted firmly in game lore and game canon history, sonic fans have a comic book that any fan at any age can appreciate since it draws from ALL of the games that have been currently published by SEGA.

2. SEGA is Collaborating this time instead of partnering. What’s the difference? I hear you asking. Well there’s a big difference: In a partnership, you’re working in a legal contract where you’re associated in a joint business. These associations can range from inactive to proactive involvement from either party. In the case of Archie and SEGA, SEGA allowed Archie to have their way for a good portion of their publication partnership. Only giving them rules to obey in terms of what they did with their characters and what was off the table. But that loose freedom came to an end after the Penders fuck up. Archie lost SEGA’s built up trust by not providing the legal proof they needed in order to toss Penders’ copyright out the window so they could reclaim the characters he took. Which lead to SEGA getting stricter in how their property was used by their company.

In a collaboration however, you’re actively involved in the production of a product with the other party. Making it equally theirs AND yours. SEGA collaborating with IDW in this new era of Sonic makes them more appealing to Sonic fans who’ve grown more familiar with the games instead of the 1993 animated series. It’s this recognition that gives the comic a timeless appeal to them as well. Since anyone who has played a sonic game can recognize the technology they use in the comic from games like Sonic Riders Zero Gravity and Sonic Forces. They get references to Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. But Archie? Unless you read the series from the very beginning and you’ve watched the Sonic The Hedgehog 1993 series, you don’t care about characters like Sally Acorn and Bunnie.

When you lose a series you grew up on, I know how hard it is to admit it’s gone. How there’ll never be a continuation of the series that once brought you joy after school or after a very long day at work. It sucks. But the lengths some people have gone to in order to shit on the new IDW series gives me a headache.

No it’s not a video game. But that doesn’t mean that SEGA doesn’t have anything to do with the series. They’re just as active as the main staff. America has had their way with SEGA’s characters a bit too long and the main in Japan has had enough. The last straw was the Penders lawsuit and they’ve had to step in more than once to clarify with fans when things were in and not in character in other projects like when Sonic pushed Amy away by shoving her face.

I don’t get how people can get angry at SEGA for stopping writers from doing something that is OOC for the sake of doing something “cool” when their whole termination of Archie started because writers and artists were doing something for the sake of doing something “cool”. SEGA knows their characters better than anyone else because they’re the ones who fucking made them to begin with. You might be huge fans of those characters, but you aren’t the one who created those characters.

If you want to point fingers at someone for destroying what you thought was a perfect series, point them at Ken Penders for dragging the whole series down with him when he filed a copyright on all his contributions to the sonic extended lore. Hate him for making Archie & SEGA remove ALL of his characters from the old series because he wanted royalties. But don’t throw that anger onto the IDW series that is doing it’s own thing that is more relatable to the video games than the old 1993 animated series.

But at the end of the day: This is just a franchise about a blue hedgehog and his friends fighting a evil scientist who wants to control the world. You can buy all the old Archie comics in collected editions via Half-Price Books or Amazon. Or you can stick to the IDW series if you want something more game focused and SEGA involved.

Do whatever floats your boat.

Just remember:

Sonic The Hedgehog 1993′s Sally Acorn was not created by SEGA, she was created by DiC Entertainment.

The Archie series is not focused on the game lore and is focused on the 1993 series primarily. Which was not a series that SEGA produced.

Archie comics does not have a say in any future SEGA products regarding Sonic which means their Archie exclusive characters will probably not appear in the IDW series.

If you want to hate someone then you should hate Ken Penders.

#Sonic #Sonic The Hedgehog #Sonic The Hedgehog IDW #Sonic The Hedgehog Archie #Archie Sonic #IDW Sonic #SEGA #SEGA of Japan #Long Post #Sonic Fandom #Archie vs IDW #Fandom Ted Talk

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pixelgrotto · 7 years

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RIP Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog comic (1992-2017) After 25 years and nearly 300 issues, Archie’s long-running Sonic the Hedgehog comic was officially cancelled earlier this week. The writing’s been on the wall for a while now, since the comic went on a forced hiatus several months ago and none of the creators were allowed to publicly discuss it due to ongoing negotiations between Archie and Sega. But this Thursday, the book’s final fate was declared, and it looks like the Freedom Fighters - who once announced that they could handle anything - couldn’t quite beat the threat of cancellation. A lot of people dunk on the Archie Sonic comic for being overly convoluted, going through some pretty low points or appealing primarily to furries, and all of these things are kinda true, except for maybe the furry one. But warts and all, Archie Sonic is a glorious beast of monstrously complex proportions. First of all, let the fact that Sonic holds the record for having the longest-running North American comic for a licensed character sink in. Seriously, this series ran from 1992 to 2017 and nearly reached 300 freaking issues. In a time when most comics from Marvel and DC can barely reach double digits before either being renumbered to generate a temporary boost in sales or flat-out cancelled, Sonic the Hedgehog kept chugging along, stealthily reinventing itself from its original status as a slapdash funny book to an ongoing saga that manifested lore so deep that it warranted the release of an entire encyclopedia to help people keep everything straight.

