Sonic the Comic

Not to be confused with Sonic Comic, the Sonic Channel web series.

Title

Sonic the Comic

Publisher

• Fleetway Editions
• Egmont
• Sega Europe

Country

United Kingdom

First issue

29 May 1993

Last issue

9 January 2002

Number of issues

223 (184 original, 39 reprints)

Frequency

Fortnightly

Price

95p – £1.50

Main character

Sonic the Hedgehog

Writers

• Nigel Kitching
• Lew Stringer et al.

Artists

• Richard Elson
• Mick McMahon et al.

Sonic the Comic (often abbreviated as STC) was a British comic series based on Sega‘s Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. Marketed as the United Kingdom’s official Sega comic, it featured stories about Sonic the Hedgehog, other Sega video game characters and a number of original characters created specifically for the series. It was published by Fleetway Editions (later Egmont Fleetway) between May 1993 and early 2002, running for 223 regular issues plus various specials.

Beginning at the height of Sega’s popularity in the early 1990s, Sonic the Comic quickly became the defining British interpretation of the franchise. It is entirely separate from the Archie Comics series in North America and follows its own continuity.

History

Main article: Sonic the Comic/Development

Sonic the Comic debuted in May 1993 as the “UK’s official Sega comic”, launched by editor Richard Burton (formerly of 2000 AD). The series rode the success of the Sega Mega Drive, Sonic the Hedgehog and its sequels, and Sega’s strong brand presence in the United Kingdom. The first issue was priced at 95 pence; by the time the comic ended the price had risen to £1.35 (and later £1.50 on some late issues).

The original format combined four comic strips per issue with magazine style content. Early on, the lead story always starred Sonic, while the remaining strips rotated between other Sega properties. Editorial and feature pages such as “News Zone”, “Review Zone”, “Q Zone”, “Graphic Zone” and “Speedlines” gave it the feel of a hybrid between a fan magazine and a story anthology.

[[File:Robotnik-STC-2.jpg|thumb|right|Robotnik’s early design before being reworked to resemble his look from ”[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]”.]]
The public face of the comic was “Megadroid”, a cartoon robot built from Mega Drive parts who introduced each issue in the Control Zone, answered letters in “Speedlines” and acted as the in universe representative of the “humes who think they are in charge”.

As the decade progressed, non Sonic strips were gradually phased out in favor of Sonic and Sonic related material. Popular early strips included Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Kid Chameleon, Eternal Champions, Golden Axe and especially Decap Attack, which lasted long after the other Sega series had departed. By the late 1990s almost all strip space was devoted to Sonic, his supporting cast and spin off series such as Sonic’s World.

[[File:FleetwayChaotix.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Chaotix (Sonic the Comic)|Chaotix Crew]] in ”STC”.]]
By the end of the decade falling sales led to significant cost cutting. Egmont management worked on the assumption that readers cycled every five years, and decided to lean heavily on reprints. From issue 133 one of the four strips in each issue became a reprint, increasing to two and then three. After issue 184 all strips were reprinted material, with only new covers, editorials and occasional features. The final issue, issue 223, was published in early 2002, bringing the run of original British Sonic stories to a close after almost nine years.

Less successful sister titles based on Sonic the Comic were produced for continental Europe, including Sonic Mag: B.D. & Jeux-Video! in France, in Germany, in Italy and Sonic Magazine in the Netherlands.

Format and features

[[File:STCbadge.jpg|thumb|An exclusive ”Sonic the Comic” badge.]]

For most of its lifespan, each issue of Sonic the Comic contained four strips. In the classic format the first story was a seven page Sonic feature, while the remaining three strips were shorter and often starred other Sega characters. As the comic evolved these backup slots were increasingly given over to Sonic spin offs such as Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, the Chaotix Crew, Shortfuse the Cybernik and the anthology series Sonic's World.

Beyond the strips, early issues carried a range of Sega themed features, most of which used the “Zone” naming convention familiar from the games:

• Control Zone – welcome page hosted by Megadroid, with an overview of the issue and the Sega Charts listing top selling games.
• News Zone – previews of upcoming Sega games and consoles.
• Review Zone – reviews of new releases.
• Q Zone – tips, cheats and level guides.
• Graphic Zone – reader artwork, usually around a themed prompt.
• Speedlines – readers’ letters and questions answered in character by Megadroid, and later by “Sonic”.

Special gifts were also a regular part of the package. These ranged from stickers (including a scratch and sniff Sonic shoe sticker) and sweets to rulers, badges and other small toys.

Megadroid

Megadroid was the comic’s mascot and editorial voice. Styled as a robot built from Mega Drive parts, he welcomed “Boomers” (readers) to each issue, summarized the contents and answered letters. The character was conceived by Richard Burton, drawing on his experience as “Tharg” in 2000 AD.

