Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[Zaysho]

One thing I will say I like about Austin's inking that I haven't seen Martin or Amash do, at least with Sonic/Mega Man (I know Martin uses it elsewhere, but he can do just about anything with a brush it seems), is his use of dry brush in areas. I like the bit of texture and shading it adds, but I'm kind of a sucker for that sort of thing.

 

I'll readily admit I'm not famliar with any other work Austin has done, but I'd wager his inking style would fit in well with a gritty super hero book. He's to inking the Sonic book what Ron Lim was to penciling it: a professional, competent guy who is working on a franchise his style simply doesn't mesh with, and the product suffers greatly as a result.

I thought the same thing, but like I said, his inking on a story for "The Shield" in Red Circle's The Fox (an Archie imprint) has the same issues with Sonic, I feel. I think it's less pronounced due to some of the more angular lines which seem to be a more natural fit for him, but you still see a shaky quality in places and lots of incomplete looking lines. I think if we saw the raw art for a story like that, it really wouldn't look that good (Downer colored that story so he picks up the slack for the lineart). Like I said before, I wonder if he's just petered out over years, and the work we see now is nothing like what earned him the respect and accolades he received back in the day. Which, again, makes what we see now more of a shame.

[Toby]

From http://www.bumbleking.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=401607#p401607, for people worried about the fate of Tikal.

 

If it were anyone else but Mav, I'd take this as actively trolling and trying to create worry where there is none. 

Consider that, possibly, this is all foreshadowing? There's a good chance the children who read this book probably haven't played Sonic Adventure. They don't necessarily read the wikis or get involved in the online fandom. Instead of spelling things out in Part One, elements are revealed over time, enticing you to continue reading month after month. Long-term readers arerewarded with a better understanding of what's to come because they pick up on what's going on and who is present.

Enjoy the story that's there. You don't need to invent drama for it.

[DarkLight]

So I'll take that as she'll show up later for a reveal. That's cool.

[Zaysho]

Works for me, and I'm glad it's not some weird issue a la Nega or anything else. Looking forward to seeing her again.

[Your Vest Friend]

Eh, I don't see the need to give her any sort of reveal given that new readers wouldn't really find any mystique in her character (if they've already been told to look at SA2, Heroes etc for reference, they'd probably also read up on Sonic Adventure as well given how closely linked it is with them), but whatevs.

Also apparently when SEGA of Japan went over the scripts, they made absolutely clear that she's dead physically because sealing herself in the M.E. meant sacrificing her body. I think most people here had figured that out by now, but still.

[Dantemustdie00]

Ugh, I do detest Austin's blocky inking sometimes....

[Wittymations]

Ah, okay. Like I said, I read it as three different ways. Either hyping, dancing, or just not.

 

Hype makes sense if he's thinking about the fans who hadn't played Sonic Adventure. But with all the other references and bits of story that we should already no due to the pointing and stuff, meh? Meh.

 

Still, glad she's in it. I miss Tikal.

[BradAric]

Question to all you Archie fans: is there a good way to get a hold of the comics released to date? Like are there collections, or a resource where I can buy a bunch of the early comics if I want to start from the beginning? Any help would be appreciated, I'd like to read all the comics from the first issue.

[Big Panda]

Well there's a shit-load of graphic novels on sale. They're about to launch a new series which picks up from where the reboot began, there's the "Sonic Saga" books that collects the comics starting from when Ian Flynn started writing (dating back to 2006), the Sonic Universe trades which collects each of the Sonic Universe arcs from the start (dating back to 2009), and of course the Sonic Archives, which collects the whole main series from the very beginning.

And there's loads more...

[- Eternal Paradox -]

Just thought I'd share this.

I've been trying to work out how long it will take Archie to publish all the Sonic Archives (assuming they stop upon 247 for the semi-reboot), so I'm just gonna derail this topic slightly with some Mathematics. Don't mind me.

Estimations for issues published in Sonic Archives:

 

24# 89 - 92

25# 93 - 96

26# 97 - 100

27# 101 - 104

28# 105 - 108

29# 109 - 112

30# 113 - 116

31# 117 - 120

32# 121 - 124

33# 125 - 128

34# 129 - 132

35# 133 - 136

36# 137 - 140

37# 141 - 144

39# 145 - 148

40# 149 - 152

41# 153 -156

42# 157 - 160

43# 161 - 164 (Sonic Saga)

44# 165 - 168

45# 169 - 172

46# 173 - 176

47# 177 - 180 

48# 181 - 184

49# 185 - 188

50# 199 - 202

51# 203 - 206

52# 207 - 210

53# 211 - 214

54# 215 - 218

55# 219 - 222

56# 223 - 226

57# 227 - 230

58# 231 - 234

59# 235 - 238

60# 239 - 242

61# 243 - 246

62# 247 + Sonic Universe 50

63# - any overspill caused by additional issues being incorperated

 

That's 40 books.

