A few years I owned a complete Sonic the Comic collection, I had everything, even the none consumable free gifts! In a moment of madness and poverty I sold the whole collection and I've missed it ever since. Back in 2013 I toyed with the idea of pitching the comics in an App I'd made for iOS to Sega and even went so far as to start a Kickstarter to get some funds to help (Sega wanted £500 just to entertain me) which understandably didn't take off. I appreciate that they could have done this themselves had they wanted to however I thought that if I'd already done most of the hard work they'd be more receptive. Anyway it was a silly idea and got nowhere. [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yMAE1p46MA[/media] Years have passed and the fan edition aside, the comic still hasn't been given any kind of re-release. I've always had the digital scans of the comic left over from my collection but reading them on a screen just doesn't feel right. Re-buying all of the comics again is not really an option for me or many others either, they're now way more expensive than they used to be and rarer...plus my wife would kill me. So, I've taken matters into my own hands. I appreciate that it's not strictly legal however I've only made one and do not plan to make any more, and I've stuck a huge disclaimer on the back, but for those itching to do the same...it shows it is possible. The first volume is only the Sonic stories from issues 1-25. I plan to do the rest of the Sonic stories and then create Sonic World editions, Knuckles editions, Tails Editions and the Specials Editions. I don't know when I'll be doing Volume 2 as this was ludicrously expensive as a one off print and I'll need to wait a while before I can afford more. Anyway, I hope this thread isn't inappropriate in any way but I'd just like to show you guys:
Brilliant idea, one of these days I still hope Sega somehow find a way to do for for real, but I doubt they are particularly interested in doing so. Was this done using a photo book creation service? The edges of the pages looks a little claustrophobic and some text appears to be cropping off the sides a bit but otherwise it looks great.
It was done via an online publisher, so yeah similar sort of thing. Yeah the page run off is a bit of a pain but it's the best I could do (and I work professionally in a publishing house dealing with paper to PDF conversion on a daily basis) I was restricted by the page printing sizes which are industry standard and I had a choice between poor aspect ratio, centered on the page or slightly cropped and I think slightly cropped worked out best. My only regret on this first one is not spending some time replacing the Barcode spaces on the covers with a close matching fill in using Photoshop (or Pixelmator which I prefer) but I'll do it next time around. The resolution of the pages isn't always great either but I'd rather have it in A4 size than A5 which would have prevented that as it was originally in A4.
Thats pretty cool. I always loved reading the ongoing stories as a kid, but hated having to flick through multiple books just to follow the story thread. It would be awesome to have them all in one place like that. Just out of interest, where did you sell your collection in the first place? Ebay? Or somewhere else? I've been thinking of doing the same myself. Also you have the exact same keyboard/mouse as me.
Lol that's my work keyboard and mouse, no offence to your tastes but I hate them, not comfortable but they do a good job I guess!! Miss my iMac when I'm at work. I sold my collection on the Sonic the Comic forums (if they still exist, haven't been there in a while) to a private collector.
Oh my god that's gorgeous. I wish this was a commercially available thing. I'd definitely tweet at @sonic_hedgehog with your picture set though =P
If I do say so myself it looks fucking amazing. Now that I'm home and have had a good look at it I'm starting to think it might be worth trying to make some waves with it, even the wife agrees. However I could also get a pretty nasty cease and desist if I'm not careful though.
I'm no lawyer but I don't think they can do much of anything, seeing as how you've only made the one copy for yourself (from your own scans at that). Nothing wrong with showing it off to garner support for an official version. If they see enough people saying "I want that", they might just make it happen. That said, I want that. Never read the UK version because I've never found a comfy way of doing so, but I've always been curious. I'd pick up a copy for sure.
This is fucking awesome as others have stated. I was a massive fan of Sonic the Comic growing up. Your thread gave me a huge nostalgia rush. I think I began reading the comics at issue 11 and bought it every week for years. It was my favourite comic back in the day as a really big Sonic fan. Your work is gorgeous and I'd personally be interested in buying a copy. Would you be interested in making this available to Retro members? Like a limited print run for members of the forum? I'd be willing to pay upwards of £20 for a copy. Would that cover the production costs? Anyway it's an amazing idea and extremely well executed. Regarding the legal hurdles you could seek out a licence from Sega. It's a long shot but there's Kickstarters for books on the Sega Genesis and things like that that managed to successfully derive a licence. It might be a long shot as I've said but it's still very possible. Awesome work! Please make this available for us. Seriously you have one paying customer right here and by the sounds of it more in this very thread.
I want one. Nay, I want as many as it'll take to cover the entirety of the STV Sonic storylines, plus any separates I'd be interested in reading again (Wonder Boy, Eternal Champions, Shinobi, Decap Attack). However, I'm dirt broke so apply a pinch of salt to this post if desired.
Well the single unit price was £33.53 shipped to my door. If were to get 50 orders it'd be down to £25.99 to my door, 100 orders £24.46 to my door. Then shipping would need to be added to each order. It's not cheap, sadly there's no further discount beyond 100 orders :-( there are cheaper printers out there but I don't trust their quality. The only way the price would come down is to reduce the page numbers or drop the book down to A5. The latter is the better option, the former just means you'd have to pay the same in the long run for the entire set. Anyway, it's a moot point. I'd like to do it for Retro members but it's no more legal than me dropping a torrent link to Finding Dory right now. Also at at the time when I was looking to do the app, I was an active member on the STC forums and a few of the artists themselves took an immediate disliking to the idea because they'd likely not be paid for their work, that said I don't know what rights they have, Sega are definitely in on the action but do Egmont still have some say? I've tweeted to @sonic_hedgehog to see what happens and I'll push it around to a few other sites/social media outlets but unless people start making some noise I cannot see this going anywhere unless I take it to Kickstarter again but I don't know what the aim would be. Anyway, not to tease you all with something I might not be able to get to you, I'm going to revise the front cover of Volume 1, finish off Volume 2, and see what I can do about the page bleed. In the meantime, if you can think of a way to get some exposure on this then I'm up for trying anything.
I have contacted Daren Wall who produced Sega Megadrive: Collected Works to see if he can shed some light on how I can begin talking to the right people.
Awesome news! Let us know how you progress. If you can secure the licence from Sega I'd personally love a copy of your comic book. Keep us posted!
Well I've had no response from Daren but I'm not impatient so I'm sure it'll come at some point. In the meantime I've ordered an A5 version which I'll use as a proof to send to Sega Corporate along with a proposal. This is something I've done before in the past with the BBC and it succeeded so hopefully I can get some communication going with Sega as to what can and can't be done, I can't help but feeling that there's likely to be some ugly legal issue sitting amongst Sega, Egmont and the Artists.
Good luck with your efforts dude! I'm sure it'll go well. From what I know of similar projects on Kickstarter Sega are open and willing to support projects like this. There has been so many notable Kickstarters that had the licence from Sega I'm sure they'd be open to the idea of supporting your project. Again, do keep us posted!
On the back of some of the momentum that this has been getting, I have sent off my A4 copy along with a business plan/crowd funding proposal along with an application for Licensing to Sega Europe this morning. I will post back if I get a response. I'm trying to remain positive but I'm expecting either a cease and desist or a typical Dear John pre-printed letter. It's worth a shot, if Sega aren't going to do it, somebody should.
