Knuckles The Echidna Archives

Main Info:

Releasing around the time of Sonic Archives #14, Knuckles the Echidna Archives was created in order to act as a companion book to the mainline Sonic Archives, with the goal being the same as that book - to reprint the entirety of the series in reading order and in complete condition, at a reasonable price. As such, it also included the original Knuckles miniseries despite it not officially being included in the issue count of the spinoff series.

Much like other graphic novel series, the Knuckles Archives series ran into a series of various problems that delayed both it and the other graphic novel reprints that Archie was making for the Sonic series, most of these spurred on by the lawsuit between Archie Comics and Ken Penders. As Knuckles Archives consistent of material all created by Ken Penders, it was one of the books hit hardest by the lawsuit, and one of the ultimately earliest cancelled. 

Minor edits was also done to the books, mostly in small art changes that were present to try bring the quality up a bit, although one change in particular was made to bring the echidnas a little more in line with the game's colour scheme at the time, but unlike Sonic Archives, there was no major edits, new stories, or other series' stories added, beyond the original miniseries in the first volume.

Another interesting detail is that the Knuckles Archives series had a consistently higher issue count compared to most Sonic graphic novels, at 5-6 issues per volume, compared to the standard 4. This may be due to the fact that the Knuckles comic consistently had 3 issue arcs, so therefore 6 issues meant two full arcs could be covered per volume, compared to early Archie Sonic's arc lengths ranging and having more one-off issues.

Release Dates:

Volume 1: September 2011

Volume 2: April 2012

Volume 3: October 2012

Volume 4: April 2013

Volume 5: Slated but Cancelled

Volume 6: Slated but Cancelled

Issues Reprinted:

Volume 1: Knuckles Miniseries #1-3, and Knuckles the Echidna #1-3

Volume 2: Knuckles the Echidna #4-9

Volume 3: Knuckles the Echidna #10-15

Volume 4: Knuckles the Echidna #16-21

Volume 5 (Planned): Knuckles the Echidna #22-27

Volume 6 (Planned): Knuckles the Echidna #28-32

Cancellation:

As with pretty much every single Archie Sonic graphic novel series, Knuckles Archives' cancellation never had a confirmed reason, but with the timing of the delays that hit it and the other series, it's likely a result of the lawsuit that started ongoing between Ken Penders and Archie Comics around the time, which would've particularly effected Knuckles Archives, as it was a graphic novel series dedicated solely to reprinting Ken Penders' work.

Despite the cancellation, it was clear they were both relatively far in development, having gotten far enough to have both covers for Volume 5 and Volume 6 to be finished, including a brand new CG cover by artist Rafa Knight. This is also unfortunate timing, as the series was slated to end by Volume 6 anyways, which means the entirety of the series had almost seen reprints prior to the cancellation.

With Archie Comics losing the license to the Sonic series in 2017, and it becoming increasingly clear that Archie Sonic is tied up in various legal issues, it seems unlikely a official reprint will ever see the light of day, leaving the series ultimately unfinished.