What’s even more interesting is that Archie Sonic became the one place where you could still see characters carried over from the DiC Saturday morning Sonic cartoon show, which was produced in 1993. The show, affectionately dubbed SatAM by everyone who watched it back in the day, frankly doesn’t hold up that well and is a good example of nostalgia goggles at work. It had an incredible theme song, though (SONIC! HE CAN REALLY MOVE! SONIC! HE’S GOT AN ATTITUDE! SONIC! HE’S THE FAAAASTEST THING ALIVE), and the show did do an admirable job of developing a backstory for a mascot who, at the time, had no characterization other than the fact that he was fast and collected rings. SatAM fixed this by putting Sonic in the surprisingly dark world of Mobius, a place ruled by Dr. Robotnik, a dictator who had “roboticized” the population by turning them into droids. It also gave the hedgepig a variety of characters to play off of, like Princess Sally, Antoine the cowardly French fox, Bunnie the half-roboticized rabbit and Rotor the walrus. Along with Tails, this lot was collectively referred to as the Knothole Freedom Fighters. Archie Sonic got its start telling stories with the Freedom Fighters while they were still on air, and even after the show was cancelled, the comic continued using them, essentially turning itself into season three of the cartoon. As the decades passed, the SatAM characters and story threads evolved and changed in wondrously unexpected ways - Sonic and Sally fell in love, the original Dr. Robotnik was killed and replaced with a robotic version of himself from an alternate dimension, Bunnie and Antoine got married and Mobius was revealed to be a future version of Earth that was attacked by the Xorda, aliens who had unleashed gene bombs on the planet, mutating the wildlife into anthropomorphic animals. (This was my goddamn favorite batshit crazy bit of Sonic comic lore ever.) Furthermore, the comic increasingly began introducing more elements from the actual Sonic video games, which had finally developed deeper stories of their own thanks to the advancement of technology. So you had stuff like Sonic and the Freedom Fighters teaming up to fight Perfect Chaos and meeting Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat. It was an unusual, unique combination of Western and Eastern concepts melding together in one pictorial arena, and it made Archie Sonic feel special.

Speaking of the games, the book was also special because it damn well carried Sonic’s presence in North America during the years when the blue guy wasn’t starring in many video games (the Sega Saturn era) and couldn’t star in any decent video games (the Sonic ‘06 era). Even when Sega was releasing shovelware that damaged the brand, Archie Sonic kept pumping out issues, and its sheer determination to keep going won it legions of dedicated fans. Many of these people, including myself, got stuck on the comic at a young age and stayed long-term. I personally started picking up issues in 1994 or 1995, so basically only three or so years after the book was out. I think I was seven years old. A few years later, I got a subscription and had the comic delivered to my mailbox every month. (I still remember my first issue - it was number 41, when Sonic, Sally and that douchebag skunk Geoffrey St. John went to the Zone of Silence to rescue King Acorn.) The subscription continued until I was in college, and only ended around my junior year, when I forgot to renew it because I was too busy applying to go abroad after graduation.

In short, I subscribed to a periodical about a damn blue hedgehog for a large majority of my life. Even when I stopped regularly reading around issue 180, I always kept abreast of the book’s developments (like that crossover with MEGAMAN!) and told myself that I’d eventually catch up on the stories I missed, likely in the excellent Sonic Select and Sonic Archives trade paperbacks that Archie was publishing. And there were tons of others like me. The Archie Sonic community is such a vibrant one, filled with 90s kids who grew up on this book and even older folks like the crazy Dan Drazen, a 60-something librarian who wrote the most detailed (and overly picky) online reviews of every issue. Many of these fans went on to work for the comic at one point or another, like the incredible Dawn Best and fan favorite Ian Flynn, who swooped in as a writer in the late 2000s and saved the book when it was suffering from a spell of plodding stories. For a lot of us, Archie Sonic was the preferred Sonic canon, and we got pissed when Sega pulled awful jump the shark moments outta their butts - like having Sonic hook up with human princesses in his broken 2006 game - when there was a wealth of solid lore in this weird little comic coming out in America that they always seemed content to ignore.

