Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[turbojet]

Yardley accidently drew Green Hill instead of Splash Hill..

I took this as a joke. Please tell me that it was a joke.

So they made a history of conflict between the Overlanders and animals. Funny enough, I would be expect to be openly hostile to only the Acorn kingdom. They deserve everything they get in animosity.

Edited April 27, 2012 by turbojet

[Your Vest Friend]

I took this as a joke. Please tell me that it was a joke.

So they made a history of conflict between the Overlanders and animals. Funny enough, I would be expect to be openly hostile to only the Acorn kingdom. They deserve everything they get in animosity.

The fact that the animals from the Southern Baronies conspire with the Overlanders against them seems to support that.

[Mangoaxe5]

Personally I prefer the 5-page non-canon game adaptations over the canon full story one's.

I really don't get why people want game adaptations. Odds are that you will have beaten the game before Archie finishes telling the adaptation.

Ian has said before that the five page tie-in stories are here to stay. Part of the reason why Archie does the tie-in's this way is because it's easier to get the stories approved by Sega. Also this way Archie doesn't have to worry about putting the main story on hold for a couple of months to tell the story of the newest Sonic game that's out.

[Badnik Zero]

So they made a history of conflict between the Overlanders and animals. Funny enough, I would be expect to be openly hostile to only the Acorn kingdom. They deserve everything they get in animosity.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Badnikz

[Komodin]

I really don't get why people want game adaptations. Odds are that you will have beaten the game before Archie finishes telling the adaptation.

[AdventChild]

Off-Topic: Is the bold font really necessary? Just askin'.

Well, he was making a bold statement. *Shot*

[Mangoaxe5]

Sorry I'm a fan of using bold font. On a lot of forums I use red color text, but it doesn't look good on this forum so I use the bold font.

If it's against the rules I'll stop.

[goku262002]

Oh geez, that sucks. You'd think for a 130-page magazine we'd get something a bit more substantial. I mean, I can kind of understand in the main comic due to space limitations, but still. We finally get some new, original content for the Super Specials and it's still five pages?

Edited April 28, 2012 by goku262002

[Your Vest Friend]

Has the Ask Ian audio been posted yet? Well I'm posting the Ask Ian audio now regardless (which I believe both Nuckles87 and Jason were involved in).

It's about three hours long, but it has some very interesting info in it, especially regarding future plans and things that were vetoed by SEGA.

Edited April 28, 2012 by VEDJ-F

[goku262002]

I really want to listen to that but I just can't seem to find 3 solid hours to sit and listen in peace. is there anyway we can get a bulletpoint list of some highlights from the interview?

[Your Vest Friend]

There's some on SEGA forums. I'll try to much it down into non-repetition.

They watch the Sonic Unleashed Professor Pickle mod.

They talk about 06 and about a video where Sonic was homing attack an Iblis creature and it turned into a box.

Issue 175: Was supposed to be the big scare where Eggman's empire takes off the kid gloves and nukes knothole. He purposefully left Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy as the only ones around so people could think "Oh my God, he's done it, he's killed the SatAm cast!" and nobody bought it. Instead they said "The four main heroes? Obviously they'll save the day." What he's doing now is supposed to make a better, longer, more believable version of the Heroes' downfall. Sega mandates that Sonic can't lose and they had to fight with them to get Sonic to have that major beat-down by Eggman.

30 Years Later: One of the guys says he's not a fan of them. Made me happy.

Eggman Nega: Sega has not allowed them to use Eggman Nega. Ian says it's him setting himself up for trouble.

Emeral: Ian says that if they brought him in it'd be just a set up for a story to just kill him. He really likes Battle's story for him and doesn't really wish to touch it.

E-102 Gamma: He fell into a plot hole and wanted to fix it. He also wanted Omega to have better motivation than "He locked me in the broom closet". I may not agree but I can understand it. I'd rather have a more unique and interesting character than "just another good guy" but whatever.