 

1 - 4

5 - 8

9 - 12

3 - 6

7 - 10

 

 

247

 

If Archie continue to publish 2 books a year...

It will take them 20 years to publish all these books.

 

However, if we assume that from issue 43 onwards they no-longer have to restore the art as much, it could possibly allow them to publish at a rate of 3 books 

 

a year.

 

So... that's 10 years to get up to Archives 43, and then another 8 years to publish the ungoing books.

 

STILL far too long. Let's subtract the Sonic Genesis arc from the prediction (#226-#229) The revised list now looks like:

 

56# 223-224, 230-231

58# 232 - 235

59# 236 - 239

60# 240 - 243

61# 244 - 247

62# Sonic Universe 50 + any overspill caused by additional issues being incorperated

 

So, that's at least one less book. Let's say Archie really crank it out and start publishing 3 books a year, and then 4 upon #43

 

13 

 

6.5 and 5.5 respectively (rounding up). So it should now take 12 years. Much better!

 

Let's go mad. Archie bite the bullet and start publishing 6 books a year upon #43. It takes exactly 3.5 years for them to publish those books, making a total 

 

of 10 years. That'd be great.

 

To summarize, the amount of time it will take to reach 247 current rate of publishing? TWENTY GOD-DAMN YEARS. However, if they crank it up to 3 books a year, and then go crazy upon Archives #43 and release six books a year, it should only take ten years.

 

Personally, I think twenty years to FAR too long to wait. I know we have the SAGA series, but doesn't that compile certain stories, rather than whole issues? The old continuity's relevancy is fading fast, and Archie are already starting to republish issues from the rebooted universe in a similar format to what they did with Mega-Man.

 

... Ugh, twenty years. TWENTY YEARS.

[SoundBunnie44]

I think Archives will probably end at 159/160 as Ian's run is being collected in the Sonic Saga Series.

[Sunwalker]

Question to all you Archie fans: is there a good way to get a hold of the comics released to date? Like are there collections, or a resource where I can buy a bunch of the early comics if I want to start from the beginning? Any help would be appreciated, I'd like to read all the comics from the first issue.

You can buy digital comics at http://www.comixology.com.

The most cost effective way to get the earliest stories is the Sonic Legacy series (if you don't mind the lack of colors):

https://www.comixology.com/Sonic-Legacy-Series/comics-series/7157

If you want colors, you should get the Sonic Archives series:

https://www.comixology.com/Sonic-the-Hedgehog-Archives/comics-series/3059

For archives of the post 160 era, you should get the Sonic Saga series:

https://www.comixology.com/Sonic-the-Hedgehog/comics-series/27

[BradAric]

Thanks everyone! I'll check out Sonic Archives when I get my next paycheck

[Big Panda]

I made a list like that myself. I made one small adjustment to mine though: I personally think the Archives will skip over #113. It's one of those terrible "Many Hands" issues which, in case you haven't noticed, the Archie guys aren't bothering to reprint.

The thing is, it'd actually work out really well in the long run: we'd be getting both parts of the #125 story arc in one volume, we'd get the complete Tossed in Space in one volume, and the Home saga, and Return to Angel Island, AND The Good, the Bad and the Unknown. And finally, if they do decide to stop the Archives when they get up to where Saga's begin, this arrangement will allow the potential final Archives volume to be #158-#161.

It's perfect.

[- Eternal Paradox -]

The only problem I have with that, Panda, is that we end up being denied content due to the quality of the artwork. Yes, it's not really much of a loss, but it's going to look odd when published "Sonic archives collects all the Sonic Stories from #1-#161.... except for #113, cuz it was crap.". It doesn't really flow well.

 

Also, doesn't the saga series only collect certain stories, rather than whole issues? My worry is we end up with certain go-between stories that are never republished, or the stories are scattered, and I have hunt down certain titles to read the next issue in the series. Archives is convenient. I can read the stories in sequence as if I had a subscription to book.

 

But, if I'm wrong and saga does in fact contain whole issues (that'd be a nice surprise), then I'd have no qualms.

[Your Vest Friend]

As well as packets of source, I carry previews.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tenko]

I really like new Ant, his new design has really grown on me, and it makes a lot more sense having him on the team now. Unlike those early days when he was a sniveling coward >.<

[Sparky]

Yes, Nicole DOES have that...  um... ... power.... she had on the countdown to Chaos cover!