Megadroid even starred in occasional strips of his own, including one story in which he runs away from the STC offices to a seaside town before returning to his duties. The character and the traditional “Speedlines” page were removed in 1998 during a round of format changes. Speedlines reappeared in 2000 as an occasional feature with letters credited as being answered by Sonic himself.

Sonic related stories

Setting and continuity

Sonic the Comic began as a series of largely stand alone adventure strips. Its main continuity was firmly established in issue 8 with “The Origin of Sonic”, which adopted a refined version of the “Kintobor origin” created for early UK promotional material and the book Stay Sonic.

In this telling, Sonic was originally a brown hedgehog from the Emerald Hill Zone. He befriended the kindly scientist Dr. Ovi Kintobor, who sought to remove all evil from the planet Mobius using the Chaos Emeralds and his Retro Orbital Chaos Compressor (R.O.C.C.). Sonic helped him test his inventions and used a kinetic treadmill and special frictionless “Power Sneakers” to push his speed to new limits. When Sonic broke the sound barrier during one test, the resulting shock turned his quills blue.

A later lab accident involving a rotten egg and the unstable Chaos Emerald energy transformed Kintobor into the tyrannical Doctor Ivo Robotnik. Sonic and his friends Tails, Johnny Lightfoot and Porker Lewis were subsequently thrown six months forward in time. In their absence Robotnik conquered Mobius, industrialised whole regions and began turning citizens into Badniks. Sonic and his allies formed the Freedom Fighters and started a guerrilla campaign to overthrow Robotnik.

Over the course of the series Robotnik’s design was updated to resemble his appearance from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and he acquired a loyal henchman in Grimer, his sickly green chief scientist. Early epic arcs such as “The Sonic Terminator” adapted and introduced Metallix, a Metal Sonic unit that would later lead the Brotherhood of Metallix in a time spanning plot to conquer Mobius.

[[File:STC Issue 80 Page 8.jpg|thumb|right|[[Super Sonic (Sonic the Comic)|Super Sonic]] in ”STC” is a dangerous alter ego rather than a simple power up.]]

Later stories wove together elements from many of the 16-bit Sonic titles. The comic adapted Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, bringing Knuckles, the Floating Island and the deeper history of the Chaos Emeralds and the ancient echidnas into the STC universe. Knuckles quickly gained his own strips, including the popular “Homecoming” and “World Tour” arcs.

Other long running plot threads included:

• The introduction of Super Sonic as a separate, unstable chaos powered alter ego who became one of the greatest threats to Mobius.
• The gradual reveal of the Drakon Empire, an ancient alien race with a historic claim on the Chaos Emeralds and an uneasy alliance with Robotnik.
• The rise and fall of Commander Brutus, a Badnik Trooper imbued with Robotnik’s own brain patterns who later rebelled against his creator.
• Sonic’s exile in, and later return from, the Special Zone, using the Omni-Viewer and leading to the landmark issue 100 in which Robotnik was finally deposed after an electromagnetic pulse disabled his global machinery.
• A late sequence of stories involving the world of Shanazar, dimensional portals between Mobius and Earth and an eventual attempt by Robotnik to merge the two planets and then destroy them using the alien Plax.

The final major arc was a loose adaptation of [yadwiki link=”Sonic Adventure”], which reinterpreted Chaos as a mutated Drakon prosecutor and diverged sharply from the game in many details. The storyline saw the death of Johnny Lightfoot, the flooding of the Floating Island and the return of Super Sonic, who was eventually re fused with Sonic through the magic of Ebony and the psychic Pyjamas.

Differences from American canon

While Sonic the Comic drew on early Western Sonic material for its starting point, its universe developed very differently from the American games, cartoons and Archie Comics.

Key distinctions include:

• The setting is explicitly Mobius and Sonic and his allies are branded Freedom Fighters, operating as an underground resistance against a Robotnik who has already conquered the planet.
• Robotnik is a menacing, often ruthless dictator, closer to an authoritarian strongman than the more comedic portrayals seen elsewhere.
• Super Sonic is not simply a powered up Sonic, but a sadistic chaos entity split from Sonic by exposure to the Chaos Emeralds. His rare appearances are treated as major, dangerous events.
• Grimer is a grotesque, yet fiercely loyal assistant rather than a treacherous underling like Snively in Sonic SatAM.
• The detailed Kintobor origin, with Sonic beginning as a brown hedgehog and Kintobor becoming Robotnik through an accident involving the R.O.C.C. and a rotten egg, is treated as core backstory rather than an obscure promotional idea.

Despite these differences, the comic frequently adapted contemporary Sonic games and aimed to stay recognizably rooted in Sega’s vision of the franchise, especially the 16-bit titles.