Favorite Villian: Dr. Finitevus. Al and Cal are Muppets with laser guns. Has a fun time with Naugus with that over-the-top-ness about him. Eggman is basically "the Joker".

Knuckles Arc: Original plan was to have a Knuckles arc per year for Universe. Didn't happen obviously. He really wants to tell a story with Knuckles on his mind and claims he'll bend over backwards if he has to.

Merlin Prower: Yep. That was another one. It was something to move forward in Universe but Sega put the kah-bosh on it.

Big the Cat: Ian loves Big the Cat. Hated him at first because he was so different but likes how bizarre and unique he is. The All-Stars Racing thing where they gave him a tiny little moped and how they played a "Where's Waldo" thing with him in Secret Rings.

Darkest Storm: The pitch was "resolve ALL the plot points left by Mr. Penders and whoever came before and do it in this number of issues". It was really compressed but thinks it was done well enough. Nobody notices for the first three pages of Mogul's reappearance is that he doesn't say a word, despite the fact that he talks all the time.

Hershey: No info on Hershey. Shelved for the in-definate future due to... some sort of problem.

Chaotix: Plans for them. Definitively!

Black Emerald: Brought back for a reason and made sure to tell us that it wasn't a Chaos Emerald.

Secret Freedom Fighters: Says he doesn't consider it another Silver arc at all. Silver just happens to be on the cover for promotional reasons so people don't see a cover full of random people they've never seen before and turn away.

The Council: Politics are boring. He sits back and says, "Wait a minute... this is a comic about the blue hedgehog slamming into the robots and fights the fat-man". Says he's gotta keep things simple and not dwell on it too much.

Shadow: Wants him to come back. His hands have been tied right now. Originally was supposed to be him fighting in SU 38. Than it went to Shadow and Omega. Than it went to just Omega. Sega requested they not use him for that issue.

On SonSal and SonAmy: Ya know what? Sonic's single. He can't get with Amy. Sega says so. He can't with Sally. Sega says so. He's not with anyone. Ever. Maybe, Big the Cat.

Battle Lord Kuku: ALL of it was Tracy's idea. Including that awesome part where we find out that the Battle Lord is super strong and can smash a mountain. Ian geeked out over everything that was in Tracy's notes and was finally able to read it as a fan rather than just an author. He loves that arc. (I like it too.)

Froggy and Cheese, Time Traveling Cops!: Dialogue writes itself (Chao, Chao! Ribbit, Ribbit!). Big is the Damsel in Distress. As a murder mystery, Tommy Turtle dies again.

Fan-Fics/Fan-Art: Avoids it like the plague. He avoids fan art because they tend to have fan characters and he avoids those because the last thing he needs is for someone to say "Ian stole my" whatever. He doesn't want to be accused of theft, legitamitely. He says the fanbase is full of ideas and he doesn't want to bounce off of any of them because it'd make him feel bad.

Guy brings up that he gets a lot of critisism and wants to know what his least unfair critisism: He says he reads a lot of critisism a lot of the time. He can't respond to it because it might turn into an argument, which he has no time for. He doesn't know if this is considered unfair but he says he did get tired of the comparisons to Other M in the Silver arc. Says the rebels in the arc were just there to be bodies that hit the floor. That they could've been taken out and replaced with ANYONE.

Proudest Story Arc: The Bunnie and Sonic story that introduced Bunnie's uncle or whoever AND the Tommy Turtle arc (I love that one).

Most Disappointing Arc: He does a Bark the Polar Bear impersonation and can't think of something immediate but than says Iron Dominion. It didn't get across what he wanted to exactly which was establishing the Iron Queen as well as Monkey Khan. He was glad that people actually got on board with the Sally and Khan pairing.

Most Valid Critisism: The Quick pace and the forgetting to dwell on certain aspects.

Fan Shipping: Says he doesn't like the whole shipping nonsense. Says he doesn't like the idea of a Team Fortress 2 situation with Team SonSal and Team SonAmy on either side.

If he could do a comic on another Sega product?: Skies of Arcadia.

