Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[DabigRG]

2 hours ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Here's what ol' Kenders has to say about it:

Hey, Ken. News flash: this is a 48-page comic that only comes out once a year. Of course it's gonna cost a bit more than a usual comic.

How much more is it compared to the standard issues.

[PublicEnemy1]

6 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

How much more is it compared to the standard issues.

Regular, 20-page comics are 3.99. Since this is more than double the size and a comic that only comes once a year, I'd say the price is justified.

[DabigRG]

52 minutes ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Regular, 20-page comics are 3.99. Since this is more than double the size and a comic that only comes once a year, I'd say the price is justified.

Sheesh. Got it kinda bad.

[Heckboy]

1 hour ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Regular, 20-page comics are 3.99. Since this is more than double the size and a comic that only comes once a year, I'd say the price is justified.

Double the price for double the content is fair enough, but the regular price of comic books is still too much. 4 bucks for like five minutes of light reading is asinine. 

[PublicEnemy1]

21 minutes ago, Heckboy said:

Double the price for double the content is fair enough, but the regular price of comic books is still too much. 4 bucks for like five minutes of light reading is asinine. 

I guess it's the way inflation works. 

[Zaysho]

1 hour ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Regular, 20-page comics are 3.99. Since this is more than double the size and a comic that only comes once a year, I'd say the price is justified.

To give it a bit of perspective, Udon is doing a colorized release of a Mega Man manga, Mega Man Master Mix. Those books are a quarterly release, $7.99 for eighty pages. This IDW annual, and this extends to stuff like the recent TMNT Macro-Series and several other premium comics IDW occasionally puts out, are usually about $7.99 for forty pages. The difference between what Udon's currently doing, and what IDW does, I think comes with the presentation more than the page count. These sorts of premium issues have sturdy high gloss covers, better paper stock, and glued binding. Udon's Mega Man's books are regular stock and saddle stitch (stapled). In some ways, I wouldn't mind if IDW dialed back the presentation a bit to reduce the cost, but that's me. It's a bit excessive when you consider how much content you're getting (and not knowing if it's any good *looks at TSR tie-in and is glad his comic shop forgot to order it*).

Though monthly comics are just like that at this point if you're a casual reader versus a collector. There are better deals for the same books digitally or when released in collected editions, and IDW is really good about stuff like that (Archie was not).

[Dr. Detective]

Sure, comics are expensive. Penders isn't saying this to make some comment about the general pricing of the comic book industry these days though. His Archie-Radar was traded in for an IDW-Radar and that's it. If he drew for it and that thing had Lara-Su's bloated tumor of a face on it, he'd be all "Yo. Buy my book".

And the people who bought it would wonder why it's only one page with the other 39 completely blank. 

Anyway, that Rouge story thing is really interesting me the most. Are we gonna see her do a Sly Cooper gem theft? I hope so. Maybe she'll rob Two-Face in Arkham City.

[Zaysho]

3 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Sure, comics are expensive. Penders isn't saying this to make some comment about the general pricing of the comic book industry these days though. His Archie-Radar was traded in for an IDW-Radar and that's it. If he drew for it and that thing had Lara-Su's bloated tumor of a face on it, he'd be all "Yo. Buy my book".

Eh, Pen's just background noise to me these days. Any tweet of his that gets referenced on this message board is, inevitably, some histrionic tantrum about why he isn't given the keys to this series. I already know he couldn't care less about Ian or the others getting their fair share, let alone that consumers aren't being rolled. I was mostly following along with the argument about expenses, which is an issue with comics but it's also one that's been mitigated somewhat through other avenues so most people aren't strongarmed into paying into the direct market.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Crazy idea: how about we STOP quoting Penders here? If we stop listening to every dumb comment he makes I would forget about his existence and frankly would be a happier person for it. I mean, you do know this is exactly what he wants? "There is no such thing like bad publicity" and stuff?

As for comic prices, I suspect it's a depressing strategy. In 60-70s many people bought comics so they were cheap. Now the market is much smaller, but those are die-hard fans. So the new plan is to squeeze as much money per single person as possible. That's why we have alternative covers or 5 X-men books at once.

[Scritch the Cat]

15 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Crazy idea: how about we STOP quoting Penders here? If we stop listening to every dumb comment he makes I would forget about his existence and frankly would be a happier person for it. I mean, you do know this is exactly what he wants? "There is no such thing like bad publicity" and stuff?

No joke; I actually wonder if Penders is too thick to understand trolling.  He can't not know that a lot of people hate him, but when his stated intent is to write a story featuring his OCs, and then make money off of it, I can't imagine he just intends to be an attention whore.

I think what motivates Penders instead is self-righteousness.  Tweets like that feed into his delusions that he's the hero of Sonic comics and thus he deserves to make money and others don't.  He's probably not seeking negative attention but in his own mind he's such a righteous crusader for justice that he doesn't care if he gets it.

[SBR2]

You know what I just realized? Jack Lawrence is a UK Based Artist. That means he'll be the first UK Based Artist to draw a Sonic Comic since Sonic The Comic was canceled. Isn't that neat?

[Marco9966]

24 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

You know what I just realized? Jack Lawrence is a UK Based Artist. That means he'll be the first UK Based Artist to draw a Sonic Comic since Sonic The Comic was canceled. Isn't that neat?

Does he have any Sonic sketch available for us to see?

