Sonic Archives

Main Info

Created to coincide with Sonic's 15th anniversary, Sonic Archives was the very first major graphic novel series to be released from Archie, and the very first to recollect back-issues of Sonic. Printed in a much smaller, closer to manga-sized package every few months, each graphic novel usually only collected four issues a piece for Archie Sonic, starting from Issue #1 of the main series, although a later release also reprinted Sonic: The Beginning in Archives' format, and collected the original miniseries. 

The graphic novel series would nearly have a full run of ten years, until 2015, where much like most, if not all of Archie's Sonic and Mega Man graphic novel collections, a long series of delays would hit it, until eventually Archie lost the license altogether, and as such, all graphic novel series were cancelled. 

The series - while primarily focused on being the most complete and comprehensive collection of the main comic series only, leaving the mini-series and Super Specials to the likes of Sonic Selects - would on occasion either include a original story, or stories taken from various Super Specials that offered the best reading experience, such as the Endgame finale's remake within the pages of Super Special #6 (Titled Director's Cut), or Super Special #13's story being included to complete the Adventure arc. 

Release Dates

• Volume 0: February 2009
• Volume 1: November 2006
• Volume 2: December 2006
• Volume 3: May 2007
• Volume 4: June 2007
• Volume 5: September 2007
• Volume 6: October 2007
• Volume 7: June 2008
• Volume 8: July 2008
• Volume 9: October 2008
• Volume 10: March 2009
• Volume 11: August 2009
• Volume 12: January 2010
• Volume 13: July 2010
• Volume 14: December 2010
• Volume 15: June 2011
• Volume 16: October 2011
• Volume 17: January 2012
• Volume 18: July 2012
• Volume 19: December 2012
• Volume 20: March 2013
• Volume 21: August 2013
• Volume 22: February 2014
• Volume 23: August 2014
• Volume 24: February 2015
• Volume 25: Slated but Cancelled
• Volume 26: Slated but Cancelled

Issues Reprinted

• Volume 0: Original Miniseries (Sonic The Hedgehog #0-#3)
• Volume 1: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #1-#4 
• Volume 2: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #5-#8
• Volume 3: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #9-#12
• Volume 4: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #13-#16
• Volume 5: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #17-20
• Volume 6: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #21-24
• Volume 7: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #25-28
• Volume 8: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #29-32
• Volume 9: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #33-36
• Volume 10: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #37-40
• Volume 11: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #41-44
• Volume 12: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #45-48 
• Volume 13: Sonic the Hedgehog Issue #49, Stories from Sonic Super Special #5-6 
• Volume 14: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #51-54
• Volume 15: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #55-58
• Volume 16: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #59-62
• Volume 17: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #63-66
• Volume 18: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #67-70
• Volume 19: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #71-74
• Volume 20: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #75-78
• Volume 21: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #79-82
• Volume 22: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #83-84, Stories from Sonic Super Special #13
• Volume 23: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #85-87, Stories from Sonic Super Special #14
• Volume 24: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #88-91
• Volume 25: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #92-95
• Volume 26: Sonic the Hedgehog Issues #96-99

Cancellation

Despite being the longest running graphic novel series for Archie Sonic, Archives faced as many problems with delays as the other series, such as Sonic Universe and Saga Series. Hit by release delays during the last few years of it's life, while Volumes 25 and 26 were slated, with 25 having a full cover by Patrick Spaziante fully created, and Volume 26 having a concept cover, along with both having their contained stories listed. The cancellation was well and truly set into stone when Archie Comics lost the publishing rights to Sonic in 2017, with no hints of IDW picking up any of the Archie series for reprints, leaving the series forever incomplete, and leaving a large chunk of Archie Sonic's history with no reprints.

Edits and Corrections

While Archives remained mostly a pure attempt to reprint and collect Archie Sonic's history, there was minor edits made to the art to fix mistakes that had originally appeared within the original issues, ranging from fairly simple (recolours) to fairly extensive (Fixing Tikal's originally completely incorrect design in the Adventure arc to her correct canonical design).