Merchandise Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-Speed-ia (Dark Horse Books)

[Graystripe2000]

Written by Ian Flynn, no less. Releases Junes 1st. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1506719279

[VO.SUPER]

Surprisingly low key release. I can't imagine anything new being discussed, but you'd expect SEGA to have said something about this.

[Silvereyes]

The link just takes me to a Sonic pen set, can't see anything about a new encyclopedia.

[Graystripe2000]

12 minutes ago, Silvereyes said:

The link just takes me to a Sonic pen set, can't see anything about a new encyclopedia.

Odd. It works for me.

[DabigRG]

Looks like his years of combing the franchise's minutiae and contextualizing it once again pays off.

[SBR2]

I think that maybe it's so low key because Sega wasn't ready to officially announce it yet. I'm not totally sure how it works but it feels like Amazon has specific times they put things up regardless of when they're officially announced.

Either way very cool definitely going to get this when it comes out. 

[Sonictrainer]

How come no one posted the book's cover?

[UberHoax]

I'm not a fan of Ian Flynn's prose, but I would be lying if I say I'm not excited for this book.

Hopefully they will give the encyclopedia a proper announcement next year.

[Guest]

Ehh. Not much hope for this really. For me anyway. The lore has been moved around and retconned so much I'm surprised they found anything left to work with.

Benefit of the doubt though. We'll see what happens with this. Still hate the supposed two world thing though.How do you suppose they worked around that I wonder. But what do I know? I'm just a random villager...

[VO.SUPER]

Spoiler

 

Flynn gives us his reaction to this news. Apparently this was the #KnowingSmile he's been teasing at points throughout the year.

[Solister]

Release Date: June
Me: *thinks June still is this year*

--

I'm not much familiar with Ian's writing as I guess not much of Sonic comics were ever sold in my country. I wonder if it would be any better than Sonic News Network or Sonic Retro, but definitely would buy it if I was walking in a mall and saw it on the book store for a good price. I mean... how bad can it be?

About the price, if the conversion is 1 to 1, then I guess it's a fair price, but converting for the real currency, then lol no, there's too many other things I can buy with this money.

[Ricochet]

Back in 2018, Dark Horse Books published  Nintendo Zelda Encyclopedia, with a trailer and everything. I wonder whether this will receive the same promotional treatment with a release trailer and all.

I guess It was a sensible idea they chose Ian Flynn, compared to hiring some freelance writer unfamiliar with the source material that is.

[Zaysho]

The games are kind of a mess, but I remember Ian saying that he was given a timeline of sorts when working on both comics so I'm curious if that's something that will be included (a la Hyrule Historia). I'd personally rather Dark Horse did a comprehensive art book instead, but maybe that'll follow soon enough.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Zaysho said:

The games are kind of a mess, but I remember Ian saying that he was given a timeline of sorts when working on both comics so I'm curious if that's something that will be included (a la Hyrule Historia). I'd personally rather Dark Horse did a comprehensive art book instead, but maybe that'll follow soon enough.

I'd be all for an artbook! I loved the zelda artbook they released.

[Empire88]

An artbook would be nice, but haven't we already got most of the art that the developers have wanted to share thus far though? With the 25th anniversary one? And then we got an expanded one with Sonic Mania. 

There is definitely still a decent bit of artwork we haven't seen though. Just a lot of the work they want to share has been compiled already. But SEGA themselves seem like they aren't going to show us much new. 

[PC the Hedgehog]

29 minutes ago, A Random Villager said:

I'd be all for an artbook! I loved the zelda artbook they released.

Sonic had an art book released a few years back, but it had such a limited release, I'd wager most people never even knew about it.

[Dr. Detective]

Having this confusing lore, at the very least, put within a book written by a person who not only is a huge fan that knows it inside and out but has expressed constantly how frustrated he also is with its nonsense gives me anticipation for something that will at least be as coherent as it can possibly be. 

I won't expect too much outside of the essentials but anything remotely close to what you could consider an outline of the "canon" (if such a thing even truly exists anymore) would be much appreciated. At the very least, it'd be interesting to see whats in it and whats not.

[Guest]

46 minutes ago, PC the Hedgehog said:

Sonic had an art book released a few years back, but it had such a limited release, I'd wager most people never even knew about it.

Count me as one of those people. Dang it Sega!

[shdowhunt60]

As surprising as this is to see, I kinda was expecting something along these lines for awhile now. Just because Sonic Team has been seemingly more vocal and more interested in presenting their vision of Sonic these past few years.

[Silvereyes]

1 hour ago, PC the Hedgehog said:

2 hours ago, A Random Villager said:

 

Sonic had an art book released a few years back, but it had such a limited release, I'd wager most people never even knew about it.

Don't suppose you could link to it, cause I've never heard of it either?

As for the encyclopedia, I'm sure it'll be fine. In a way, I suppose it might answer some of the questions about how Sega views X character or X video game. Kindof hoping there is maybe some kind of shoutout to the various TV show and comic book canons, even if the focus on this will be just the games.

[Empire88]

I don't have a link myself but I know on YouTube a lot of people have shown the book. 

For most of the art, if you go the Sonic wiki (for example the gallery page for the characters/stages) most of the art in the book is there.

But yeah it was a big deal when it released. Hence we wouldn't get that much more new art probably. It was just expensive. 

 

[Tracker_TD]

The Cook and Becker artbook... wasn't that great. I love Classic Sonic plenty, but they really shafted the Modern Sonic half of the book; most of it's just CG renders. There were a few nice surprises, such as a clean version of the Nintendo Dream Sonic Battle art and some rare Saturn-era stuff, but it's also got some extremely weird mistakes, like... American Sonic 2 art being pasted over the Japanese box's background? Seriously weird. 

I think if another artbook were to happen I'd want it to focus more on the Modern titles; I have enough Classic Sonic art to last me a lifetime now and while I do want some specific stuff digging up (such as Harmony pieces that aren't yet scanned properly afaik), I think the bulk of the Classic concept art is sorted. Give me those early SA1 renders that they showed at the JP concerts! 

[Empire88]

Yeah I agree the Modern side got shafted. The book got a lot of attention but there wasn't much art that wowed me or taught me more of what was to be. (For example the Sonic riders concept art showing outfits for the cast is cool and informative).

[Badnik Mechanic]

Despite the fact it borrows so much from Retro and some other wikis.

The best book like this has to be the 20th anniversary one.

The cook and Becker is amazing until it gets to the modern part and it just totally falls apart.

 

As for this one... erm... I'm probably not going to buy right away.

Just because the fact Flynn is writing it is really going to expose how much of this series he does know. And if it's just going to be a surface level knowledge which I suspect it might be.

For example. We going to get sections on Bean and Bark? If so... We actually going to get good info on them and not the Archie comics lore?

It's probably not going to delve into March or comics just literally be games... which instantly makes the other books more interesting.

 

Though if they do include unseen artwork. Then it'll certainly be on my buy list.

[PC the Hedgehog]

3 hours ago, Silvereyes said:

Don't suppose you could link to it, cause I've never heard of it either?

Sure. Here ya go.