Proof we can get good results Sonic the Comic Mailing List/0010000 (ty Level Zone Act) a JSON dump. Yes it looks ugly but that doesn't matter. I can get Mediawiki to format it: Template:JSONTest This went a lot smoother than I expected. I'll do a better template one day but we're able to isolate the text of the message without much trouble. Genuinely considering whether it would be worth making a full-fat Mediawiki JSON parser. I have a sneaking suspicion it could be done, meaning anything that outputs JSON could be supported in a similar way.
That's great! It's a relief to know that they're archived. EDIT: Black Squirrel replied while I was typing this... I made a wiki page about the mailing list: https://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the_Comic_Mailing_List Then to test out how giving each individual message its own wiki page might work, I took that message #10000 from before and put it on a subpage: https://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the_Comic_Mailing_List/0010000 The wiki is interpreting the many braces and brackets as template markup. But the colour-coding it's automatically given the quotes and replies actually makes it more readable than in the raw JSON file! On the list's main wiki page, I made a table to link to the notable posts I collected in that pastebin. Only added post #10000 and one other one so far; what do you think? Should I continue adding the others? While writing something about the mailing list's history, I remembered Ed Reynolds and Tom Huxley's old STC:STEM fansite: https://web.archive.org/web/20010401054532/http://www.sonicthecomic.co.uk/index.htm I'd forgotten that that site used to host a copy of Kitching's original Sonic Adventure pitch to Andy Diggle: https://web.archive.org/web/20010502012517/http://www.sonicthecomic.co.uk/nigel10.html Also, Archive.org's copy of Nigel Kitching's old website still has a couple of scripts (in addition to the ones I zipped before) and some bits of artwork: https://web.archive.org/web/20010405192932/http://www.nkitching.freeserve.co.uk/sonicmai.htm
Oh! https://web.archive.org/web/2001062...ching.freeserve.co.uk/images/Sonic/Charmy.jpg That art is straight from Sega. It's in the Japanese Chaotix manual, but the fingers are ever so slightly cropped. I believe some of those images were also in the Knuckles Knock-Out Special.
I've always thought that we should archive every single tweet from every single Sega-related Twitter.
On the mailing list wiki page, I've added to the table so it links to almost all of the notable posts I collected in that pastebin. Of course I've probably missed plenty of other informative posts hiding in the archives! Next to do: put the JSON files for all the listed emails on their own wiki pages. I also updated https://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the_Comic/Development with the zip file of Kitching's scripts from my earlier post, and the Sonic Adventure pitch from the STEM fansite.
Quick question: I'm still a newbie to STC, and while I found it super easy to get into just by reading the main numbered issues, I'm a bit confused as to when I should read the specials. Do any of you Fleetway veterans happen to have some sort of "reading order"?
The Knuckles story in Sonic the Summer Special leads in to the Sonic story in STC #33. Sonic the Poster Mag #6 has to take place between STC #34 and #35, but it's a little awkward. The lead story in the Knuckles Knock-Out Special takes place immediately after/alongside the Sonic story in STC #76. (The Knuckles serial that starts in STC #74 takes place after both of these, so the continuity is a little jumbled. The Sonic story in STC #76 was probably intended to take place immediately after the Sonic story in STC #72, it certainly reads that way.) The other Holiday Special and Poster Mag stories are generally light on continuity, so you should get by just fine reading them in release date order. In general, the continuity got a little bit tangled, particularly in relation to Knuckles, around 1994-5 when Nigel Kitching and Lew Stringer were both writing stories with the same cast of characters. In later years there was less overlap.
The top row and the winking Sonic are all stock art. The very STC Amy looks like Carl Flint's work. I don't think I've ever seen the front facing gliding Knuckles anywhere else.
Yeah, I think that art might have been made specifically for the European release of Chaotix. It's the other Knuckles tattoo, on the bottom left, that I don't recognise.
The Knuckles on the 32X box art (the "one fist forward, one fist back" pose) is quite similar to the early "pre-1207" Knuckles' Ringstar title screen art, and the early Knuckles model sheets seen in the following thread (Sonic Stock Art Cataloguing). While the design was refined over time and the model sheets were adjusted accotdingly, this particular image shares the higher angled eyes common with the early Ringstar art, and the associated design quirk of the left side (from our perspective) of Knuckles' muzzle continuing past his dreads rather than capping off like the right side. That front facing gliding art is just weird though. I mean, I can see what they were going for, but yikes.
Also, found and scanned a set of the Badnik Spotter Cards from StC #41 and #42: https://info.sonicretro.org/Category:Images_of_Sonic_the_Comic_extras These are more likely to exist in as good or better condition in other people's collections. From what I've read on the StC Wikia these are all original art by the StC staff.
I believe they were all by Ferran Rodriguez. I think he was also credited with some Badnik pinups, but I can't remember whether they were original or repurposed from these cards.
I think the way it works is if you see a "Copyright Promotions Ltd." credit, it comes directly from Sega Europe's big Sonic archive thing. Otherwise it's most likely been drawn by the artists of STC. For the record, the aptly named Copyright Promotions were charged with licensing Sonic onto... things. Just make lots of merchandise, they said. I think they succeeded.
Every product they licensed would have that line on it, whether the art is original or not. It's in the small print of every issue of STC and the "Spin Attack" and "Beats the Badniks" books.
