Archie Sonic Hiatus Discussion

[Shadowlax]

11 minutes ago, Mad Convoy said:

My first thought upon hearing this from somebody who isn't interested in any comics, Sonic included-- what the ever loving flibbity fuck Sega and Archie?

There is definitely a backstory behind this.

Sega probably wanted more money and a better publisher and Archie probably didn't wanna make the books anymore. While there are fantastic interesting dumpster fires that get elaborated on like the development of rise of lyric. 

A lot of these dumpsterfires , it tends to be he simplest and most boring answers. 

[Multikaris]

12 minutes ago, Jovahexeon Ace Joranvexeon said:

By saying it's dying and all the negative, opinionated oversimplifications you spouted at it? What logic is there to that???

I was pointing out that there was some continuity and characterization to it. 

[Tails spin]

So.. we will never get the last Mega Drive comic. Great left on a cliff hanger

[Your Vest Friend]

Remember to send some love to Evan too. 

 

[SonicComicFanboy]

i have no doubt like with ROL this was mostly SEGA's fault.   As a powerless consumer though all I can do is speak with my wallet, SEGA wont be getting a single cent from me ever again. (Unless by some miracle the FF end up bieng DLC chars in Forces, but that has about a 0.001% chance of ever happening, so yea.)  And what very little non Archie/Toon Sonic Merch I currently own is going in the garagesale box.   

 

I know that sounds like an over reaction to some. But to me this is a betrayel from a company whose franchise I supported since I was a small child.  So yea, SEGA joins Marvel & Wal-Mart on the no fly list for me.

[EmmBee]

1 hour ago, PC the Hedgehog said:

Calling it now: Sonic will be going to a different publisher. Sure sounds by the wording that that's what Sega has planned.

I'm not gonna get all up in arms because we still don't know what exactly Sega has planned, but they obviously have something in mind for the Sonic comics.

This is how I'm choosing to take it. The language they used seems to imply they have something planned. There's no doubt Sega of America knew how much of a following that comic had and the milestone it was approaching.

I just hope whatever is planned could be a direct continuation. Would be nice to still see it reach #300.

[Multikaris]

8 minutes ago, SonicComicFanboy said:

i have no doubt like with ROL this was mostly SEGA's fault.   As a powerless consumer though all I can do is speak with my wallet, SEGA wont be getting a single cent from me ever again. (Unless by some miracle the FF end up bieng DLC chars in Forces, but that has about a 0.001% chance of ever happening, so yea.)  And what very little non Archie/Toon Sonic Merch I currently own is going in the garagesale box.   

 

I know that sounds like an over reaction to some. But to me this is a betrayel from a company whose franchise I supported since I was a small child.  So yea, SEGA joins Marvel & Wal-Mart on the no fly list for me.

Not even Forces? It seems to be more serious. 

 

(Would have added Boom S2, but it's no longer serious at all now)

[Detective Kaito]

All we can do now is raise our voice.

[Your Vest Friend]

And there's even more staff tweets to look at. 

 

[Blue Swallow]

Well this sucks, I figured it was probably being cancelled, but I had a little hope inside that it really was just a hiatus.

I don't think this was handled well at all, I would love to know what was going on this whole time. Of course I have no clue, but I've got a feeling this was Sega's decision, not Archie's. I feel like if it was Archie's decision, Sega wouldn't be bothering with taking the comics in a "different direction". Speaking of which, I am not at all looking forward to this different direction.

And I feel so bad for all the people who were working on the comic, I hope they can find other work. 

[JC_Mike]

Ok there's seems to be a lot of bad information going around about who owns what:

1. Sega owns the freedom fighters, Ian pretty much spelled that out in the last bumblekast on how they were "grandfathered" into the comics.
2. Sega owns any post-reboot characters created.
3. Sega just owns the comic, period.

That means that they can just break free from Archie at any time with no strings holding them back, and they just did. So it would be wise to find a publisher who isn't going to try and make the sonic comics "their own" by rebooting it, or to still believe in the bullshit reason that 20 year old "not technically created by Sega" characters are ruining their true purposes for the comics, which is to sell games.

[ShadenSSJG]

Oh cmon,are you really kidding me?,what wrong with the people of now?? 

