Sonic the Hedgehog is an ongoing series of comic books published by Archie Comics, featuring Sega's mascot video game character Sonic. Spin-off publications from the comic include a series starring Knuckles the Echidna which ran for 32 issues; fifteen 48-page "Super Specials"; a number of single special issues; and several short three-issue miniseries, each starring a character from the series. On September 21, 2005, Archie started a new series based on the TV show Sonic X. Except for the Sonic X series, all of Archie's Sonic-related series, miniseries and specials take place in the same fictional universe. This universe features a mixture of characters, settings and situations from the SatAM cartoon, the Sonic video games by Sega, and various other incarnations of Sonic. It also includes many elements unique to the comic universe.
Stories, Settings, and Characters
The comic's main focus is the adventure stories of the title character, the world-famous hero Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic loves adventures and chili dogs and always ready to fight any menacing villain that get in his way. Sonic is in some ways different from his game counterpart. In the comics, he is displayed as a frequent wisecracker and somewhat of a ladies' man, an idea absent from most other incarnations. Also, Sonic's age is left intentionally ambiguous due to relativity resulting from his recent space travel. It is likely that Sonic's actual biological age is somewhere between sixteen and eighteen, whereas in the games his is nearly always referred to as fifteen. The comic occasionally implies that "Sonic" is just a nickname, such as the one used by Miles "Tails" Prower. However, this has never been confirmed by ther revelation of an actual first name, although it has been mentioned occasionally that his middle name is "Maurice" and his actual last name is apparently "Hedgehog."
In the comics, Sonic lives on Planet Mobius in Knothole Village. Over time, the political status quo of Mobius has changed, which has caused Sonic's goals and adventures to likewise change. Originally, Sonic belonged to a band of Freedom Fighters who fought the evil dictator Dr. Robotnik, who had usurped the throne decades earlier and enslaved most of the planet. However, in the comic's fiftieth issue, Robotnik was defeated and apparently killed. After this, the comic dealt with the aftermath of Robotnik's regime. Sonic and friends reestablished their lost kingdom and dealt with various underlings to Robotnik, as well as unrelated villains such as Ixis Naugus. In the comic's seventy-fifth issue, an alternate universe version of Robotnik known as Robo-Robotnik came to Mobius Prime (the Mobius of the comics) and took over the original Robotnik's position. Over time, Robo-Robotnik has come to be known as just Robotnik or Eggman. The current status quo of the comic deals with a full-scale war between the Eggman Empire, ruled by Robotnik, and the restored Kingdom of Acorn, currently ruled by King Elias Acorn.
The Sonic comic is known for its very large cast of characters. Major characters from the games include Miles "Tails" Prower, who has been given the title of "Chosen One," Shadow the Hedgehog, who seeks the truth about his past, and Knuckles the Echidna, who guards the Master Emerald. The comic also includes characters from the SatAM cartoon, such as love interest Sally Acorn, Sonic's Uncle Chuck, andthe freedom fighters Bunnie Rabbot, Antoine D'Coolette, and Rotor Walrus. The comic also has its own original characters, such as Mina Mongoose, Elias Acorn, Tommy Turtle and Fiona Fox, characters whose inclusion often cause controversy among fans.
The Archie Sonic comic typically runs original storylines based around characters from various Sonic media, but it has also made a number of adaptations. For instance, it has adapted a couple epsiodes of SatAM, as well as some of the video games' storylines, including Sonic CD, Sonic Adventure, and Sonic Shuffle among others. A recent story loosely adapted Sonic Rush, and an upcoming story will adapt Sonic Riders.
The comic details not only Sonic's present, but also his past and future. Great attention has been given to his back story, including the lives of his relatives and friends during Robotnik's regime and the Great War that preceded it. Also, the comic ran a popular series of stories called "Mobius: 25 Years Later", showing Sonic's possible future as King of Mobius. In these stories, we learn that King Sonic has become a recluse and has severed ties with most of his former friends, except for his continuitng, strained relationship with Knuckles. Due to these stories' popularity, the story will soon be continued with a story detailing the events after King Sonic's time travel causes another possible future in which Shadow is king.
The comic's mythology surrounding the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald is quite different from what is seen in the games. According to the comic, the Chaos Emeralds are the result of alien radiation reacting with beryl deposits thousands of years ago. While in the games there are only seven of these emeralds, there are hundreds in the comic continuity, with seven "Super Emeralds." In addition, the Master Emerald was created by Tails, who used the chaos syphon on several emeralds to unify them. In the games, however, the Master Emerald is thousands of years older than Tails.
