Well, it sucks that Archie lost the license, but hopefully it goes to a company who does better job with keeping paperwork and contracts, so Penders scenarios can't happen again. Go to IDW though. IDW is a company I'm cool with paying $4 an issue for. They always have good paper quality. I trust them more than any of the other companies.
Not surprising. I feel bad for Ian, Tracy, and co though. Some really talented individuals worked on the comic. (Not you Penders)
I don't care who the comic goes to now, my only wish is that Ian and the crew get to stay on board somehow. The man is just what Sonic storytelling needs, and it would be a DAMN shame for that to be lost to us. And to the surprise of no one,Penders is eating it up. God I hate this fucker. Even if he wasn't one of the leading reasons for the comic's demise, I'd still happily slap him over the head.
Only Ken could have his very first reaction to news like this be about how he wants to profit off of it. Seriously, his first tweet after stating he heard the news was him saying that he hopes this means he can start selling reprint collections.
Penders is such a loser. His comics sucked. Seriously, a few years ago I sold a huge chunk of my Sonic comic collection. The chunk I sold? Mainly the crap he was responsible for. He wrote some cringy-ass storylines.
Welp, I can't believe my first post here is on something so... aggravating. I loved the Sonic Comics, even though the only subscription I had to them was directly after #252. I came to love them through FIRSTS in Sonic Mega Collection, and it's honestly extremely sad that they didn't even get to finish with a 300th issue. What's aggravating is that the entire reason it's dead is because of Kenneth "I invented echidnas" Penders Jr. ... Fuck.
I really hope the license goes over to IDW. Ian and Tyson have been doing good work, I don't see any reason why SEGA would partner up with anyone else at this point. That being said, I do worry for the state of the comics going forward in terms of cast, particularly since SEGA has been becoming more restrictive with what people can do with the series. I wouldn't have an issue with rebooting the whole thing to be much closer to the games but keeping the SATAM cast to liven things up somewhat, but if it's just games-only material rigidly close to SEGA's 'guidelines'? Fuck, what's even the point, then?
Yeah, I'm hoping IDW gets the license, too. And that they hire Ian and Tyson. Just do a fresh start and adapt the Genesis games, they don't have to continue the storyline.
Glad Schrodinger's Cat is finally out of the bag. It sucks for all of the talented people who were working on the book, and to an extent I also feel a little sad, since I grew up with the comics since I was 9 years old and it actually got me into the series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jll2dnONwAw But that said, almost any other publisher now would be a better fit. I genuinely believe there are great things ahead for Sonic in comic form. Hopefully this week we get to hear who the new Sonic publisher is.
Yeah. All this was pretty inevitable after a while. I feel bad for the staff who lost their contracts or their positions from this. If the licence is had by someone, hopefully that outfit can do it better than most of the Archie series.
Sounds like most of you who did work on the comics were sideslapped like we were, huh? I'm sorry for Overdrive, we were all looking forward to it.
on the bright side, it's going to be years before any other licensed property can break Sonic's recored for longest lasting licensed comic series, and total number of comics for a licensed series.
I just love that Archie still hasn't said anything about it. Not even a "Thanks for following us all these years," to the fans. It seems like Sega wanted things to continue (and I guess in some fashion they will?), but Archie could care less.
Doubtful; based on the wording of the press release, it sounds like it was Sega's choice to part ways, which isn't surprising in the least considering the Penders debacle and the looming threat of other ex-writers wanting in on the action. Sega wouldn't want to unnecessarily embroil themselves in a scenario like that. That said, I also wouldn't be shocked if Archie didn't put up much of a fight. Rumors circulating around have hinted towards the idea that Archie wants to push their primary stable of characters and the Riverdale tv show first and foremost. Still, Sonic was a cash cow and with Riverdale's ratings being decidedly in the "meh" category, the shift to an all-Archie and friends future may backfire. Though the trade-off is not having the likes of Penders and friends knocking on their door every year or so cutting into their bottom line due to poorly implemented contracts, so hey, maybe they'll break even.
I'm sad to see the comic go. I was with it since the original miniseries and followed it since. I've been to virtually any forum that discussed it and I knew Ian Flynn back in the Other M days. Hell, a bunch of us fans posted on Penders forums before he was off the deep end too. I really hope wherever sonic goes he and many of the old team get another chance. I've been seeing so much blame for Penders, but Scott Fulup who may have been the one mishandling paperwork back then had his own lawsuit more recently too. I remember when they started doing the digests that the old filing system was just heaps of papers and art, let alone stories of flood damage destroying things. They found designs and concepts no one employed even knew existed. Even more recently I learned Archie did treat their creatives like dirt until pretty much the end. It was some of their love for the property that kept them going. Also, not long before the Bumbleking forum was shut down I learned Jon Gray and many of the creatives who left over the last couple of years had filed suits for their treatment. It was less Sonic but I believe more a general Archie thing. Maybe it was covered on the fan comic Archie Sonic's forum. Some of the same userbase so hard to remember for sure. If Archie was that bad, I kind of hope Sega finds a company that will treat its employees well. I hope Ian just releases his Lost Hedgehog Tales with his unused storylines too, so we can have a bit more of a conclusion to all the new and old ideas that never saw the light. I'll miss it, but I have hopes for the future.
Thank goodness for a final answer! Being kept in the dark for months like that was worse than a straight cut cancellation. I remember my first introduction to the American Sonic Comics... I must have been 8 or 9 when I found a big hamper of them for £1 in They Walk Among Us, back when I was staying in England. I have to admit I really didn't like the comics back then. The paper was rough and prone to tearing, unlike my good ol' StC magazine pages and the artwork and stories were just so different from what I was used to. I remember the first issue I opened up having Antoine go hunting for a Chaos Emerald to make a ring for Bunnie and I facepalmed so hard. Sigh... But I picked it up again on Ian's Sonic Birthday issue, I think #160, once I'd moved over here to South Africa and had been following it ever since. I always felt Ian "got" Sonic, and his background as a fan always made me feel happy for some reason. I really hope he can continue to work on Sonic if it does go to a new publisher and I hope his last few years of worldbuilding don't go to waste.
This is bad for Archie in the long run. Sonic was always selling well for them, better than Archie was. Once this whole Riverdale hype and the reboot comics lose popularity, they're gonna lose money. I mean, they payed Adam Hughes to do covers for fucking Betty and Veronica. Honestly, there's no way that comic is doing well enough to justify the amount of money Hughes asks for. Archie is gonna go down the drain.
