Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[Ryannumber1gamer]

4 hours ago, Moose the Cat said:

Why exactly did Archie lose both the Capcom & Sega licenses at the same time? Sega must've been happy with the quality of the book since the creative team transferred seamlessly. Assumed it was probably some financial/legal mismanagement on Archie's end, but never found a clear answer on it.

They didn't lose it at the same time, Archie were the ones who canned Mega Man because they messed up their Kickstarter, and therefore had to divert money from Archie Action to fix their own screw ups. 

They've just been sitting on the license for years.

[Razule]

7 hours ago, Moose the Cat said:

Why exactly did Archie lose both the Capcom & Sega licenses at the same time? Sega must've been happy with the quality of the book since the creative team transferred seamlessly. Assumed it was probably some financial/legal mismanagement on Archie's end, but never found a clear answer on it.

I think it was assumed to have something to do with licensing costs?

[Moose the Cat]

Thanks for clarification on Mega Man, all.  I knew they were still selling back issues but thought that series canceled around the same time as Sonic, around the same timeframe as the overall shift toward Riverdale and so on. 

As for why Sega pulled away from Archie, we're just guessing? Or has it been stated somewhere- ? Sega increased licensing costs at a rate Archie thought didn't make sense --  why, on both sides, was that decision made? And why did IDW make sense with the same creative team whereas Archie didn't? I'm just wondering. 

[Starry Skydancer]

Sonic Forces: "Yawnfest."
IDW: Sonic is not "fine" thanks for asking.

(spoilered for large, also I guess spoilers.)

IDW actually makes me feel kinda bad for Sonic.

Spoiler

 

He looks like he's trying too hard to smile.

 

 

[SBR2]

12 hours ago, Celestia said:

Either that or Capcom simply hasn't noticed. ...I'm only half joking.

I really do hope that Mega Man series gets to continue someday. I finally read through it all recently and it's brilliant. Seriously, now whenever people shit on Flynn's writing I think about that book before anything even though I still love his Sonic work lol.

It's really a shame that people don't give a shit about Ian's non Sonic work because a lot of it is really friggin good. I'd honestly call New Crusaders his best work but barely anyone read it and that's a shame. 

Don't get me wrong I live his Sonic stuff but I would never call it the best stuff he's ever done. If you've never read it check out his Michaelangelo Macro Series issue because that one is amazing. 

[DabigRG]

I don't think Megaman was cancelled so much as put on an indefinite hiatus. That said, it has been six years since they did that and another incarnation of the franchise has come and likely gone.

[VO.SUPER]

In small news, the first volume finally released in Japan.

 

Spoiler

 

[SBR2]

Nice to see. I'm glad Sega has such a high opinion of the IDW comic to release it in the homeland. 

[DabigRG]

So what do you think the villain miniseries will be about

 

1 hour ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

In small news, the first volume finally released in Japan.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Sonic Movie = Riverdale

[Shadowlax]

43 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

So what do you think the villain miniseries will be about

"Eggman ditched us, tried to kill us, or both. We will show everyone that we can much more effectively bad guys and not almost end the entire planet doing so"

"Do we get to punch things"

"Yes"

" We're in"

"And you , the cephalopod of many faces"

"You got cash"

" I have capital, yes. enough to keep you in line. And information on your old partner and her loud friend "

" Then I'm in "

Quote

Sonic Movie = Riverdale

Oh No

[Silvereyes]

Out of curiosity, did anything from Archie or Fleetway ever make its way over to Japan? I take it IDW getting released in Japan is a fairly good thing, especially if perhaps they release the next volumes.

[VO.SUPER]

Archie never made it to Japan outside of the Japanese used market. From what I've seen, it's had the nichest of collectors on Japanese auction sites. Fleetway is absolutely unknown.

I don't think Archie had much of a worldwide presence at all until the near end of their run when they did some other languages. IDW has just been better with getting their books out there, and printed in multiple languages.