Ian has beaten Tails Adventure and gotten all the endings of Shadow the Hedgehog. Has come in 4th place sitting on a couch, writing on a note-pad in Free Riders.

Least Favorite Sonic Game: Sonic 06. Says he's a fan of the first Riders. Loves Zero Gravity. Says Free Riders would've been fine if it was a controller.

Also he intended for Might and Ray to be gone for as long as they have been. He said he planned for them to go on an epic journey and it’s not very epic if they’re back by the next issue.

We apparently won’t be seeing any new Mobius X Years later stories for a long time.

Some talk about giving Amy a backstory. Ian says he’s restricted these days and that Sonic.,Tails and Knuckles were all given backstories back when SEGA wasn’t so restrictive. He says that they would not be able to make the Knuckles comic series today and have it anything like how it was. When asked if he’s going to explain how Amy is able to be so strong he said something along the lines of he’s not going to mention it unless SEGA does.

Ian said that Finitivus is his favourite villain to write, partially because he had a part in the creation of the character but mainly because he loves villains who act sophisticated but using it to hide how evil they are.

When asked about his favourite sympathetic villain Ian said it was a toss up between Snively and the Iron queen. He said he hadn’t intended the Snively/Iron queen pairing to leave the Iron Dominion saga but continued with it because it was interesting or something.

Also some stuff about a new comic book Ian Flynn will be writing called the New Crusaders which is apparently in continuity with the old Crusaders comic books by Archie.

Also some talk about Sonic06 which Ian Flynn said he hated but admitted that Silver’s story was the best part of the game. He said that he likes that Silver isn’t the same as Sonic and Shadow in that he tries to be cool but is naive and inexperienced. He also said that he thought that the Shadow the Hedgehog game had potential, it was just rushed and could have been better if given the time. And he likes Zero Gravity better than the original Riders and though he didn’t say much about it, I get the impression he doesn’t like Free Riders (he mentioned he once came fourth in a race by sitting down on the couch writing notes).

If he could write any videogame comic book it would be Skies of Arcadia which he said he would drop the Sonic comic book to write.

His favourite Robot Master is Gutsman.

He finds the Megaman games too hard and mentioned that a lot of the classic games were too hard for him which is why he liked Sonic games because he could actually beat them.

Still a lot to digest, though.

[goku262002]

Its ok I can digest this...

So why are SEGA such dicks about restricting things? I can understand not letting them fly off the handle with some characters what what would be their reasons for not letting them use Eggman Nega or not having Shadow team up with Omega in Universe #38?

It just seems kind of retarded and hacks the comic's potentional down.

Edited April 28, 2012 by goku262002

[Your Vest Friend]

Eggman Nega's obvious; they're still deciding on how they themselves will be using him in the future, if at all. If Mario and Sonic London is to be believed, they're still currently undecided on it.

Shadow being excluded from the story of SU#38...no idea.

Edited April 28, 2012 by VEDJ-F

[goku262002]

Eggman Nega's obvious; they're still deciding on how they themselves will be using him in the future, if at all. If Mario and Sonic London is to be believed, they're still currently undecided on it.

Shadow being excluded from the story of SU#38...no idea.

But thats my thing with this, its an alternate universe, far from the games universe. Should it matter what SEGA is going to do gamewise with Game-Nega if Comic-Nega is only comic-canon? same goes with any character that SEGA restricts, their fates won't change game-canon wise if some dreaded thing happens in the comics yet if some dreaded thing happens in the games, welp there goes that character in the comics. it really shouldn't matter...

Wish there was some way to talk to Cindy Chau, she would probably know the answers to these stupid restrictions.

[Illuminous_Orb]

But thats my thing with this, its an alternate universe, far from the games universe. Should it matter what SEGA is going to do gamewise with Game-Nega if Comic-Nega is only comic-canon? same goes with any character that SEGA restricts, their fates won't change game-canon wise if some dreaded thing happens in the comics yet if some dreaded thing happens in the games, welp there goes that character in the comics. it really shouldn't matter...

