The GHZ Forum

There's a new Sonic the Comic online at http://www.drx.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/son ... /cover.htm.
Also, if you like funny flash cartoons, check out http://www.bonusstages.com.
The Sonic comics have kind of sucked recently.

I remember J-man making the same point when I just signed up for here. When STC ended it should have remained that way but now the art and storylines are a pile of steaming crap, I refuse to see any connection between the comic and the online site.

You don't have to refuse to see the connection because there is no connection to see. It's just a fan comic. The only reason they've managed to fool people into thinking it's any more than that is because a lot of Sonic fans are ten-year-olds. (Or at least intellectually comaprable to ten-year-olds.)

I really have no idea. I never read any of the Fleetway comics, but I've (unfortunately?) had decent exposure to the Archie ones. I just remember reading on Sonic HQ that "Sonic the Comic had returned."

Does anyone remember The Sonic Ideal, or whatever? It was an online fancomic that came out in 1999 or so, with the intention of staying true to the old games with Ohshima-like art, Metal Sonic, Flicky and company, etc. It was either extremely short-lived or I just got tired of waiting for an update and stopped checking.

Yeah, I remember Sonic Ideal. It was fairly decent, except in the second issue they introduced some weird fan character.

Didn't Koosh Koosh! (Neil Lafrenais) work on that? His Sonic CD comic that he posted here a while ago had a similar style to the Sonic Ideal. ^_^

I just remember the Death Egg Special or whatever. It really was impressive.

That's Their sample of the beginning of Sonic 3. It was done by Abigail Ryder, as far as I can tell. It was pretty good. There's also this piece of crap:

http://www.planetdreamcast.com/sonic/se ... ndex.shtml

Sample:
http://www.planetdreamcast.com/sonic/se ... 1page3.jpg

But if you go back to the fan comics section under "see," there are some REALLY good ones. Check out Darkspeeds' Sonic Adventure 2 comic.

Abigail Ryder did the art for the second incarnation of Sonic Ideal. The original was done by Dawn Best.

big_smile wrote:Didn't Koosh Koosh! (Neil Lafrenais) work on [the Sonic Ideal]? His Sonic CD comic that he posted here a while ago had a similar style to the Sonic Ideal. ^_^

I'm afraid to say that I never got to work "officially" with Dave Bulmer (the writer) and Abby Ryder (the artist) on the Sonic Ideal during it's short 3 year run.

However, towards the end of it, me, Dave and Abby were becoming good friends and I got access to a few things, like a script for Issue 4, and a few pages that were never seen by the general public. Dave had some wicked stuff planned for the on-going storyline, and I'm very sad that it never made it into the comics/the website.

For example, issue 10 was going to include the faux death of Tails by Eggman in one of his machines. Sonic becomes traumatised to the point of dire measures... of course, Tails isn't really dead, and everything ends happily, but it sounded like a cracking read. I'll have to ask him for the script one day.

The truth of the matter is that Dave and Abby both got very busy with uni and now currently with paid work... and as we know, they can't sell the Sonic Ideal, as it's based on other people's property. So, the Sonic Ideal remains unfinished. Probably forever.

However, it does live on through my Sonic CD adaptation, I suppose. They're my main inspiration for the project, and of course, they were very true to the games, with some excellent twists.

Additionally, Dave's always eager to see new pages, and he's usual one of the first people that I show it over AIM for critical analysis and critiquing. The suggestion of Sonic running off and "doing tricks" at the beginning of my comic was his.

Adding to this fact, Dave did actually send me the early synopsis for HIS version of the Sonic CD adaptation, and I've been cribbing little ideas from it to this day... so, yes. It lives on.

The big problem with the Sonic Ideal, and quality fan work like that in general, is that by the time we're skilled enough to do fantastic work like that, we're all set to grow up and do our own characters. And Dave promised at least 20 issues of material (including specials like the Sonic 3 one). A little much for a non-profit comic, wouldn't you agree?

This is the problem I'm facing at the moment, and one of the reasons why I haven't settled on a specific number of pages. I'm currently thinking that three 30 page issues will be my lot, but we'll see. I'm hoping I can get this done, but once uni rolls around, it'll become a struggle. If only there was a way I could do pages faster...

Anyway, I've gone on for far too long. This is almost as bad as that Scorpion bloke's posts. If anyone has any interest in further Ideal info/stuff, I can provide links to interesting things. I think. Like the COMPLETED (sorta) first issue of the Sonic 3 comic.

Hmm. Yes.

I'd be all for some (all) of that stuff. The Sonic Ideal was amazing.

Didn't Dave Bulmer used to frequent the GHZ? I think he dropped off our radar before he started his comic book, but I remember him doing a great parody of the U.S. Sonic CD opening song.

Let's get back on the Sonic the Comic topic. After all...

"Tails and Morain Take on the Goblins!"

I think that even the Archie Sonic comics in general have been going down hill. This recent storyline kinda sucks too. But not as much as Tails and a bunch of Tails clones fighting Goblins. That's hard to top.

They aren't clones, they are residents of the nameless zone which according to STC is where Tails came from. I also think the STC portrayal of Supersonic is better than the Archie version.

Meh.
I just like playing as him.

Bo wrote:Didn't Dave Bulmer used to frequent the GHZ? I think he dropped off our radar before he started his comic book, but I remember him doing a great parody of the U.S. Sonic CD opening song.

Both he and Abby Ryder, in fact.

I don't remember the song parody, though. Does anyone have a copy of it?