Specials, Miniseries, and Knuckles Series
In addition to the main Sonic series, Archie published various special issues. Longer than typical issues of the comic, these specials feature stories involving Sonic and other related characters. Several miniseries have also been published, featuring characters such as Sally, Tails and Knuckles.
Because of the popularity of the specials and Miniseries featuring Knuckles, in 1997 Knuckles the Echidna became an ongoing series. Knuckles's stories featured its own cast of Characters, including the Chaotix and Knuckles's romantic interest, Julie-Su. Like the Sonic comic, Knuckles's comic is filled with background information about Knuckles's family history. Knuckles's family has split into two factions: the Brotherhood of Guardians and the Dark Legion. Knuckles is a member of the former, and Julie-Su used to be a member of the latter. Much of the conflict of the comic surrounds the relations between these two warring factions.
In 1999, the series was cancelled, but the stories were continued in the pages of Sonic the Hedgehog. After Knuckles's cancellation and until issue 125, a typical issue of Sonic included a Sonic story and a Knuckles story, sometimes even including a third story. This led to each story getting considerably less space than it previously had. Recently, Knuckles's appearances have been infrequent but his story continues within Sonic's stories.
The creatores also have a comic strip like a newspaper comic at the end of some issues called Off-Panel. Off-Panel was in every issue for a long time and continues infrequently in the comic series. These strips parody the comic characters as they walk around the office of their comic book creators and interact in various humorous ways.
Movie Aspirations
In the early 2000's, wind was caught of lead writer Ken Penders' attempt to get an animated feature film centered around Knuckles the Echidna into development, the key studio of choice being Dreamworks SKG. His proposals were rejected not out of disinterest (according to Mr. Penders), but due to severe legal complications regarding the copyrights to any Sonic characters developed in connection to the license by any party, which are said to essentially render the story thus far created through the intertwining roles of Japanese and American-conceived characters and concepts entirely limited to the media in which they first appeared--in this case, the Archie comic book series. (It is believed that this same snaggle is the reason for Sonic's suspiciously unnamed home planet featured in Sonic X.) To this day, it is supposed that, due to these complications, Sonic and his friends will never grace the big screen in any form not sanctioned by Sega of Japan in whatever form they choose, and the odds that elements originating from the pages of Archie, including such central elements as the Dark Legion in this case, are extremely slim due to the same set of circumstances.
In a self-published article, Mr. Penders mentioned that the film proposed would have been an animated feature, though whether the animation would have been traditional or computer-generated is unknown. In recent years, a small number of fans have expressed enthusiasm over the supposition that a Sonic movie (epecially one based mostly on the Archie comic) should be presented, if financially viable, in live-action using advanced motion-capture techniques as a means of preserving (or furthering) the darker tone of the American canon.
Current Progression
Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog continuity is currently comprised of the following comics, some of which can be ordered online. There is also a free online preview of the comics.
- Sonic the Hedgehog #1-162 (ongoing)
- Knuckles #1-32
- Super Sonic Specials #1-15
- Sonic Miniseries #0-3
- Knuckles Miniseries #1-3
- Tails Miniseries #1-3
- Princess Sally Miniseries #1-3
- Various other specials (18):
- Archie Sonic Mini - 1999
- Archie Sonic Mini - September 1998
- Sonic & Sabrina Crossover - pt 1
- Sonic Live! #1
- Knuckles History #1-4
- Knuckles Chaotix #1
- Sonic & Knuckles Mecha Madness #1
- Sonic & Knuckles #1
- Sonic Blast #1
- Sonic In Your Face #1
- Sonic Quest Mini-Series #1-3
- Sonic Triple Trouble #1
- Super Sonic vs Hyper Knuckles #1
Archie also publishes a comic called Sonic X, based on the Sonic X cartoon series:
- Sonic X #1-7 (ongoing)
List of Writers
List of Pencillers
- Chris Allan
- Jeff Axer
- Dawn Best
- Al Bigley
- Steven Butler
- Colleen Doran
- James Fry
- John Hebert
- Michael Higgins
- Kyle Hunter
- Manny Galan
- Jon Gray
- Sanford Greene
- Ron Lim
- Dave Manak
- Art Mawhinney
- Sam Maxwell
- Harvey Mercadoocasio (a.k.a. Harvo)
- Nelson Ortega
- Ken Penders
- Nelson Ribeiro
- Scott Shaw!
- Tom Smith III
- Patrick Spaziante (a.k.a. Pat Spaz)
- Frank Strom
- Brian Thomas
- Jim Valentino
- Tracy Yardley!