Ian Flynn not the head writer anymore?

[Borvoc]

So, I was just listening to one of the recent Bumblekast episodes in which Ian responded to a question about Surge's future character arcs by stating that he'd prefer that she didn't get a redemption arc anytime soon but that it's ultimately out of his hands at the moment since he's no longer the lead writer for the comic, so her actual characterization would be in the hands of Evan Stanley for the foreseeable future.

Whew. Okay, long sentence aside, this was definitely news to me, though I admittedly don't listen to the Bumblekast or follow Ian on X religiously, so I was wondering what you all think. Does anyone know what the circumstances were for this change in writership of the comic? Has Ian just been too focused on personal projects to contribute to the Sonic comic at the moment, or is IDW just pulling another cost-saving effort like they did during the lockdowns, focusing on writer-artists for a while so the don't have to pay a writer and artist separately for the moment? Just as importantly, how do people think this hopefully temporary departure of Ian from the Sonic comic will affect its quality and trajectory?

Sorry if this has already been discussed on these forums. I don't lurk here all that much these days, but I didn't see anything about this topic in a quick perusing I did while looking for answers. 

[Blueknight V2.0]

From my understanding, Ian's taking a short break to focus on the Fang series of comics this year. After that, I believe he'll be back to the main series.

[Lorekitten]

I don't follow the BumbleKast either, but I wouldn't be surprised if Flynn's work on other Sonic projects like the games and Sonic Prime have cut into his time working on the comics. Which isn't a bad thing; I'm happy to see that he's achieved every fan writer's dream.

As for Surge getting a redemption arc, personally I'd rather see her as the villain for a good while longer because I know from personal experience how it feels to have my favorite villain buried under a thousand tons of concrete dangit Flynn stop brutally murdering my favorite characters. *coughs* I mean, I don't want to see Surge give up her villain shtick anytime soon. She's such an interesting character to explore and I feel like it just isn't the right time to resolve her central mystery yet.

[Borvoc]

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From my understanding, Ian's taking a short break to focus on the Fang series of comics this year. After that, I believe he'll be back to the main series.

Ah, okay. That makes sense.

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As for Surge getting a redemption arc, personally I'd rather see her as the villain for a good while longer because I know from personal experience how it feels to have my favorite villain buried under a thousand tons of concrete dangit Flynn stop brutally murdering my favorite characters. *coughs* I mean, I don't want to see Surge give up her villain shtick anytime soon. She's such an interesting character to explore and I feel like it just isn't the right time to resolve her central mystery yet.

Yeah, I'd like to see Starline return as well. I'm not as big a fan of Surge and Kit, but I'm glad that people are enjoying them too.

It'll certainly be interesting to see where Evan takes the comic on her own for a while and what Ian is able to do with the Fang mini (though I'm also not as big of a fan of "Classic" Sonic or the whole bifurcation of the franchise to begin with.

[Lorekitten]

1 minute ago, Borvoc said:

Yeah, I'd like to see Starline return as well.

I've said this before but I'll say it here: if Ian Flynn was told to bring Starline back, probably the best way to do it is to retcon that he injected himself with the same Metal Virus derived cells that he gave Surge to allow her to heal really fast. That wouldn't really help the trauma from being humiliatingly defeated and then crushed under a collapsing roadway, so Starline would never be the same after that, but I can definitely see him going into hiding afterward while trying to figure out a new plan and dealing with his own newfound self-loathing. Which would be an incredible character arc to explore, given how prideful he was before and how he's finally realized that no plan survives contact with the enemy.

I'm sure Surge and Kit would find the irony of Starline's trauma deeply cathartic.

At any rate, as much as Ian Flynn's made claims of 'dead is dead,' he's not always consistent with it; this is the same guy who violated the Chunky Salsa rule on Lien-Da for some reason. (Seriously, she was literally blown to pieces. You don't just come back from that.)

[MetalSkulkBane]

I do follow BK and Flynn wasn't the main writer since Metal Virus ended in 32. Technically Evan was "in charge", although I suspect it was closer to an equal partnership.

Why this happened? Mainly IDW decided that if Flynn dies in a car crash or something, it would be nice to have plan B. So they experiment with other writers, like all those specials or Scrapnik Island. Also (this is just a speculation) Flynn is responsible for Tails Tube or Cooking Book, Frontiers, etc. Overall he gets busy with other Sonic projects, so maybe it's safer for IDW to not make him main writer.

How do I feel about it? Mixed. I do feel the need to break his "monopoly" on the comic and I did ask for someone new in the past. But while Stanley has her unique strengths, I still feel Flynn is a superior writer to her, let alone most guest writers (but I want to see Daniel Barnes again as the writer, Scrapnik was great).