Wish there was some way to talk to Cindy Chau, she would probably know the answers to these stupid restrictions.

The thing is, if Ian writes something about a SEGA-sonic character but then SEGA goes into a completely different direction he's going to have to bend over backwards to try and fit it into SEGA's vision; leaving what he had behind and possibly having to scrap it and start all over again. It just ends up making everything far more convoluted than it needs to be. He's much better off waiting until SEGA figures out what they want to do with them.

Also, it keeps things more consistent. Compared to what happened before his tenor where there was a complete dissect from the comics and games -- he would rather it not differentiate again like that. SEGA would rather keep things consistent as well. It's the reason why things that have appeared from Satam, AoStH, etc., that have already made their way into the comic are still there but not things that haven't. We should be grateful that SEGA's been generous to actually leave those things in at all, where they could of just easily gotten rid of them.

[Badnik Zero]

Ultimately the comic is used to promote the main series material, not the other way around. You can probably imagine how much more profitable the main series is compared to the comic, no matter how popular it is. There will always be a loose boundary around these characters, in terms of how far you can stretch them. They represent the main series.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Badnikz

[goku262002]

Well if thats the case, why don't they just let Ian use Eggman Nega but follow a strict set of rules on what to do with him so it doesn't conflict with what will happen with the comic? or have had Shadow team up with Omega in Universe #38 but not let anything significant happen?

Like I said earlier, I can understand them lot letting the comics fly off the handle and letting them do crazy obnoxious things like in the past, but some of these restrictions are pretty stupid.

[Your Vest Friend]

Just as a little extra comment on the audio thing, by the fact that Hershey's reveal has been shelved and Ian seemed hesitant to say why...could the trial be having more of a knock-on effect than what we thought?

Edited April 29, 2012 by VEDJ-F

[goku262002]

The Penders trial thing? thats still going on? thought that the fruity little retard got his case thrown out or something?

Edited April 29, 2012 by goku262002

[Your Vest Friend]

The Penders trial thing? thats still going on? thought that the fruity little retard got his case thrown out or something?

Nope, the Archie vs Penders case is still going on. The EA/SEGA vs Penders case was supposed to be dismissed until after that was concluded, but he's appealing against it and a judge ruled that it was a valid appeal.

[spaceman022]

Anyone like how dark the comics went right now.to me it kinda felt like satAM in a way.yeah a lot has happened but the tables will turn

[Mangoaxe5]

Just as a little extra comment on the audio thing, by the fact that Hershey's reveal has been shelved and Ian seemed hesitant to say why...could the trial be having more of a knock-on effect than what we thought?

It's been said before that Hershey might be the only character that Penders actually has a copyright on due to the fact that she's based off of a drawing of Penders son's cat. A drawing that predates her ever apppearing in the Archie Sonic comics.

However if she really is off limits then Archie wouldn't be able to reprint any of the past stories that she has appeared in the Sonic Archives series. And so far the Sonic Archives seem uneffected by the legal battle.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

It's been said before that Hershey might be the only character that Penders actually has a copyright on due to the fact that she's based off of a drawing of Penders son's cat. A drawing that predates her ever apppearing in the Archie Sonic comics.

However if she really is off limits then Archie wouldn't be able to reprint any of the past stories that she has appeared in the Sonic Archives series. And so far the Sonic Archives seem uneffected by the legal battle.

Huh, if thats the case then why doesn't Penders just base his stories off Hershey instead?

[Mangoaxe5]

Huh, if thats the case then why doesn't Penders just base his stories off Hershey instead?

Probably because no one gives two shits about Hershey. Hershey won't sell books. Knuckles knockoffs on the other hand... Edited April 29, 2012 by Vampfox

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Probably because no one gives two shits about Hershey. Hershey won't sell books. Knuckles knockoffs on the other hand...

True. Though if Penders put ALOT of effort into trying to make her worth a damn to people, then maybe he might hit a new jackpot...

or be lead to financial ruin, one or the other. :3