Though I wish with Sonic, they did what they did with Transformers, where the Japanese release got a cover by an actual mangaka.

Spoiler

 

[bingboomer]

great for japan. i guess. 

[VO.SUPER]

We get a better look at the release in this tweet from a retailer. It's got a nice dustjacket.

We also learn from the tweet below, that pre-orders have sold out for this. That's a nice sign of demand at least.

Edit: Also sold out on Amazon Japan.

[StaticMania]

46 minutes ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

Also sold out on Amazon Japan.

They were just really hungry for these Sonic the Hedgehog comics weren't they?

I wouldn't blame them, it's about time.

[Zaysho]

IDW has usually been a lot better about licensing stuff overseas from what I've seen. I don't know about actual monthlies but it usually sounds like collected volumes are more easily distributed. Archie seemed to be completely random what got licensed and translated to other parts of the world, and to my knowledge a lot of it was material from just prior to the reboot like "Genesis" and other random issues. It's a shame neither Sega nor Archie really tried when the series was doing better (complete with Sega's near total apathy of promoting the fucking book except for "Mega Drive") but it's nice to see Sega and IDW aren't screwing up with this one as much.

[Big Panda]

7 hours ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

Also sold out on Amazon Japan.

Just as well. They’re not able to ship it to my location anyway.

[DabigRG]

13 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

"Eggman ditched us, tried to kill us, or both. We will show everyone that we can much more effectively bad guys and not almost end the entire planet doing so"

"Do we get to punch things"

"Yes"

" We're in"

"And you , the cephalopod of many faces"

"You got cash"

" I have capital, yes. enough to keep you in line. And information on your old partner and her loud friend "

" Then I'm in "

Oh No

Lol

But yeaheah, I do have to wonder what their plan is. It's not too much of a stretch to think Rough and Tumble might be convinced to help him again and Mimic is just a cutthroat who probably wants revenge, but what will be Starline's actual aim at this point? He's lost both favor with his idol and the Warp Topaz glove he personally customized too, so convenience isn't on his side anymore. 

[SBR2]

11 hours ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

 

Edit: Also sold out on Amazon Japan.

Damn that's genuinely surprising. I thought Sonic wasn't popular in Japan.

[PublicEnemy1]

Especially since the IDW Comics, from what I've heard, aren't translated. I dunno what the point would be, but it's pretty good that Japan is getting this stuff.

[Big Panda]

3 minutes ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Especially since the IDW Comics, from what I've heard, aren't translated. I dunno what the point would be, but it's pretty good that Japan is getting this stuff.

Where did you hear that?

I don’t see why they wouldn’t be, considering there’s still Japanese on the back cover and spine.

[PublicEnemy1]

1 minute ago, Big Panda said:

Where did you hear that?

I don’t see why they wouldn’t be, considering there’s still Japanese on the back cover and spine.

I thought it was discussed here earlier, and that one of the previews showed English text, and the only Japanese part is said back cover and spine.

[VO.SUPER]

1 hour ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

I thought it was discussed here earlier, and that one of the previews showed English text, and the only Japanese part is said back cover and spine.

Those were bits of speculation from when the release was first revealed because they were seemingly using a prototype volume.

From the one page I've seen, it is translated. Though the font certainly doesn't look high quality if you ask me.

 

[Zaysho]

In my experience, especially in the US, Amazon rarely has a huge supply of books or games during their initial runs since most of these companies are working with other retail partners first. I wouldn't read too much into it being sold out there in its initial release at all. I've seen books and soundtracks quickly sell out and become unavailable on Amazon JP and CDJapan when they released because I missed pre-order windows and would have to wait months for them to restock and update their listings.

[VO.SUPER]

On the plus side, it might mean they're selling to expectations. While I doubt these books will be something big, the most we can hope for is that they get a reasonable reputation. And who knows, maybe SEGA will be more willing to promote it themselves in the future.

Actually being published in Japan and getting a spot on a SEGA livestream is already a good start.