[Kazhnuz]

That kind of annuals are a really cool idea, imho. It's nice to try small story about different characters, with new and old writers, new and old artists, etc. That's something that I really loved in the Worlds Unites side-stories (I actually preferred them to the main action of the crossover), that got pretty nice and different ideas. I hope they'll do one each year, and with different folks each time, because it have a lot of potential.

I'm really hyped to see what they'll do, it makes me really curious. (and as I'm already pretty curious about the Starline storyline, I'm pretty interested by Y2. Honestly now all I miss is having 2 comics per month like during the Archie era xD)

 

And I'm pretty happy that we'll get a comics illustrated by Jon Gray again after so much time xD That's nice.

Just a bit sad that we don't get an Aleah Baker story, I really loved her writing style, more focused around characters developpement. But it might be for another time !

[SBR2]

40 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

Does he have any Sonic sketch available for us to see?

I don't think he's ever done any Sonic art before but here's his TFWiki Article if you want an idea of his general art style. https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Jack_Lawrence

[NikoS]

So, the annual stories seem to be taking the universe approach, neat! As silly and random as the gardening premise may be, i'm really looking foward to that one, these small moments are the ones that usually delves into character development.

Also, that Uekawa cover

 

 

[Shadowlax]

I wouldn't say its like universe. The universe stories kinda at least post reboot seemed like they had to stuff to do with the main part of the world, or they were setting up something big for the character(s) specifically. I dunno these just seem like a bunch of one offs that could go somewhere if things catch fire, but aren't really guaranteed to do anything and no one is really planning on this stuff connecting to anything. Just.. fun stories in a chunky book

[Multikaris]

33 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

I wouldn't say its like universe. The universe stories kinda at least post reboot seemed like they had to stuff to do with the main part of the world, or they were setting up something big for the character(s) specifically. I dunno these just seem like a bunch of one offs that could go somewhere if things catch fire, but aren't really guaranteed to do anything and no one is really planning on this stuff connecting to anything. Just.. fun stories in a chunky book

Archie didn’t have those sorts of things since the Bollers era, but these were rampant in late Fleetway until reprints started to take over. A lot of those were pretty much “Beano-level nonsense”, which I don’t expect from these. 

[SBR2]

36 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

I wouldn't say its like universe. The universe stories kinda at least post reboot seemed like they had to stuff to do with the main part of the world, or they were setting up something big for the character(s) specifically. I dunno these just seem like a bunch of one offs that could go somewhere if things catch fire, but aren't really guaranteed to do anything and no one is really planning on this stuff connecting to anything. Just.. fun stories in a chunky book

Yeah I don't think bar Ian's they're going to be anything too deep. These are just fun short stories by a few creators. 

[Scritch the Cat]

1 hour ago, NikoS said:

So, the annual stories seem to be taking the universe approach, neat! As silly and random as the gardening premise may be, i'm really looking foward to that one, these small moments are the ones that usually delves into character development.

Also, that Uekawa cover

 

 

"It stinks."

[Zaysho]

I read issue 11 the other day and it's one I'm having a lot of fun just picking up and flipping through more so than any other issue I've read so far. I'm not sure how I feel about the arc getting wrapped in three issues, but I'm not sure if it would have benefited from a fourth issue. Read together with #10, the battle feels like an appropriate length and it's gratifying to see everyone actually chip in one way or the other. Definitely welcome compared to the games making everyone a cheerleader. It's also cool seeing a new villain, another Mobian at that (I like the term more than anthro, don't @ me). It's something I appreciated about Archie, and it's something I don't mind seeing more of to develop Sonic's world here. Starline gives me Finitevus vibes, and that's a good thing in my book, though I'm hoping he won't always only be associated with Eggman.

One thing that impressed me about this issue, and why I liked going through it more than any of the others is how well Yardley's style transitioned into Stanley's for me. Though I can definitely tell the last few pages are Stanley's, I'm fairly certain she did the couple of pages that introduced Starline, and it's the kind of collaboration I felt we didn't even get with Archie when two pencil artists were put on an issue.

Overall, I'm surprised I liked these last two issues as much as I did. I haven't been super fond of IDW, but I can find things I like here and there, particularly with the art. It's something I'll probably keep up with in trades from this point onward, though. I just can't justify $4 a pop anymore and this book definitely feels like it's better read in chunks versus monthly, probably even more so than Archie (though I was so excited about Archie on a regular basis, and constantly went back and read things, I was a lot more tolerant of the format). Overall I think my earlier assessment of the book still stands that it's "good enough"--it's not really what I was looking for, but it's still enjoyable enough (it's actually gotten better the last couple issues for me, the first eight are kind of a slog and I still don't like them much when I flip through them except for the art) and I'm not terribly worried about the Archie cast being revived for this continuity anymore. I'd rather IDW figure out how to get the old series collected and preserved.

[Marco9966]

When will we see issue 13's main cover??

[Marco9966]

I found on IDw Sonic wikia issue 15's cover by new artist, Jack Lawrence. He's pretty good!

[StaticMania]

Sonic The Comic vibes in that head.

[Big Panda]

And wouldn’t you know it, that’s the cover (currently) being used for the newly-listed fourth graphic novel volume.

[DabigRG]

3 hours ago, Marco9966 said:

I found on IDw Sonic wikia issue 15's cover by new artist, Jack Lawrence. He's pretty good!

They almost look like weird genies.

Also, what's up Sonic's hair there?