Lew Stringer's Original Sonic the Comic pitch

[Badnik Mechanic]

This has been on Lew Stringers blog for nearly a year and I've not noticed it until today.

 

Lew Stringer worked on the comic as a scriptwriter, however, he is also an acomplished artist and originally applied for an artists position, and would you believe his original pitch still survives.

 

 

They're photocopies of the work as the originals were sent to fleetway, but what you see is an insight into what Fleetways STC might have looked under a very different direction.

 

 

Before anyone who is either too young to remember the 90's or who didn't live in the UK during the 90's comments on how odd it looks. For childrens comics in the UK during this time, this art style was not uncommon, in fact it would find home perfectly well in comics like the Beano and The Beezer.

 

In fact in one of the pages there is a random creature popping up which looks a bit like one of the 'squishies' from The Beano's Calamity James strip.

 

Unfortunately these are photocopies, but Lew Stringer did edit one to show roughly what the colouring would have looked like.

 

 

Like I said, these may seem odd and totally out of place for Sonic as we know him. But don't forget, there was a time when Sonic was going to be fighting monsters instead of robots, and whilst this might be a futile task to convince you if you've never seen any. Go and read comic strips like 'The Numbskulls' or 'Calamity James' or any other childrens comic from the UK that was made in the 90's and you'll see the influences that have gone into this work.

 

TSS Article

 

Lew Stringers blog

[MamboCat]

This is great. I love seeing old stuff for STC. A while back STCO had an interview with Richard Elson and it showed a bunch of concept sketches he'd done oh so many years ago. This is really interesting to see! Unfortunately I've never really been into blogs so I guess I must have missed this! FOR SHAME!

 

I have to say I do find this art style very familiar. There were two Sonic annuals in the UK, completely unrelated to STC (but I have a feeling Richard Elson might have drawn some of the art), but this also looks very similar to the comics in that annual. Do you know if he worked on these as well?

[SuperLink]

I was about to say actually, right before you mentioned the Beano I was thinking "holy crap this looks remarkably British"

 

It really looks like some kind of Sonic Beano strip. Cor blimey!

[Badnik Mechanic]

 

I have to say I do find this art style very familiar. There were two Sonic annuals in the UK, completely unrelated to STC (but I have a feeling Richard Elson might have drawn some of the art), but this also looks very similar to the comics in that annual. Do you know if he worked on these as well?

 

As far as I'm aware, it was just Elson who worked on those, well the scripts were by someone else, but it couldn't have been Stringer, at least I don't think it was. It might have been the same person who used to do the mini strips that appeared in the News of the World before STC.

 

As for other artists, Peter Richardson, the guy who did the Streets of Rage artwork, was actually asked to do Sonic, he told me he might have done it similar to his Streets of Rage work, so we would have had a 'noir style' sonic. Which when you think about it, could be really cool.

[Spin Attaxx]

Sonic looks really fat in those.

[Tori Himemiya]

The only thing I can guess from all this is Sonic fighting robot alien demon things and being abducted by the said aliens.

Sounds a bit off the wall since it just comes out of nowhere. I do like the art though.

[MamboCat]

Sonic looks really fat in those.

 

I knoooooooow, isn't he chubby?! D'awww. :3 I seem to remember STC Sonic being kinda portly as well, with the exception of Casanovas drawing him slightly taller...

 

Ooh, oooh! I only just noticed the little creature going "coff!" That is soooo Beano! XD Love it.

Edited May 4, 2013 by MamboCat

[WarioBone]

It may look fine for its time, but it looks like absolute GARBAGE now.

[Badnik Mechanic]

I knoooooooow, isn't he chubby?! D'awww. :3 I seem to remember STC Sonic being kinda portly as well, with the exception of Casanovas drawing him slightly taller...

 

Ooh, oooh! I only just noticed the little creature going "coff!" That is soooo Beano! XD Love it.

 

According to Nigel Kitching, they had to base Sonic off this US publication

 

 

I actually showed both him and Dobbyn that at an SOS a few years ago and they both recognised it as the original source material that they were given. And in that one Sonic is kinda on the chubby side, so it sorta makes sense why they kept up that for the comics history.

[Adamis]

Oh yeah, I saw these last year.

[iDEATH]

Wow...a Sonic beano strip. This stuff's pretty cool, glad it didn't make it into the final product but it's still great to see.

 

As for other artists, Peter Richardson, the guy who did the Streets of Rage artwork, was actually asked to do Sonic, he told me he might have done it similar to his Streets of Rage work, so we would have had a 'noir style' sonic.

 

Wow........thank god that never happened. The art for the SoR strips was awful....that said, the SoR strips were shite in general....

[Gabz Girl]

An interesting look into what STC could've been. It certainly has that Beano look, right down to the facial expressions and the "coff!". =) It's cute!

[iDEATH]

An interesting look into what STC could've been. It certainly has that Beano look, right down to the facial expressions and the "coff!". =) It's cute!

 

ha I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out. That's one thing I loved about the beano style, all those little hidden things they'd pack into panels.

 

Interesting to see how they would have been coloured too. Looks like the old 4 colour superhero comics. Could this mean that the budget for STC was originally much lower than what it would eventually become. Full colour comics cost more than ones with limited palettes.

[richardandjudy]

ha I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out. That's one thing I loved about the beano style, all those little hidden things they'd pack into panels.

Interesting to see how they would have been coloured too. Looks like the old 4 colour superhero comics. Could this mean that the budget for STC was originally much lower than what it would eventually become. Full colour comics cost more than ones with limited palettes.

No… as you can see in the blog post these two sample pages (it wasn't really a pitch, he was applying for an artist role) were submitted after STC had already been going a little while. Lew Stringer only had black and white photocopies available to scan for that blog post so he colourised the villain panel to give you an idea of what it looked like.

Edited May 6, 2013 by richardandjudy

[iDEATH]

No… as you can see in the blog post (which has the full strip) this artwork was submitted after STC had already been going a little while.

 

ah, missed that, cheers