[Lorekitten]

8 minutes ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

I do follow BK and Flynn wasn't the main writer since Metal Virus ended in 32. Technically Evan was "in charge", although I suspect it was closer to an equal partnership.

So... you're saying that Starline's death wasn't entirely Ian Flynn's fault? I should probably apologize...

(I mean, don't get me wrong, Starline deserved what he got and worse, but I'm still kinda miffed that he's gone.)

Edited January 1 by Lorekitten

[Wraith]

Ian started writing more "official" Sonic content around the time Zombots ended. He's written the last two games and it doesn't seem like he's going to stop any time soon. Evan took over as head writer because Ian had his hands full with official material.

[Lorekitten]

1 minute ago, Wraith said:

Ian started writing more "official" Sonic content around the time Zombots ended. He's written the last two games and it doesn't seem like he's going to stop any time soon. Evan took over as head writer because Ian had his hands full with official material.

If I understand correctly, both IDW and Sonic Prime are currently counted as part of the "official" Sonic universe, thus the appearance of IDW and Prime characters in mobile games. Sadly this does not mean that we got any Shatterspace versions of IDW characters in Prime, but to be fair a show can only handle having so many characters in it at once and every character that gets Shatterspace variants counts as four separate characters counting their 'prime' version, and that's a lot.

Well, Eggman somehow got an entire Chaos Council full of variants, which I have no idea how that even works when you count how many actual Shatterspaces there are, but still.

[Wraith]

3 minutes ago, Lorekitten said:

If I understand correctly, both IDW and Sonic Prime are currently counted as part of the "official" Sonic universe, thus the appearance of IDW and Prime characters in mobile games. Sadly this does not mean that we got any Shatterspace versions of IDW characters in Prime, but to be fair a show can only handle having so many characters in it at once and every character that gets Shatterspace variants counts as four separate characters counting their 'prime' version, and that's a lot.

Well, Eggman somehow got an entire Chaos Council full of variants, which I have no idea how that even works when you count how many actual Shatterspaces there are, but still.

Thats why I put "official" in quotes. I get that it's all part of the same universe at this point I just think there's still a degree of seperation between Sonic Team developed material and everything else.

[MetalSkulkBane]

10 minutes ago, Lorekitten said:

So... you're saying that Starline's death wasn't entirely Ian Flynn's fault? I should probably apologize...

(I mean, don't get me wrong, Starline deserved what he got and worse, but I'm still kinda miffed that he's gone.)

Actually, from what I got, it was Flynn's decision.

He talks about it here and here, here, and here. He mostly repeats same words though, watching the last link is enough (and maybe first too).

[Lorekitten]

30 minutes ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Actually, from what I got, it was Flynn's decision.

He talks about it here and here, here, and here. He mostly repeats same words though, watching the last link is enough (and maybe first too).

Listening to that last link... yeah. Starline bit off more than he could chew, and he suffered from it. (I'm surprised that when they rolled out the puns nobody trotted out 'flatypus.' Then again, I have a brain naturally min-maxed for wordplay...)

Edited January 1 by Lorekitten

[Ryannumber1gamer]

As far as I'm aware, it's not really that Ian is no longer a main writer, it's that Ian and Even alternate on what years they write the comic. Year 3 was mostly Evan, with exception to Zeti Hunt wrapping up the Zombat arc, then during Issue 50 and the following arcs, Ian was the main writer again (So roughly Imposter Syndrome to Eggperial City). Now, Evan has taken the reigns again, whilst Ian is doing the Fang arc. 

I doubt it's anything to do with Ian writing the games or anything. He's 'worked' on stuff like Prime, but his role to our knowledge is just ensuring lore connects up - and it's not like there's currently a big game in production he's working on right now. Most of his knowing smiles have been comic related with the likes of the Superstars tie-in and so on.

I just think this is how the IDW comic is proceeding at the moment, with a year being tackled by Ian and a year tackled by Evan, and we're just currently amidst Evan's second year.

[Lorekitten]

35 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

and it's not like there's currently a big game in production he's working on right now.

That we know of.

In all seriousness, we've already had enough major releases last year that I'm guessing anything they're cooking right now is in its earliest planning stages and nowhere near full-blown production yet.

[Mauro Fonseca]

On 1/1/2024 at 3:49 PM, Borvoc said:

is IDW just pulling another cost-saving effort like they did during the lockdowns, focusing on writer-artists for a while so the don't have to pay a writer and artist separately for the moment?

Not how it works. Jobs in a comic are paid by each step. A writer-artist isn’t cheaper than a separate writer and artist because the payment is for the script, then pencils, then inks, etc. whether these are all going to the same person or different people they’re paying the same.