What Would Your Ideal Sonic Comics Liscensing Agreement Be Like!?

[MadmanRB]

BOOM would be a good runner up, but i more hope for IDW as they have a good track record with properties and they have a good pool of resources.

[Flyinpenguin117]

3 hours ago, Borvoc said:

@Flyinpenguin117 I'm not assuming that this is what's going to happen, but I am hoping it's what happens. Prepare for the worst; hope for the best.

Its gonna take nothing less than a best-case scenario for me to just not give up on Sonic after this (as hilarious as today's videos on Infinite were). One can only hope that SEGA decides a full-on reboot is more trouble than its worth , and enough of the team comes back to work on it (unlikely, since Yardley's already looking for new work)

Speaking of which, even if SEGA approaches the team to work on the comic again, assuming it even does get relaunched, how many of them would even be interested in coming back again, after everything that's happened the past few years?

[SonicComicFanboy]

7 minutes ago, MadmanRB said:

BOOM would be a good runner up, but i more hope for IDW as they have a good track record with properties and they have a good pool of resources.

Agreed.  Since ecspecially as you said they were able to bring ROM back and have had success with various liscensed properties from Transformers & My Little Pony to Ghostbusters & TMNT.  If anyone could do the series justice it would be them.  Heck they even managed to revitalize JEM of all things!

 

  So yes, please SEGA, for the love of all things Hedgehog go with IDW!!! 

[Borvoc]

Okay, it's a silly point, maybe, but does anyone else think it would be confusing if BOOM picked up the Sonic license? We'd have the Sonic Boom cartoon (at least in the U.S.) and then the BOOM Sonic comic. Then if they made a Sonic Boom comic, it would be BOOM Sonic Boom.

I like IDW because I'm more familiar with them (never really heard of BOOM), but I also like IDW because it would be less confusing. At the same time, I know that's really petty.

[RedFox99]

Just now, Borvoc said:

Okay, it's a silly point, maybe, but does anyone else think it would be confusing if BOOM picked up the Sonic license? We'd have the Sonic Boom cartoon (at least in the U.S.) and then the BOOM Sonic comic. Then if they made a Sonic Boom comic, it would be BOOM Sonic Boom. I like IDW because I'm more familiar with them (never really heard of BOOM), but I also like IDW because it would be less confusing. At the same time, I know that's really petty.

Part of me wanted the comics to go to Boom (publisher) because then it might help the show get nore attention since Boom (again the publisher) does Cartoon Network comics.

[Borvoc]

Wow. That's even more confusing.

[SonicComicFanboy]

Yea  Boom does books for a lot of the newer Cartoon Network shows like Adventure Time, Amazing World of Gumball, Over The Garden Wall & Steven Universe.   They also have a AT/Regular Show crossover mini coming out this fall.  And they recently made a deal with Nick to start doing Rugrats comics in October.

 

Though IDW has the rights to older CN stuff like Dexter, PPG & Samurai Jack, and TMNT is owned by Nick as well, but Oni Does Invader Zim & Rick & Morty.....

 

TV networks are weird, they just throw their liscenses all over the place! XD 

[Borvoc]

Huh. So do either of those publishers (or any other publishers) already publish any comics from a similar license to Sonic or any comics that have a similar feel and target audience? None of that CN stuff sounds similar in tone, but I know that IDW's TMNT Amazing Adventures is very similar as a cleverly-written, all-ages, licensed comic that has a similar feel to the Archie Sonic books—not to silly, not too grim. That alone leans me toward IDW, but I don't know if there are other comics that would indicate a different publisher could handle Sonic correctly on the editorial level.

[SonicComicFanboy]

3 minutes ago, Borvoc said:

Huh. So do either of those publishers (or any other publishers) already publish any comics from a similar license to Sonic or any comics that have a similar feel and target audience? None of that CN stuff sounds similar in tone, but I know that IDW's TMNT Amazing Adventures is very similar as a cleverly-written, all-ages, licensed comic that has a similar feel to the Archie Sonic books—not to silly, not too grim. That alone leans me toward IDW, but I don't know if there are other comics that would indicate a different publisher could handle Sonic correctly on the editorial level.

It just depends on what you like.  Steven Universe is good but mostly slice of life.  IDW has done an excellent job on the main TMNT comic but it can get pretty dark at times.  The closest thing for better or worse is My Little Pony.  But as I don't have the fortitude to survive a fanbase even crazier then Sonic's i'm hesitant to even go there.

