Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[SBR2]

So am I the only one who doesn't have a problem with the "Introduce a Character an Issue" format? We're already halfway through all the important characters so it'll be done before issue 12 TBH. I'm sure we'll get Cream and Big in the next 2 and those are the last major characters left at this point.

Then it's free game for everyone to appear whenever after that.

[DabigRG]

3 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

So am I the only one who doesn't have a problem with the "Introduce a Character an Issue" format? We're already halfway through all the important characters so it'll be done before issue 12 TBH. I'm sure we'll get Cream and Big in the next 2 and those are the last major characters left at this point.

Then it's free game for everyone to appear whenever after that.

i don't mind it per say, but unfortunately, it hasn't truly convinced some of us that it can be done with also maintaining much semblance of a story/progression. The Knuckles and Blaze issues can honestly be seen as their own things aside from maybe the endings.

[Sonic Fan J]

17 hours ago, BlossomHaze said:

And a new character? I like the name -- Whisper. I wonder who it is?

I like the name Whisper as well as it plays on sound like Sonic's name.

6 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

So am I the only one who doesn't have a problem with the "Introduce a Character an Issue" format? We're already halfway through all the important characters so it'll be done before issue 12 TBH. I'm sure we'll get Cream and Big in the next 2 and those are the last major characters left at this point.

Then it's free game for everyone to appear whenever after that.

I'm actually enjoying it and see it as a form of indirect world building right now. That said @DabigRG is right as well

Just now, DabigRG said:

i don't mind it per say, but unfortunately, it hasn't truly convinced some of us that it can be done with also maintaining much semblance of a story/progression. The Knuckles and Blaze issues can honestly be seen as their own things aside from maybe the endings.

But if the cover for issue 7 is anything to go by some characters might start reappearing sooner than later. If anything, my biggest concern right now is that the beginning may feel to much like a collection of small adventures instead of one constantly growing and evolving one. Nothing wrong with smaller adventures, but IDW will need a bigger one sooner than later if they intend to hook people for the long run.

[Marco9966]

Do you think Gigi Dutreix might do penciling in the future?

[Your Vest Friend]

Actually, thinking about it, there's something I really, really hate about Tangle.

So  I've been spying on sources again. Apparently someone went to the Momocon panel with Yardley and Bryce Thomas and noted down their comments and answers to questions. I'll copy what they've put ad verbatim, these are not my notes. 

Quote

 

-Transition:
Abt coasted through the hiatus on commissions after the Archie announcement, and odd jobs. Yardley was much the same, with commissions and independent work. Both were pretty kept in the dark on what was going on behind the scenes until the formal announcement happened and were confident that the license was picked up.

-Differences ar IDW:
Largely the same, Sega has been more lenient and largely hands-off with feedback. If they do, it's really small details, like missing a line of the sole of a shoe or connecting a quill on Sonic's back. They never really ask for anything that would impact story or style.

Yardley notes that the Egg Hammer should look like Heroes, but the badniks are Forces. ABT confirmed that initially Issue 2 was all Forces robots but was directed to be changed to Heroes at the last minute.

-Yardley confirms that Relic was designed jointly between himself, Lovallo, and Baker. Sega stepped in and required Captain Metal not overly look like Metal Sonic. Missing Pirate Princess Chaotix variant led to another confirmed mandate: male characters cannot wear pants. There are also rules about number of eyelashes, how hair connects to heads, lots of clothes requirements, etc.

-ABT would love to have Flynn write a game, but thinks that for the comic originals to show up, they would have to be the focus of the game. He really would hope for there to be enough room for some of Flynn's villains to be added.

-Some questions about the industry, basically staying how important it is to make deadlines and how the work requires a lot of self discipline due to it not being a general 9 to 5 job.

ABT confirms having gone digital, Yardley will largely do the same soon. ABT thinks he has improved significantly since making the jump and that he can do more faster. He may need a colorist due to the workload involved. Yardley says ABT sells himself short. ABT did the SFX himself for issue 7. 

-As far as artistic pitfalls go, Yardley thinks procastination is the biggest danger. It takes him on average 4 hours for one Sonic page. ABT concurs, time management is more critical in comic work than skill necessarily, due to the need to have complete pages than perfect pages.

-Reminder that Ian Flynn can only use SEGA's established characters of the Modern Era (blame Iizuka for that) as part of the main cast. The rest are roles are occasional; meaning we won't see Rough, Tumble, and Tangle in the comics as much as, lets say, Sticks in the Sonic Boom Cartoon.