[Wittymations]

I really like new Ant, his new design has really grown on me, and it makes a lot more sense having him on the team now. Unlike those early days when he was a sniveling coward >.<

Well, he wouldn't be Ant without those tendencies, so thankfully he still has them -- but when shit gets real, he seems to act.

 

Based on a few things, most notably his sacrifice to save Elias, I think it was gonna head this direction anyway. Though, dunno if he was gonna get the skills like he does now.

If the FF all were, I wonder how they were gonna get them.

[goku262002]

As well as packets of source, I carry previews.

 

*images*

who the heck is uproxx.com? first I've seen in Archie's pool of preview lenders. hmm, wonder if we (The Sonic Stadium Site) can get into that pool, would be cool to get the previews first before any others.

[Sonic is a Care Bear]

 

Ha, I love this and new Antoine. I'm not getting any skittish vibe, he doesn't look scared at all here, more of a throwback to the other less admirable qualities he had from Satam/the early comic, like his vanity and preference for taking the easy way out.

 

Which it cool because some people have come to think of Antoine as a bit of a flat, generic good hero character. So it's nice to see some personality, but not be obnoxious about it.

 

The rest of Wave's of Change looks nice enough, but the water world is a bit less interesting to me than all the other things happening like in Sonic Universe, or the upcoming plot where Mighty and Ray show up and Sonic finally turns Werehog, so it's hard to be too enthusiastic about the story when part of me just wants to get to the next part of the story already.

[Delta Starfire]

So I've hit the point in re-reading where I take off like a rocket and read dozens of issues in mere days. Basically, from around the point where Robotropolis is destroyed. I'm up to issue #139, which features Return to Angel Island Part 2 and Mobius, 25 Years Later Part 10,000,000 (or so it seems). While I'm enjoying the main feature each issue, M25YL is so boring. It starts out with promise, but then quickly devolves into a soap opera. In issue #137, for instance, the entire story was just two parallel conversations between Sonic and Sally on the one hand and Knuckles and Julie-Su on the other. All of it basically complaining. 

 

This page is pretty representative of the entire story arc:

 

 

Does that look like fun to read, kids?

 

I'm not too keen on the three story split around this time either. I wish the main story was longer. Not M25YL though. Goodness, no. If Penders had had more space, he'd have probably just made these tedious conversations even longer. 

 

But talking of a second extra story each issue, #137 featured an Antoine story called One Part Oh-La-La, and Two Parts Treachery. Considering badass Antoine at this time is later retconned into Evil Antoine/Patch, it makes absolutely no sense for him to be reminiscing about things he never actually did. It was a forgetable story, so I didn't notice this problem first time around. Now it sticks out like a sore thumb. 

[biznizz]

The Photo-Realistic Koala Maid always bugged the sh*t out of me, and given that all of 25YL was awful, that's saying something.

I know that Barby didn't look anything like a real koala, but Knuckles, Mighty and Sonic hardly look like their animal namesakes either. I can at least forgive the SatAM characters and early comic characters (like the Substitute Freedom Fighters) not completely meshing with the SEGA characters, but by this point that sticks out so damn much.

Certain artists like Yardley, Peppers, etc can usually make most of the comic characters look like they can at least fit in, but even during Lockdown, that Koala just did not work. And she was a cameo with Void & Mephiles for crying out loud!

And Penders trying to channel a sassy black woman, constantly with this character, is one of the most painful things about that whole damn story.

[Delta Starfire]

The Photo-Realistic Koala Maid always bugged the sh*t out of me, and given that all of 25YL was awful, that's saying something.

I know that Barby didn't look anything like a real koala, but Knuckles, Mighty and Sonic hardly look like their animal namesakes either. I can at least forgive the SatAM characters and early comic characters (like the Substitute Freedom Fighters) not completely meshing with the SEGA characters, but by this point that sticks out so damn much.

Certain artists like Yardley, Peppers, etc can usually make most of the comic characters look like they can at least fit in, but even during Lockdown, that Koala just did not work. And she was a cameo with Void & Mephiles for crying out loud!

And Penders trying to channel a sassy black woman, constantly with this character, is one of the most painful things about that whole damn story.

 

Oh, fuck no! Is that what he's channelling? 

 

 

I figured he was going for something, but my instinct seeing a koala was to go Australian... Now it all makes sense. And I wish it didn't. 

 

Are Ken Penders and Michael Bay acquainted?

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I must've been the only one to simply think of a maid sounding like...well a maid.

 

Sassy black woman was like the last thing that would come to mind, because my family is full of them and they say saltier things than words like "hooligan" and "brood" (<-da fuq?). Nevermind that you don't see sassy black women as maids all that often.