 

The only other suppliment till Sonic comes back would probably be IDW's Disney books.  Ducktales is off to a solid start & Uncle Scrooge is great as well.  And some old Sonic Alumni help out with books like Duck Avenger & Uncle Scrooge as well. 

[Borvoc]

True. I had forgotten that.

Edit: And yeah. IDW's TMNT Amazing Adventures (based on the Nickelodeon CGI cartoon) is probably much more similar to the Archie Sonic comics than their mainline TMNT book is. Ian even has former experience (though probably minor) writing for IDW for Amazing Adventures. I think it was just a couple issues, but that might mean that IDW potentially getting the Sonic books could improve the changes of Ian writing them. It's a stretch, but we don't have much to go on here.

[SonicComicFanboy]

51 minutes ago, Borvoc said:

True. I had forgotten that.

Edit: And yeah. IDW's TMNT Amazing Adventures (based on the Nickelodeon CGI cartoon) is probably much more similar to the Archie Sonic comics than their mainline TMNT book is. Ian even has former experience (though probably minor) writing for IDW for Amazing Adventures. I think it was just a couple issues, but that might mean that IDW potentially getting the Sonic books could improve the changes of Ian writing them. It's a stretch, but we don't have much to go on here.

 Yea, Ian at least has a small in with IDW.  Though given he has been burned by liscensed books multiple times now between Megaman & Sonic I would'nt blame him if for some reason he was hesitant to return if offered.  I mean I know he loves the characters just as much as we do, but I would hate to have a gig where in the back of my mind I was wondering "How long till they screw me over again this time?"

[pocket]

2 hours ago, Flyinpenguin117 said:

Its gonna take nothing less than a best-case scenario for me to just not give up on Sonic after this

I feel the same way. The comics were the only ongoing part of the series that I had any genuine passion left for. If Forces is anything short of a 10/10 game, I'm probably out.

As for the topic of the thread, I want it to go to IDW or Boom, and ideally, I'd want to just continue where we left off, or heck, I'd even take a SatAM continuation. I don't have high hopes that this new comic ( if there even is one ) is going to be anything other than a very bare bones story that rarely utilizes characters outside of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Eggman.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Publisher: anyone competent

 

Comic situation: Same production team, same 2013-2017 universe, BUT:

Start from genesis of a hero, tell every story of SatAM characters and Sonic game adaptations between Genesis of a hero and Countdown to Chaos (at least, that holds any relevance to story events, we don't need a Sonic Pocket Adventure adaptation or whatever), then pick up from where they were going to go before (reprint the shattered world crisis?). It'd take a long time and need a lot of reorganizing of elements (as they'd introduce things earlier to the comic than post-252) but it'd ultimately make the most complete and accurate narrative to follow.

Plus, it'd mean we'd have to have good resolutions for some of the plotholes, and find creative ways to sidestep really shitty story decisions from the game stories.

[Sega DogTagz]

Anything that gets Ian back in the fold is fine by me. I just need that dude to keep on writing.

We are probably going to have to get used to an entirely new creative staff though. They are going to have to find a new "look" for their baseline character models. Whoever they choose as a lead/premiere artist is going to have a massive impact on the comic moving forward. Shoot, its gonna hit the franchise hard. The comics might inspire more about "how" we draw the characters than the games do.

[Kvitron Z]

I so hope that new comics are making a IDW. And they make a new comic as their current TMNT, that is - will have elements and characters from previous versions (including from the Underground). And will have deeper and more elaborate images of game characters with their backstories (especially - Sonic himself). Time will tell...

[Tailikku]

To me, I would probably say that UDON could pull it off, since they had a hand in the Worlds Unite crossover (by way of the Street Fighter character arc).  Their work on Capcom's franchises is almost 99% close to canon, only deviating a bit to fit with the story (I'm looking at you Alex and Nash).  Plus they have done some amazinng work localizing Hitoshi Ariga's Mega Man works, as well as compiling exhaustive artbooks for various videogame series

[SBR2]

18 hours ago, MadmanRB said:

BOOM would be a good runner up, but i more hope for IDW as they have a good track record with properties and they have a good pool of resources.

I would say if IDW gets the license the one problem is that delays will almost certainly still happen (They've had issues with that lately) but I mean at least they'd still arrive.