-Following up in the pitfalls, Yardley says how important it is to be familiar with drawing a diverse range of subject matter, from characters to vehicles to backgrounds to nature to whatever.

They were both asked to talk about their Patreons. ABT knows that he doesn't really utilize his and is there just in case he needs it, focusing more on his comics and the webcomics and private projects. Yardley wanted to be more ambitious and use it to show things behind the scenes for character design and other bonus features. He's been too busy to focus on it too.

-ABT confirmed that Bunnie is favorite Archie character, Bunnie and Antoine for Yardley. 

ABT says Flynn has extremely solid scripts, detailing what happens without directing how it happens, so the artists have freedom of interpretation like paneling and angles. 

ABT likes OVA Sonic best. Yardley prefers Modern.

ABT says independent work like Drogune is harder since it's all self-directed, instead of decisions being made for you. Yardley agrees that working with fewer deadlines can be more stressful and less motivating. 

As far as balancing improvement to work, ABT usually ends up forcing himself to improve during his work, and pushes himself more often than not to hard on projects. Yardley thinks that drawing comic pages are a method of improvement in and of themself, and that it's more of a natural evolution. He feels he hasn't seen much artistic improvement in himself.

Yardley thinks Tails and Blaze are best Sonic friends. 

ABT likes CD the best and hates Teaches Typing is the worst. Yardley likes 2 the best and hates Chronicles.

Yardley would love to write again and hopes to. ABT does not write often and does not think he'd fit the Sonic style of he did.

ABT likes to work in watercolors and thinks they're fun. Yardley has no real preferences of medium.

-Last point: Yardley thinks we'll never see the FF's again, and that only the reboot OC's stand a good chance of coming back. ABT thinks expys are likely.

 

That's all the notes they took.

Man, hate to vent on her like that, but sometimes I just gotta. 

 

[Marco9966]

Quote

Reminder that Ian Flynn can only use SEGA's established characters of the Modern Era (blame Iizuka for that) as part of the main cast. The rest are roles are occasional; meaning we won't see Rough, Tumble, and Tangle in the comics as much as, lets say, Sticks in the Sonic Boom Cartoon. 

What the hell is this rule? Is character development possible for the comics-original characters with this rule??

[Red Hot Jack]

I don't think there is a main cast here, Sonic is the only character who appears in all the issues, the rest are only recurring. Even Eggman it seems. It's hardly like Sonic Boom where there are 8 main characters. Just something I noticed.

[Marco9966]

10 minutes ago, Jack the Maniac said:

I don't think there is a main cast here, Sonic is the only character who appears in all the issues, the rest are only recurring. Even Eggman it seems. It's hardly like Sonic Boom where there are 8 main characters. Just something I noticed.

Hopefully that's the case.

[SBR2]

4 hours ago, Marco9966 said:

What the hell is this rule? Is character development possible for the comics-original characters with this rule??

I'm not sure that's really a major priority honestly. I think they're just focusing on telling fun adventure stories. 

[DabigRG]

5 hours ago, VEDJ-F said:

Actually, thinking about it, there's something I really, really hate about Tangle.

 

  Hide contents

So  I've been spying on sources again. Apparently someone went to the Momocon panel with Yardley and Bryce Thomas and noted down their comments and answers to questions. I'll copy what they've put ad verbatim, these are not my notes. 

That's all the notes they took.

Man, hate to vent on her like that, but sometimes I just gotta. 

 

 

Uuuh-huuuh...wanna be a little more specific for the other members?

[Red Hot Jack]

I think this was done to address the issue of the Freedom Fighters taking too much screen time in Archie comics, even compared to Sonic. So perhaps I should agree with this new rule...

[Marco9966]

1 minute ago, Jack the Maniac said:

I think this was done to address the issue of the Freedom Fighters taking too much screen time in Archie comics, even compared to Sonic. So perhaps I should agree with this new rule...

I don't have a clear opinion on it, I'm in for not overshadowing a-la FF, but at the same time I don't want there to be a main modern character (other than Sonic) required to appear so that a comics character can appear too.

[PublicEnemy1]

55 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

I'm not sure that's really a major priority honestly. I think they're just focusing on telling fun adventure stories. 

Well, then it's not gonna last very long, because comics need to have some depth to keep running, unlike the games.