[SonicComicFanboy]

14 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

And there's even more staff tweets to look at. 

 

Those posts are heartbreaking.  But yes hopefully the new publisher will be nice enough to put out the remaining unpublished Archie material.  If its Boom or IDW they probably would as they are cool like that but if its anybody else I dunno.  And I agree with Ty, I really wanted that Champions trade!

 

 

 And yes SEGA owns the Freedom Fighters, but they also own Bean, Bark, Mighty, Ray, Honey, etc and plenty of other characters that actually appeared in games that have been all but abandoned.  Not exactly reassuring.

 

But yes if SEGA were smart they would let any upcoming publisher use the franchises entire 26 years worth of characters from every knook and crany.  Sadly SEGA hasn't been smart for a good 14 years or so now so until we get more news i'm not getting my hopes up.

[Candescence]

I really hope the license goes over to IDW. Ian, Tyson, etc. have been doing good work, I don't see any reason why SEGA would partner up with anyone else at this point.

That being said, I do worry for the state of the comics going forward in terms of cast, particularly since SEGA has been becoming more restrictive with what people can do with the series. I wouldn't have an issue with rebooting the whole thing to be much closer to the games but keeping the SATAM cast to liven things up somewhat, but if it's just games-only material rigidly close to SEGA's 'guidelines'? Fuck, what's even the point, then? 

[Neon Zephyr]

22 minutes ago, Candescence said:

I really hope the license goes over to IDW. Ian, Tyson, etc. have been doing good work, I don't see any reason why SEGA would partner up with anyone else at this point.

That being said, I do worry for the state of the comics going forward in terms of cast, particularly since SEGA has been becoming more restrictive with what people can do with the series. I wouldn't have an issue with rebooting the whole thing to be much closer to the games but keeping the SATAM cast to liven things up somewhat, but if it's just games-only material rigidly close to SEGA's 'guidelines'? Fuck, what's even the point, then? 

I have to second this.

I'm the type of person who felt that even some of the reboot!designs were too bland from trying to adhere to existing characters' design templates too strongly. 

As much as I hate the comic ending at the point it did (until we get solid news otherwise), with multiple arcs incomplete and so close to #300, I have to say that the worst part is all the creators (writers, artists) on the book who are being hurt by this. If IDW or anyone else picks it up, I really hope they at least reach out to as many of these guys as they can. 

On that note, can someone list as many of the artists' and writers' twitters as they can? I would like to follow as many as possible and give them support in whatever ways I can. And I'm sure I'm not the only one.

EDIT:

1 hour ago, Tylinos said:

Either way, the subscription contact address is orderhelp@archiecomics.com

Thanks, mate. Just forwarded them my latest subscription email with a refund request. I don't really want any of Archie's other stuff. 

Edited July 20, 2017 by Neon Zephyr
didn't want to bump the thread

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

My heart goes out to all of the staff that worked on the comics. Thank you all and I wish you the best.

Question though, I don't know much about business, but how long do you think it's gonna take for another publisher to pick up the series? If it happens.

[Celestia]

36 minutes ago, JC_Mike said:

That means that they can just break free from Archie at any time with no strings holding them back, and they just did. So it would be wise to find a publisher who isn't going to try and make the sonic comics "their own" by rebooting it, or to still believe in the bullshit reason that 20 year old "not technically created by Sega" characters are ruining their true purposes for the comics, which is to sell games.

The issue with that is that it's SEGA who doesn't really care about the DiC characters. From what I can recall, it's been reported that Ian had to fight to keep them around during the reboot. Now, it's possible that changed SEGA's mind on those characters, but who knows. And honestly, if SEGA dictates that they can't use those characters, whatever new company and creative team they team up with is not going to have any other options but presenting us with a fresh start.

It seems all but confirmed there's going to be a new comic. There's a lot of questions here--who's the publisher, when will that announcement be, who's going to be the creative team? And so on. I'm definitely sad to say goodbye, it sucks that Archie Sonic didn't get a proper conclusion (unless they do stick with this continuity, but again, I'm very skeptical of that), but y'know...I'm curious to see what happens next. This whole situation is really sad, but I've kinda accepted Archie Sonic was probably done for a while back, so I'm willing to move on if that's what it's come to.