Characters

Sonic the Hedgehog

Main article: Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic the Comic)

Sonic is the central protagonist and appears in every issue. In Sonic the Comic he is even more brash and sharp tongued than in most other incarnations. He teases friends, especially Tails, and often comes across as arrogant or impatient, though his loyalty to his friends and his determination to protect Mobius are never in doubt.

Originally a brown hedgehog nicknamed “Sonic” for his speed, he became blue after breaking the sound barrier during Kintobor’s treadmill experiment. After Kintobor’s transformation into Robotnik, Sonic used his super speed and a growing arsenal of tricks to fight back. His signature moves include the Spin Attack, high speed “cocoons” of wind that tear through enemies and the ability to vibrate restraints or the air around him to escape or form temporary force fields. On covert missions he occasionally used the disguised alter ego “Bob Beaky”, a heavily wrapped up bird.

The death of Johnny Lightfoot late in the series has a profound effect on Sonic. He briefly withdraws from the Freedom Fighters, blaming himself for keeping his friends in danger for so long. When he returns his attitude softens and he takes a more measured view of risk and responsibility.

Other characters

For a list of characters created for or prominently featured in Sonic the Comic, see here.

Non-Sonic stories

At launch only one of the regular strips per issue starred Sonic. The remaining stories rotated between other Sega franchises as part of a “Sega Superstars” line up. Over time these were replaced by Sonic related material, but they remain a distinctive part of the comic’s early years.

Notable non Sonic strips included:

• Shinobi (3 series)
• Streets of Rage (3 series)
• Kid Chameleon (2 series)
• Eternal Champions (2 series)
• Golden Axe (2 series)
• Decap Attack (initially 3 series, later recurring)
• Marko’s Magic Football (1 series)
• Ecco the Dolphin (2 series)
• Wonder Boy (2 series)
• Sparkster (Rocket Knight Adventures) (1 series)
• Mutant League Football (1 series)
• Shining Force: The Curse of Zeon (1 series)
• Pirate Sonic the Comic (1 series, based on Sega advertising)
• Two short “Megadroid” features not directly based on games

Of these, Decap Attack became the breakout success. Nigel Kitching’s comedy horror take on the Mega Drive game proved so popular that it outlasted all other non Sonic strips and continued well into the period when most of the comic was devoted to Mobius based stories.

Staff

Over its run Sonic the Comic involved a large number of writers, artists and editorial staff.

Writers

• Nigel Kitching
• Lew Stringer
• Mark Eyles
• Mike Hadley
• Mark Millar
• Steve MacManus
• Ed Hillyer

Artists and illustrators

• Richard Elson
• Nigel Dobbyn
• Roberto Corona
• Carl Flint
• Casanovas
• Mick McMahon
• John M. Burns
• Andy Pritchett
• Steve White
• Ferran Rodriguez

Letterers

• Ellie de'Ville
• Elitta Fell
• Tom Frame
• Steve Potter

Inkers and colourists

• Mike Hadley
• John M. Burns and others on selected strips

Covers and design

• Cover art by Dermot Power, Mike Hadley, , [yadwiki link=”Carl Flint”] and others
• Design by [yadwiki link=”Gary Knight”], [yadwiki liknk=”Timothy Read”]

Editorial and production

• Editors: Richard Burton, Deborah Tate, Steve MacManus, Andy Diggle
• Features editor: Audrey Wong
• Editorial director: Colin Shelbourn
• Managing directors: Julie Goldsmith, Rob McMenemy
• Marketing and product management: Rob McMenemy, Doug Pocock, Jess Manu
• Promotions: Jane Ballard, Michelle Brown
• Advertising: Sarah Connell, Steve Goldsmith
• Production: Sarah Colley
• Publisher: Rob McMenemy

Nigel Kitching and Richard Elson are often singled out by fans as the definitive writer artist pairing on the book, while Lew Stringer handled many comedy stories and later arcs.

Demise

The decline of Sonic the Comic was gradual. In 1997 the page count was cut from 36 to 32, resulting in the loss of most of the news, review and tips sections. Despite still selling well by Fleetway standards, cost pressures led to an increasing reliance on reprints.

From issue 133 one strip per issue was a reprint, increasing to two by issue 155 and leaving just the lead Sonic strip as new material by issue 157. During this period the “Time Zone” banner was used for many of the new stories, which focused on Shanazar and dimension hopping plots that kept most of the main cast off screen. This direction was controversial with readers and severely limited space for supporting character strips.

Nigel Kitching was temporarily let go after issue 157, leaving Lew Stringer as the sole writer until a change of editor saw Kitching return with issue 175. Despite a strong final run of stories, Egmont decided to end original content at issue 184. The decision came at short notice, forcing Kitching to compress or abandon some planned plots. He later described the circumstances and his frustration on the Sonic the Comic Mailing List.

