The creative team of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Universe have been gracious enough to grant us a three part interview about their upcoming adaption of the Sonic Colors game. The adaption will be included as the backstory of Sonic the Hedgehog #219, which releases later this month. First up is the comic’s Editor, Paul Kaminski! Enjoy.

TSS: Hello Mr. Kaminski, thank you for taking thetime to answera few questions for us!

PK: My pleasure!

TSS: Did SEGA approach you with the idea of a SonicColorsadaption story?

PK: After the game announcement back in May, weapproached SEGAto see if they would be interested in working out a “SonicColors” story thesame way we worked the past few game adaptation back-ups. SEGAseemed asenthused about the idea as we were and shortly after the exchangethe detailswere ironed out and Ian was hard at work on draft one of thescript!

TSS: As I understand it, the comics are meant tohelp advertisethe games in the series. Why does SEGA ask you to only doadaptions for afraction of the Sonic games released every year?

PK: Whether games get adaptations or not, at leastin myexperience, is less of a strict mandate and more a matter ofpracticality/availability.Our primary goal, besides trying to tell a good story, is to helppromote theSonic  franchise as awhole, and I think we do a pretty good job of doingjust that.

TSS: Do you have any idea what it is about the SonicColors gamethat separates it from the other games that haven’t been adapted,in particularSonic 4 and the upcoming Sonic Free Riders?

PK: A comic adaptation of ‘Sonic Colors’ justmakes sense. Thegame has fantastically stunning visuals, plus new characters likethe Wispsthat lend themselves to the types of storytelling we seek toachieve monthafter month with the Sonic comics. As for the other Sonic gamereleases thisyear, you may in fact see adaptations of these games, just not inthetraditional “another time, another place” style.

TSS: SEGA has a reputation for keeping actual gamematerial veryclose to its chest when it comes to game adaptions in the comics.What sorts ofmaterials did SEGA lend you to allow you to do a proper adaptionfor this game?

PK: We had access to a pretty awesome collection ofmaterialsand imagery from the game to make the adaptation as faithful tothe sourcematerial as possible.

TSS: How much lead time did you have with thisadaption comparedto typical Archie stories? Has it significantly altered plans forcomic’s nearfuture stories?

PK: The game adaptation stories require a littleextra lead timebecause of the sensitive game materials and more meticulous roundsofapprovals. The first conversation about doing the adaptation wasback in May sothat’ll give you a rough idea of how long the process took. As foralteringplans, it hasn’t really. Ian wound up having to cut “Welcome backChao” down toa one-parter but that was pretty much it. Other back-up storiesgot shifted aroundtoo to make sure the game story came out at around the same timeas the game’srelease.

TSS: What sorts of behind the scenes work have youdone for thisstory in particular?

PK: Just a lot of coordinating with SEGA contacts,freelancersand media types to make the thing come together-  whichsounds boring but is in fact a lot ofhard work! I LOVE to get creative with the books and contribute asmuch as Ican, but this story is SEGA’s baby and we’re just here to help theteam!

TSS: Are the wisps and other Sonic Colors charactersoff limitsfor the in canon stories in the same way Eggman Nega is, or willyou be able toinclude these characters on your whim?

PK: Well I can’t speak for SEGA, but the only folksI’ve everdealt with over there are wonderfully creative cats that are justas interestedin telling a good story as we are. I would guess that if there wasa story thatdemanded we include the Wisps down the line, they would be coolwith it.

TSS: Have you had a chance to play the game at anypoint? Maybeat NYCC?

PK: What is this…”leaving the Archie booth” youspeak of?

TSS: Thank you for your time Mr. Kaminski

PK: Anytime!

Tomorrow, we’ll be interviewing Ian Flynn, and after that, artist Tracy Yardley, complete with exclusive concept art straight from the story!