[Your Vest Friend]

So the latest Bumbleking is out. It's got some pretty interesting points in there. The ones I took most interest in are the following;

-The comments about adapting the little animals into anthros. Mainly because even though it's about the ones who weren't brought into Archie, the name Sally Acorn becomes involved in the discussion.

-The scrapped Sonic band might fall under the classic banner now, with the implication that they wouldn't be usable in IDW if so. This would definitely open the classic conversation up.

-Giving no answer to whether Tangle is a lesbian. As in, he literally has no answer, the reader can interpret it however they want because he's done with the romance stuff (and Amy's crush on Sonic doesn't count because it's game canon). 

[Razule]

But the Hooligans were mentioned.. what exactly counts as unusable in the classic banner?

[Your Vest Friend]

1 minute ago, Razule said:

But the Hooligans were mentioned.. 

That's why I asked Ian about it after I saw it. Might be one of those things that doesn't pan out due to changes going on fairly last minute, like Shard appearing post-reboot, Captain Metal being Metal Sonic and Blaze knowing of the pre-reboot verse, Mighty and Ray being planned for the IDW comic etc. 

[KoDaiko]

40 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

So the latest Bumbleking is out. It's got some pretty interesting points in there. The ones I took most interest in are the following;

-The comments about adapting the little animals into anthros. Mainly because even though it's about the ones who weren't brought into Archie, the name Sally Acorn becomes involved in the discussion.

-The scrapped Sonic band might fall under the classic banner now, with the implication that they wouldn't be usable in IDW if so. This would definitely open the classic conversation up.

-Giving no answer to whether Tangle is a lesbian. As in, he literally has no answer, the reader can interpret it however they want because he's done with the romance stuff (and Amy's crush on Sonic doesn't count because it's game canon). 

I am happy how he handled the last question. I liked how he pointed out some fans tend to focus only on the character's sexuality even in their first appearance. Especially when the question said "A lot of people read her reaction to Blaze as so" and Ian replied "And many interpreted her and Sonic's reaction as so too". 

It was funny he said he'll get hate for anything he does. Poor guy.

 

[Your Vest Friend]

Ironically, everyone's too busy hating on the classic part to care about that part. Which is doubly ironic since it was supposed to be a small side remark, not the main take from the Q&A. 

[KoDaiko]

6 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

Ironically, everyone's too busy hating on the classic part to care about that part. Which is doubly ironic since it was supposed to be a small side remark, not the main take from the Q&A. 

Darn you're right. I was tired of seeing shipper debate around me, it was a big relief how he handled it. The other questions was interesting too, just not important enough to talk about (for me).

That reminds me, I was happy about how he answered the mandate thing too. I was annoyed by how people exaggerated it to demonize SEGA, so another huge relief.

 

[PublicEnemy1]

35 minutes ago, Razule said:

But the Hooligans were mentioned.. what exactly counts as unusable in the classic banner?

It could be another "Dr. Nega" situation. They can be offhandedly mentioned, but never be shown or fully named. Ian has stated that his headcannon is that Classic Sonic still happened as part of Modern's life, but the Phantom Ruby messed with everything and Classic Sonic had an alternate future from Mania onward. So the Hooligans still could have happened, but for some reason, they no longer exist as part of Modern Sonic's universe.

Also, good on Ian on not mentioning Tangle's sexuality. I guess he has learned his mistake from "Spark of Life." This should stop the backlash.

[RedFox99]

1 hour ago, VEDJ-F said:

like Shard appearing post-reboot

When was that?

32 minutes ago, KoDaiko said:

That reminds me, I was happy about how he answered the mandate thing too. I was annoyed by how people exaggerated it to demonize SEGA, so another huge relief.

This reminds me: how do you think he can work around the mandate with Cream? 

[PublicEnemy1]

21 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

When was that?

No, that was one of the things that were PLANNED, but never happened, due to the "no multiple Metals" rule. And that's why we got Gemerl.

[Your Vest Friend]

Shard was not barred due to the multiple metals rule, that only affected him by retconning him to be a Mecha Sonic (which there are multiple of to begin with). He was barred because he was derived enough from a Penders idea to be legally dicey to use. 

[RedFox99]

4 minutes ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

No, that was one of the things that were PLANNED, but never happened, due to the "no multiple Metals" rule. And that's why we got Gemerl.

So if sega allowed it, Ian could use Shard? Isn't he owned by Mike Gallagher? 

[Big Panda]

No because he’s derived from a Penders concept (the power gem).