[SonicComicFanboy]

3 hours ago, SBR2 said:

I would say if IDW gets the license the one problem is that delays will almost certainly still happen (They've had issues with that lately) but I mean at least they'd still arrive.

I'm fine with 1-2 week delays.  Better then a 6+ month "hiatus" 

[BlueSky]

21 hours ago, SonicComicFanboy said:

Yea  Boom does books for a lot of the newer Cartoon Network shows like Adventure Time, Amazing World of Gumball, Over The Garden Wall & Steven Universe.   They also have a AT/Regular Show crossover mini coming out this fall.  And they recently made a deal with Nick to start doing Rugrats comics in October.

 

Though IDW has the rights to older CN stuff like Dexter, PPG & Samurai Jack, and TMNT is owned by Nick as well, but Oni Does Invader Zim & Rick & Morty.....

 

TV networks are weird, they just throw their liscenses all over the place! XD 

Now I started wondering about how would Sonic and Rick & Morty crossover turn out...

[antyep]

I dunno. Udon seems quite likely as they kinda worked with them in Worlds Unite/Collide whatever crossover...if I'm wrong.

[Big Panda]

1 hour ago, antyep said:

I dunno. Udon seems quite likely as they kinda worked with them in Worlds Unite/Collide whatever crossover...if I'm wrong.

...no?

If you mean because the Street Fighter characters were in Worlds Unite, no, they had nothing to do with that.

[antyep]

18 minutes ago, Ernest-Panda said:

...no?

If you mean because the Street Fighter characters were in Worlds Unite, no, they had nothing to do with that.

Well technically they didn't but I think some of their artists had some hand on the crossovers

[Big Panda]

22 minutes ago, antyep said:

Well technically they didn't but I think some of their artists had some hand on the crossovers

Edwin Hueng did, yes.

[SonicComicFanboy]

 Udon is great for art books and manga, but the comics they put out themselves are arguably only so-so.  I would be fine with SEGA giving them the license to put out affordable Sonic/Nights into Dreams/etc artbooks but not sure I would trust them with an ongoing comic book series.

 

[Big Panda]

This still sort of counts as a license agreement discussion, right?

In recent days, I've more or less made piece with the fact that the IDW comic most likely won't be a continuation of the Archie continuity.

However, as unlikely as it may be, there is one thing I really want, and that is for SEGA to give IDW the reprinting rights to the Archie series.

My question is, if they were allowed to, would you want them to pick up were Archie left off or start fresh?

Here's where I churn out random ideas for how either scenario could go:

• IDW continue printing the Post-SGW graphic novels under a new title to differentiate from their own comic and subsiquent GN reprints, something like "Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog" maybe. As well as printing from Volume 5 onward, they'd go back and reissue the existing volumes under the new name. They'd get all the way up to "Genesis of a Hero" where they are allowed to print the part 4 for the first time for the sake of completion. They'd also start printing Archie's initially planned "Sonic Universe Sagas" series alongside it, maybe without the "Sagas" part in the title, since there isn't another currently-running comic to get confused with.
• This idea is similar to the above, except in this scenario, IDW are also allowed to reprint the Pre-SGW stories. In this instance they not only continue with the Post-SGW Sonic books, but they also revive previously discontinued titles like Sonic Archives, Knuckles Archives (admittedly a pretty big "if"), Sonic Sagas, etc. Like before they also reissue the existing volumes as they continue to print the new ones, and maybe even do reissues of completed series' like the Selects. Since the original Sonic Universe graphic novels (picking up again with "Babylon Rising") will also be revived, this would likely allow them to discard the planned Universe Sagas series, as they can now finish up the Pre-SGW arcs before moving onto the Post-SGW arcs from volume 13 onward.
• IDW start their reprintings from scratch. They start a series called "Sonic Classics" or something, and follow suit with the other titles. They can either only do the Post-SGW stuff, or all stuff, in which case they can either do separate lines per continuity or not.
• IDW get reprinting rights to certain stories. I honestly don't see why IDW wouldn't be free to have at stuff like the strictly game-centric stories, such as the out-of-continuity game tie-ins, and the Sonic Boom comics, and of course, Mega Drive.
• IDW are allowed to release the Mega Drive graphic novel only, because...come on, SEGA, at the very least let have this one!

The first three ideas would, most likely, have to exclude the Mega Man crossovers, since IDW lack the license to the franchise.