In fact, the only time Sega really paid close attention to the book was when Ken Penders launched a lawsuit against it, which may have been a contributor to its eventual cancellation. People better than me have already scripted lengthy writeups about Mr. Penders, and I encourage you to read this extremely in-depth take on the whole fiasco, which is a bizarre tale of copyright arguments and delusions of grandeur worthy of any John Grisham novel. But in a nutshell, Ken was a former writer who helped guide Archie Sonic away from simple gag strips and into the realm of full-on adventure tales. His control over the book was major until he was fired, and a few years later, he went on a vehement quest to prove that he owned all characters he had created while working for Archie, including series mainstays like Julie-Su, Knuckles the Echidna’s girlfriend. He ended up suing Archie multiple times and won on legal loopholes, which prompted him to start attacking the book’s current team while declaring that a buttload of barely-related story concepts were his. He also tried suing Sega when Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood came out, claiming that the enemies in the game were too similar to ones he had whipped up. Archie eventually had to come up with a plot device to kill off (trap in another dimension, really) all of the characters he had created during his tenure, and eventually they instituted a full reboot to wipe continuity clean and remove all traces of the lawsuit from history. Unfortunately, the legal issues did some pretty heavy damage to Archie’s relationship with Sega, who were reportedly pissed that the American comic company had let things get so screwed up. And I don’t blame them. To the Sonic fan community, Ken Penders is largely loathed as a megalomaniac who sabotaged a long-running comic for personal gain. But he doesn’t deserve all of the blame, and he did put out some good stories in the day before going bonkers. Archie’s also at fault, both due to their not-so-great freelancer deals as well as their incompetence at handling lawsuits. (At one point the company even fired their entire legal team and hired new attorneys, yeesh.) In recent years, Archie also seems to be terrible at handling their finances, even though they’re currently spearheading Riverdale, a successful show on the CW that’s made all of their high school characters into hot, emo Millennials. (I call it the “Archie Sex Show” in my head.) I’ve heard rumors that company management wants to streamline their output to ONLY focus on Riverdale-related stuff, and seeing as how the Ken Penders business was a tremendous waste of time that ripped some large holes in their relationship with Sega, it only makes sense that both companies would decide to part ways. So where do we go from here? Well, it was suddenly announced today that IDW Publishing would be the ones picking up the Sonic license for a relaunch of the book in 2018. IDW’s a fit place for Sonic, since they currently publish the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…which Archie once owned the license for. (Funny how these things go in circles, eh?) Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the current arc that was going on in the Archie books - a charming retelling of the Sonic CD story - is going to go unfinished, and I’m also fearful that we’ll be saying goodbye to the DiC Freedom Fighters. I’d LOVE to be proven wrong, and it would warm my heart to see Princess Sally, Bunnie Rabbot, Antoine, Rotor and Nicole survive a change in publishers. But since Sega’s never “officially” acknowledged those characters in a game (except for Sonic Spinball, which was made by an American studio and doesn’t really count) they’re likely going to be classified as expendable cannon fodder that are no longer relevant. There is some hope, though. Perhaps a miracle will occur and IDW will have the good sense to re-hire guys like Ian Flynn or maintain some semblance of the continuity that an entire generation knows and loves. Until the day we know for sure arrives, I’ll just have to re-read my old issues, revel in the glory of covers drawn by SPAZ, laugh at insane crossovers like the time Sonic met Spawn, and remember an era when a hedgehog with attitude and his Knothole friends kicked Dr. Robotnik’s butt and brought me twenty plus years of wonderful adventures. For Mobius! For freedom!

The header image of the Archie Sonic cast was drawn by darkspeeds and found on Deviantart. The cover images are just a few of my favorites from the days when I was subscribed to the book, and were taken from Comic Vine and Cover Browser.

#pixel grotto #musings #video games #sonic the hedgehog #sonic #archie #archie sonic

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onedegreeofsoniccomics · 11 months

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Steven Universe Fusion Frenzy: Covers A & B Combined

Art: Nathalie Fourdraine

#Boom Studios #KaBoom Studios #Steven Universe #Opal SU #Sugilite SU #Garnet SU #Stevonnie #Smoky Quartz SU #Pearl SU #Ruby SU #Sapphire SU #Amethyst SU #Connie Maheswaran #Crystal Gems #Nathalie Fourdraine #2019 #IDW Sonic Contributors

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thankskenpenders · 2 years

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Since this is an Archie Sonic blog, it's probably worth mentioning that, unfortunately, Archie is getting into NFTs

This particular bad idea is more than just a series of PNGs (or links pointing to said PNGs, yes we've all seen Line Goes Up). Oh, it's much worse. The article linked in the tweet above claims that the funny libertarian Pogs based on the Archie Horror imprint will "let holders contribute character details and storylines that could potentially be used in future comic books." In other words: holders will be invited to a Discord group, and they'll be able to make up headcanons about their shitty little Archie OCs from their NFTs, which Archie's writers can choose to add to the canon of whatever Archie Horror comic this ties into. They also might get to vote on story stuff or something, as they want to "keep it very, very democratic" so that "everyone gets to have their voice heard"

If projects like the Red Ape Family Show or the Cryptoland pitch video are any indication, then I'm sure letting a bunch of crypto assholes steer the creative direction of a piece of media can never go wrong

It's also worth noting that there's no mention of these community contributors being compensated for their ideas making it to print, which could very well mean they would be paying Archie for the privilege of giving them creative ideas. The future of entertainment, indeed!!! (EDIT: Okay so the official site for this bullshit says that there will be "credit and royalties for selected artists," but if you toss out a bunch of ideas in the Discord and don't get picked? It's just fucking spec work.)

You know, honestly, maybe we ARE lucky that Archie lost the Sonic license. Jesus fucking Christ. Not that Sega's looking much better since they're also thinking about getting into NFTs right now. But at least IDW isn't. What a shitshow

#tkp post

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onedegreeofsoniccomics · 11 months

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