More importantly though, I feel so bad for Ian and the artists and everyone else involved with the book. Some of these tweets seem to imply they were as in the dark as we were, or at least they were holding in their thoughts on the matter until now. Regardless, I'm so thankful, we got a pretty solid ten year run of a comic book here and for anyone here who's not that familiar with the industry outside of Archie Sonic: as far as modern comics go, that's wild. I hope for the best for the entire staff, whatever they end up doing.

[CottonCandy]

I guess it's officially. This sucks but on the other hand this doesn't mark the end of the comics. I wonder what the new direction will be. My guess it'll be more based on the games, probably meaning the freedom fighters are out of the picture. 

Seriously though, I wish Ian Flynn and rest of the Sonic Archie staff the best of luck. They are awesome, talented people. 

 

[NotHole]

15 minutes ago, Celestia said:

It seems all but confirmed there's going to be a new comic.

No, it isn't. "This does not mark the end of Sonic in comics" means they want a new publisher for the comic, but it doesn't mean they've found/will find one.

[JC_Mike]

16 minutes ago, Celestia said:

The issue with that is that it's SEGA who doesn't really care about the DiC characters. From what I can recall, it's been reported that Ian had to fight to keep them around during the reboot. Now, it's possible that changed SEGA's mind on those characters, but who knows. And honestly, if SEGA dictates that they can't use those characters.

Well pray to whatever higher being you believe in that someone at Sega has a soul (and a brain IMO) to keep them and the continuity around. I'm getting sick of any more hidden nightmares Sega still has up it shady sleeves. I've only just started reading after the reboot happened and Sally and Nicole now hold a special place in my heart.

On another, maybe off-topic note, does anybody know of any Sonic plush makers who are willing to do any of the freedom fighters? I've been meaning to ask before but now since the nightmare got worse, I need something physical to hold on to.

[Tracker_TD]

Sad to see the comic end, but not exactly surprised when all is said and done. 

At this point, it'd be nice to see the comics go to IDW or Boom Studios, but without the original team it'd kinda feel... hollow? Hesse and Flynn are great and all, but I can't understate the fantastic stuff Herms, Yardley, Hernandez, Skelly, and so many more brought.

As for continuity... eh. Folks evidently feel very strongly about their SatAM characters but from a personal standpoint I'm not fussed if they survive the transfer to a new publisher. I'd like to see the revived scrapped characters like Bean and Honey remain, but I've not real strong feelings either way on the Freedom Fighters. 

[RictalRose0]

I fucking knew it. I told myself I was ready for it and yet here I am, surprised it is actually cancelled. All this talk of reboots and other publishers made me think that perhaps that was what would happen. Not outright cancellation. Damn.

[Your Vest Friend]

Adam Bryce Thomas has weighed in, and gave us a tiny tidbit about SU #95/96.

 

He gives out thanks to the other staff in other Twitter posts (but they're segmented, not chained. ). 

[SonicComicFanboy]

SU 96 was my dream story.  Bunnie & Blaze my fave Comic & fave game character teaming-up.  It would have been great!!

 

 This gives me a goal though, I will now start a change jar specifically made to buy any finished art from that issue, I will become rich for the soul purpose of buying the script from ian and the pages from whoever, this is my Mulan Scheawan chicken sauce.  I will NOT REST until it is mine!!!  

*Now where do I find a Morty to help me with my mad designs!?*

 

 

Also I 2nd the plushie makers request, commisining a Bunnie Rabbot plush is something i'd do in a heartbeat whenever I am able to do so!

 

Also @JC. I've seen Sally Acorn & Bunnie Rabbot t-shirts on Redbubble. Not a plushie but hope it helps.

[PC the Hedgehog]

32 minutes ago, NotHole said:

No, it isn't. "This does not mark the end of Sonic in comics" means they want a new publisher for the comic, but it doesn't mean they've found/will find one.

It's Sonic the flippin' Hedgehog. Plus, he was the longest-running licensed comic book character ever, so it's quite clear there's money to be made. I have little doubt someone will jump at the chance to pick up the rights to a comic series.