Issues 185 to 223 were made up entirely of reprints, usually framed by a new cover and occasional features such as Sega Charts updates, competitions or short articles. The final issue reprinted the four part “The Evil Empire” arc and included a retrospective article by Kitching about his time on the series.

Reprints status (2024 onwards)

As of October 2024, a new Sonic the Hedgehog magazine from Story House Egmont and Sega Europe was announced to tie in with . During discussions, Egmont explored the possibility of collecting and reprinting Sonic the Comic, but Sega reportedly declined, citing licensing restrictions and the view that the stories are no longer “on brand” for the modern franchise.^[1]Sonic the Hedgehog magazine in the works from Story House Egmont and SEGA Europe (English). John Freeman. downthetubes.net (11 September 2024‎). Retrieved on 13 September 2024‎. “Gemma Daniels: Unfortunately, we’re told licensing restrictions mean Egmont aren’t planning collections of the fondly-remembered Sonic the Comic, published in the 1990s, edited by Deborah Tate and Richard Burton, whose creative lineup included artists such as the late Nigel Dobbyn, Richard Elson, Mick McMahon, Lew Stringer and others. The stories are, we’re told, no longer considered “on brand”.”

Among fans, this is often contrasted with the fact that Sonic the Comic remains one of the most faithful print interpretations of the classic Mega Drive era games and their early marketing. Whether the series will ever receive official reprints in the future remains uncertain.

Related publications

[[File:STP1.jpg|thumb|225px|Cover of [[Sonic the Poster Mag Issue 1|”Sonic the Poster Mag” #1.]]]]

Alongside the main title, several companion publications were produced:

• Sonic the Poster Mag – nine issues. Each consisted of a large A1 poster with an A4 sized comic strip printed on the reverse, folded to standard comic size. Most strips featured Sonic, with individual issues given over to Shinobi and Streets of Rage.
• Sonic Summer Special – summer specials published in 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1999. The 1995 special largely reprinted Sonic the Poster Mag material, while the 1999 edition was entirely reprint based.
• Knuckles Knock-Out Special – a one off special focusing on Knuckles and his world.
• Eternal Champions Special – a special focusing on Eternal Champions material.

Sonic the Comic Online

Sonic the Comic Online (often abbreviated STC-O) is an unofficial web based continuation of Sonic the Comic. It picks up from the end of the print run, treating issue 223 as the last official issue and launching online from “issue 224”.

Backed by an active fan community and with the encouragement of several original STC creators, STC-O continues the Mobius timeline, introduces characters from later Sonic games and explores unresolved plot threads. Notable developments have included the return of Doctor Zachary, the introduction of the insect crime syndicate The Family, new plots involving Shadow the Hedgehog, Blaze the Cat and Silver the Hedgehog, and continued use of non Sonic strips in the spirit of the original.

Although not endorsed by Sega or Egmont, STC-O is often described by fans, and occasionally by Nigel Kitching himself, as the closest thing to an “official” continuation of the Fleetway continuity. The series has been shortlisted for several webcomic awards and maintains an active forum known as “The Message Zone”.

Back issues

Main series

Specials

Trivia

• Sonic the Comic ran original stories from 29 May 1993 to 28 June 2000, which means its entire narrative run took place while Sega was still an active console manufacturer during the first generation of the so called console war.
• It is the only long running Sonic continuity to feature explicit antagonists based on the Mario Brothers.
• A revision history entry on the Sonic the Comic Online article at the Sonic the Comic Wiki claimed that Sega Europe acknowledged STC-O issue 250. Aside from a Tweet about a Sonic City Blognik post that mentioned Sonic the Comic,^[2]‘Sonic City Blognik’ blog? (English). @SEGA. Twitter (11 January 2010). Retrieved on 24 October 2023. “SEGA: @david69magazine Funny you should mention Sonic The Comic.. as I’ve a blog going up about them later today on the Sonic City Blognik.” that specific acknowledgement appears to have been lost.

Logos

{{Gallery start}}
Stclogo.png|First logo ([[Sonic the Comic Issue 1|#1]] to [[Sonic the Comic Issue 57|#57]]) STC logo 2.png|Second logo ([[Sonic the Comic Issue 58|#58]] to [[Sonic the Comic Issue 119|#119]]) STC logo 3.png|Third logo ([[Sonic the Comic Issue 120|#120]] to [[Sonic the Comic Issue 175|#175]]) Stcvectorized2.png|Fourth logo ([[Sonic the Comic Issue 176|#176]] to [[Sonic the Comic Issue 223|#223]])
{{Gallery end}}

See also

• List of stories
• Sega Superstars
• Sonic the Comic Online
• Hume

References

External links

• Original Sonic the Comic mailing list
• Sonic the Comic Online
• Sonic the Comic section of fansite The Kintobor Computer