Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[Toby]

I bag and board mine as well, keep them in a short box, because I really don't have that many issues anymore. Sometimes it can be a hassle when I just want to look through a couple of issues though, bags and boards can be a pain to mess with.

[anna]

I'm a comic newbie, so...what's bagging and boarding? It sounds like putting them in bags with cardboard to keep them from getting wrinkles and stuff?

Edit: Google is my friend! Can you buy the bags/boards in comic shops, or is there a special place to get them?

[Your Vest Friend]

I use the carrier bag I brought them home in, they're sitting in a pile of books on a storage box.

 

Also I'm sure you could buy the protective stuff at comic shops because they're the specialists.

[Big Panda]

So, I've read quite a chunk of issues over the last couple of days, mainly because it's got to the point where I really started digging the comic last time I read it, so my pace has quickened. I'm up to StH #77. But one thing I would like to highlight is how god awful the art by Chris Allan in KtE #26 to #28 was. And I mean, really freakin' atrocious. I get the impression that Allan was not terribly familiar with the Sonic style, because, while his work on faces and expressions was actually pretty good, his work on bodies was abominable. Check it out.  

 Also, the story wasn't much to write home about. It could've been done in one issue, honestly, but instead it was spread across three, and had so little going on in it that there was room for a way more interesting and satisfying backup story about Mighty, Nic, and Fiona going to rescue Ray.  Anyways, it was followed up by KtE #29, which I guess was okay, but it really felt like a lot of exposition and retroactively justifying things that didn't make a lot of sense -- like Elias being on the Floating Island all this time and Knuckles being completely oblivious to it. I've only got three more issues of KtE to go now, but then it's the long, drawn out Chaos Knuckles arc in StH that I've got to read, what? Three or four years of?

My favourite page from that arc is when Knuckles randomly loses his shit with Vector.

[Big Panda]

Evil Reborn and the Silver Saga are BOTH dropping next week according to Previewsworld! Hurray!

[Spidey3525]

Evil Reborn and the Silver Saga are BOTH dropping next week according to Previewsworld! Hurray!

Hopefully it doesn't get delayed at the last minute. Now I can finally read the ending to the Silver Saga.

[Metal the Mario]

I already mentioned this in the status updates, but does anyone else think the artwork in the current SU arc seems really crisp and high-quality this time around?

 

I can't tell if it's Yardley!'s pencils (which look better and more on-model than ever), Amash's inks, or Herms' colors, or a combination of them all. But it seems like both books are really bringing their A-game lately in the art department.

[biznizz]

I'd say it's all three. Yardley's pencils are almost usually high quality, but the ink & coloring is what is needed to really make them pop.

 

Art wise, the book has consistantly been in a nice Golden Age, where even the looser artists like Jerry Gaylord is still infinitely better than Ron Lim or Ken Penders.

 

I bemoan the fact that Gabrie consistantly gave such a litlle sh*t about quality as opposed to keeping the book on time, that the art could get really atrocious. Even Stephen Butler, who's got a lot of talent, was allowed to make the women oversexualized, especially in 25YL, J. Axer and Dawn Best weren't around consistantly or for very long, and that Lim was allowed to keep working until he left with Karl.

[Zaysho]

I'd say it's all three. Yardley's pencils are almost usually high quality, but the ink & coloring is what is needed to really make them pop.

I'd agree with this highly. Those three together is a winning combination. Compare Yardley and how he's inked between Amash and Austin, Amash helps Yardley's pencils soar. Austin is competent and I think he did well with guys like Bates and Peppers and even current artists like Evan Stanley and Jennifer Hernandez, but Yardley's and Butler's pencils suffered majorly with him, and it's especially noticeable after "Genesis". I will say when Butler returned for the Iron Dominion, Austin's inks were a lot stronger even though I wouldn't say his inks fit with the book that much (probably because Amash was basically the main inker for so long). I'd rather he and Gary Martin switch books; maybe Mega Man would suit Austin a bit better.

You know, as you mention Gabrie and keeping the book on time as opposed to focusing on quality, it's pretty amazing comparing the creative teams then and now. While Flynn doesn't hit the jackpot all the time, he's consistently done a solid job with little to no fatigue, and the current art team as a whole, manage to put down a great looking batch of 20 pages on time every month and somehow just keep getting better from my view. Even with the massive hiccup from the legal nonsense, even with the eleventh hour changes, they managed to deliver a much more polished product compared to what we saw in the book's "dark age." More than anything, the upshot in quality and timeliness is probably owed to Pellerito and, later on, Kaminski, who did a good job holding everything together when Penders threw a massive wrench into the works.

[Wittymations]

So, I gotta question, I just recently read the latest Universe, and something came to me.

 

I'll spoiler it. If someone already spoke about this, my bad. I must have missed it.

 

I'm assuming "the spirit" is Tikal. Originally, when Chaos jumped out it showed him, well... watery stuff. We knew it was Chaos, but the spirit had an off-panel dialogue with Knuckles. This spirit, going by her unique bubbles, also spoke to Coral.

 

So, I'm reading this as possible three different things:

1. They're hyping Tikal for her big reveal at the end, for some reason.

2. It's a different spirit, for some reason.
3. Some crazy-ass SEGA mandates that make no sense, but we got no choice, and they're allowing Chaos but not Tikal, for some reason.

 

Anyone got any information?

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Yeah, it's Tikal. That's just too obvious.

 

Not sure if it's gonna be a major reveal, but it's something that might be interesting somewhere down the line.

[Wittymations]

I was sure it was that character, but I'm just trying to figure out why they're not showing them. Whether it's hype or just "Yeah... off limits."

