Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Comics

The well known comics publisher "Archie" was chosen to bring Sonic to the fans in comic book format. Their previous publication was a wholesome highschool comedy type scenario. Back in 1993 when Sonic first started, this looked like an ideal platform to launch a cute kiddie-character comic. However, now with Shadow the Hedgehog carrying weapons around and an organization named "GUN" featuring heavily in game plots the ability of Archie to handle the situation has come under question. More?

The first comic (Issue #0) was published in Feb. of 1993. You could also get it in a Disney Magazine as an extra feature at some point. The first of these comics were actually a 3 issue miniseries to test the waters. Therefore, there are actually 2 *different* issues of #1, #2 and #3, all of which are legit.

The early issues focused on short, comedy related storylines. The stories didn't particularly connect or serialize great arcs of plot. The artists varied, but commonly used ones were Scott Shaw! and Dave Manak. Model sheets for the characters were not likely to be used a whole lot at this time. The most expensive issues to aquire are probably the first 3 (miniseries) With #0, and BOTH #1s ranking up there.

These aren't found on Ebay all that often. By this point, someone has to liquidate a collection for the issues to appear in their original form. Expect to pay over $15.00 for an issue. Their original retail price was $1.25

As you can see, Tails is brown. Why? No one knows, but this mis-coloring went on for FAR too long. Color schemes for the characters were not yet set, which resulted in varient Princess Sallies at this time. Archie also introduced their own band of "Freedom Fighters" the supporting cast for Sonic, who featured heavily in all issues. The "Westernization" of Eggman into "Ivo Robotnik", was cemented with this comic and the TV shows.

Here is issue #13. This one is mysteriously rare. It was Knuckles' first appearance in the book, and at the time of publishing, it didn't seem to be any "Less of them made then normal". It is assumed that comic readers/collectors/Sonic Fans just failed to realize that this could be some sort of land-mark issue. Because no one 'stocked up', this is scarce to this day. It is only occaisonally found on Ebay, and when it appears, expect prices over $25.00.

As you can see, cribbing the stock art was also fairly common. See that tiny "POW" in the corner? That's all the announcement Knuckles got for the issue. He didn't even appear on the cover. Dave Manak did the interior work, and while he was all right at Robotnik, his Knuckles needed a bit more work.

This comic also featured cover AND interior art by the Fan-favorite artist Spaz. It also introduced the infamous Metal Sonic to the Archie continuity. Metal Sonic fans could thrill to see their favorite villain for all of this one issue as he dies at the end. (A'la the Sonic CD Race)

Issue #25 was another landmark.
This one was a type of celebration for reaching such a high number of published comics. To celebrate, a special shiny silver ink was used on the cover. (The ink is roughly the tone of those scratch-off lotto cards, but non-scratchy).

In all re-releases, the special ink is NOT present. It is just gray. Finding the special ink book can be a task, (usually for Ebay) but it's worth it to own.

With the addition of Patric "Spaz" Spaziante to the art-team, the covers were looking better then ever, and the comic was quite popular. Supposedly this guy does not work quickly, but adds much detail, therefore Spaz is not a good choice for interior work. This was an unfortunate turn for Archie, as many artists could simply NOT capture the "Sega Sonic" look at all, and many new characters added in failed to flow with any style.

He did the cover and interior work for issue 21 as his debut. Sonic finally got the sense of attitude and speed that the fans wanted to see. They wrote in to say that Spaz was a hit.

Sonic fights E.V.E a shape-shifting learning machine.

After about issue #20 or so, the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comics started taking a less comedy and more "Plot+Action" direction. There were also 5 "Super Specials" released, which were extra thick books with more or longer stories. The specials retailed for around $2.25 at initial release. Because of their title, people thought ahead to buy more of these (in most cases) so they are not quite as rare. They say that only 5 were produced because they became too expensive for the limited readership dollars to support. These were not particularly released on any type of time-table.

The "Sonic In your Face Special" ironically had a main story featuring Sally. It also contained a special pull-out poster for "Sonic and Knuckles" which was the S&K logo on a black background to announce the new Genisis game.

Several more "Special Books" were released, but not under the name of "Super Special. These included "Sonic & Knuckles #1, Sonic VS Knuckles: Battle Royale, Knuckles Chaotix, In Your Face, Mecha Madness and Super Sonic VS Hyper Knuckles. As you may see by the titles, these mostly include Sonic fighting Knuckles for some reason.

Uh-oh! What's this? A mutant comic? Why YES it is the infamous "Sonic Live". The travesty of the 48 page specials, this book was an affront to the fans of Sonic.

Dare you find out more....?

Having this thing is good for the total completist, but...if you manage to obtain it you might laugh, or you might cry. There's quite a story in that link above...

"Sonic Fans are too stupid to know that the child is holding a TV remote sideways, and not a game controller!"

As the Archie series progressed, they introduced more and more Archie-Only characters with ever-expanding and complex backgrounds. Loose ends, plot holes and contrived storylines abound. This was partially due to editors and writers leaving the book, and general "Back End" confusion.

At one point, they tried to kill off Sally in the infamous "Endgame" arc, but fan outrage would not allow it. They had made her too charismatic and like-able a character to simply be dismissed...which also lead to contraversy.

The complex and crossing story-arcs packed with Archie-Only characters resulted in a confusing book, that especially boggles newcomers. A trend with the comics is to reveal a character as "Not Someone you thought they were for the last year" with dopplegangers, robot duplicates or inter-reality swapping. Add to the confusion? Always. The 150th Issue has Sonic 'sleeping around' with various females from the forest as Sally has dumped him, Tails hates him for 'stealing his girl' (a female who did not like Tails in the first place) and a traditionally weak/cowardly character (Antoine the fox) beating Sonic badly in a battle. This seems like Bizzarro World!

What has happened to our heroes? Rumors are flying that they are trying to 'kill off' the entire 'Archieverse arc' to favor a new, more game-related/Sonic-X like arc...but this seems an absurd way to do it. Time will tell....

Time to go hardcore and complete your comic collection?
Then you can't miss these mini-series comics, even though Sonic is not in all of them. Out of these, the Princess Sally ones are probably the most difficult to get in original form. The Knuckles miniseries was so popular, that it led to him getting his own comic...

Sonic X #1, see the mini-series page for more issues...though it has apparently turned into a regular series.

Which lasted from issue #1 to issue #28. Why did it end? Not enough people bought it. If you try to read it, keep in mind that this continuity has nothing to do with anything else. When the comic was created, there was no "Official Echidna History" to go on, so there's a whole alternate universe thing going on here.
When the series was cancelled, Knuckles stories returned into the Sonic regular comic that they had come from.

You need the Sonic Comic Mini-Series Page to find out more!

Ken Penders Comic Con Sonic Signed Print

This is an official signed print.
Being official artists for a franchise, it is legal for authorized comic artists to sell prints of their work relating to the comic book. (Technically it is not legal to *mass produce* and sell fan art if you are not an officially licensed artist)
Here, you can see a Ken Penders piece from the San Diego comic con of 2007. It is a signed and numbered piece (411 out of a possible 500, and measures 7 x 11 inches) belonging to Rae_Logan who also framed it and took the photo.
You will often see similar items by various artists crop up on Ebay, being auctioned off by the artist. Because there are so many fans of the Sonic Archie Comic, panels, pages and splash-pages are basically like a license to print money for these people. Any good quality press can run off any desired number of copies, which they then hand-sign and post for sale.

This piece however is different, because you can see that it has been personalized by Ken Penders at the Comic Con, so it is different from the prints found on Ebay.