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I gotta say but one of my biggest problems with Issues 5-8 of Worlds Collide is the art. Not the actual pencils themselves because as usual Tracey Yardley! Is great as always (Even if more work was needed for the Mega Man characters) the problem was the colours for me. The colours really looked a bit washed out for some reason and I just wasn't a fan of that, especially in the mini arc which takes place in a huge colourful zone.

[Mauro Fonseca]

I was sure it was that character, but I'm just trying to figure out why they're not showing them. Whether it's hype or just "Yeah... off limits."

 

At this point I'm sure if there was a character they wanted to use and couldn't, they just wouldn't use her instead of this odd pussyfooting.

[Wittymations]

At this point I'm sure if there was a character they wanted to use and couldn't, they just wouldn't use her instead of this odd pussyfooting.

Well, I remember with Nega they used him but as an ominous figure, but that was a while.

[Your Vest Friend]

At this point I'm sure if there was a character they wanted to use and couldn't, they just wouldn't use her instead of this odd pussyfooting.

 

Despite Captain Metal having to pussyfoot around his origin. 

[Xeric]

I'm sure I saw people asking Ian why they were tip toeing around Tikal on Bumbleking and Twitter, but he didn't give a response in either case.

[Tenko]

Surely they can't be still on edge over Penders and his claim that he 'invented' the idea of having other echidnas...regardless of SA coming after his Knuckles comics, there were still other echidnas in other official Sega works before SA, and before his Knuckles comics, and that's 100% concrete.

[Zaysho]

Surely they can't be still on edge over Penders and his claim that he 'invented' the idea of having other echidnas...regardless of SA coming after his Knuckles comics, there were still other echidnas in other official Sega works before SA, and before his Knuckles comics, and that's 100% concrete.

 

What's more, unlike the Dark Brotherhood (which I understand were, more or less, loosely based on the Legion), the Knuckles clan is so far removed from basically anything the comic did. Like you mentioned, the Knuckles clan is far more similar to the tribe of Echidnas from the French Sonic Adventures comic. Though, wasn't Penders either in denial that that comic existed or claimed they somehow ripped off his idea of other Echidnas or some nonsense...?

 

I really hope there is an explanation as for why Tikal hasn't been fully revealed yet. Otherwise, I can't understand why SEGA approved the scripts in the first place if they don't want to even address her by name or feel she has some sort of dubious status that she really doesn't have. Hell, even Penders said Tikal is SEGA's (and thank goodness).

[Mauro Fonseca]

Despite Captain Metal having to pussyfoot around his origin. 

 

Captain Metal is a separate character, it's just his origins that were questionable. If this leads to the spirit magically transforming into BLIKAL THE BLECHIDNA it'll be more comparable.

 

As for Nega, don't know if it's comparable either. Nega is a character who became muddled via games external to Sonic Team and whom Sonic Team seemed in doubt as to what to make of him. He doesn't even get to show up on Sonic Channel, which is pretty telling.

 

Tikal, however? There she is. They admit she exists and have no problem with it. Not to mention, why say "Tikal can't appear" and let Chaos show up?

[anna]

Got my issue of #262 today! No printing issues this time !

Ooh, I'm curious for how Rotor and Sonic's underwater adventure will end. Though, is Rotor able to breathe without it? Being a walrus? Or is that just a walrus misconception? 

 

I really want to take a moment to say how much I appreciate Ian's characters, and how well they fit into this whole thing, as well as their dynamics. Pearly's fear of the chao, her determination...yeah. I just really like it...

 

Also, Aleah Baker wrote The Light in The Dark? Or at least, part three? I didn't know that! It was so seamless...

 

Some highlights

[Mauro Fonseca]

oh christ that inking

 

oh god those cubic chao

 

anyways aleah wrote all three parts of the backup, yep. walruses can't breathe underwater, just like no mammal can IIRC.

[Illuminous_Orb]

I wonder why they still keep Austin around on the book considering he's always been this consistently "okay" to "below average" for the past 2 years or now and i would honestly like to see someone else take the helm.

[Zaysho]

I wonder why they still keep Austin around on the book considering he's always been this consistently "okay" to "below average" for the past 2 years or now and i would honestly like to see someone else take the helm.

 

I have to wonder if it's because he can get things done quickly, as he was brought in right when Sonic Universe started and Amash was moved over to that book and Austin took over from #200-onward. Thing is, he did start out good, and I'm not sure what happened. I looked at a "The Shield" story he did in The Fox (I think this issue is from November last year), which would be better suited to him, and it has the same problems with his Sonic work, so it's like he's either petered out or the deadline crunch leads to the really shaky output he has now (Sonic #256 is an interesting example because he does a few pages well, and the others are much more rushed looking).

 

I understand he is actually a celebrated inker, so it just makes his output now more disappointing (I remember Kaminski actually hyped him up). Though, if I'm being honest, I only started to notice problems with him after "Genesis," because even the stuff he inked before that was pretty good.

 

I still think Gary Martin should get moved over to Sonic because that man can ink.

[PC the Hedgehog]

Terry Austin's inks belong nowhere in any Sonic or Mega Man book. Sonic and Mega Man are series that feature bold, dynamic, lively, smooth, THICK inking, none of which is or, really, has ever been present in Terry Austin's work. He's easily the worst inker the book has ever had, and the fact that he's been just about the only inker on the main series for over five years while the other creatives have constantly been shuffled around boggles my mind.

Give some more work to the inkers who have proved themselves over the years, like Amash or Martin. Heck, the artists themselves, like Stanley or Hernandez, are better at inking their own work. I mean, let's compare Amash's work on the latest issue with Austin's:




Amash: smooth. Bold. Dynamic.
Austin: angular. Thin. Lifeless.

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.

Gah, I hate rambling like a dork, but man, this is a hot button issue with me.