Sheer curiosity

WhoopA · Post by **WhoopA** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 2:08 am

So, we pretty much concur on the opinion of the Archie Sonic comic, right?

...but what about the UK comic - what's your opinions on that one?

-wyvern · Post by **-wyvern** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:56 am

I only ever bought a few of those comics. Some were good, but some were very, very bad. I liked the storyline with the sentinels, whichever one that was.

Post by **Popcorn** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 6:09 am

I actually genuinely feel that the earylish STC issues weren't bad at all. For something aimed and made for kids, where it's so, so, so easy just to fob them off with a load of old ass, they did a pretty good job-- the art was pretty good and solid, and the writing was frequently super-gripping. Maybe it's just childhood memories talking here, but whenever I go back to an old issue I'm always impressed.

I mean, clearly STC was shit. But you know, I'm talking in relative terms here. Of course, anything that wasn't by Elson and Kitching was absolutely dire, something I could see even at the age of eight years... I think I stopped reading altogether about 1997 though (ie, when I hit high school).

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 6:54 am

All I can say is from the few issues of the comic I read on the internet is that StC seems to have the most mean-spirited version of Sonic I've seen. I don't think even in the games he was that ill-tempered.

Post by **Crazy Penguin** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:47 am

Popcorn wrote:Of course, anything that wasn't by Elson and Kitching was absolutely dire, something I could see even at the age of eight years...

The Elson/Dobbyn stuff was pretty good too. He sucked at drawing Sonic himself, but thankfully he mostly did Knuckles strips, which he was very well suited to.

The comic was at its best when it was an anthology of Sega based comics. Nobody other than Kitching really had a grip on the Sonic stuff and it really showed as more Sonic based material made its way in.

bcdcdude · Post by **bcdcdude** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 2:04 pm

I actually really enjoyed the UK comic. The main stories were very well done indeed. And yes the Elson and Kitching stories were easily the best. And Decap Attack was and is still so bloody funny. Of course there was a lot of crap, but that's the same for every comic.

Post by **G.Silver** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 1:34 am

StC seems to have the most mean-spirited version of Sonic I've seen. I don't think even in the games he was that ill-tempered.

I noticed this too, I actually found it rather refreshing to see that "attitude" thing given the full on treatment the way they did. I don't know if I like it that much, but I enjoyed it, at least.

I was actually really impressed with what little I saw of the comic, this was pretty recent, but I found a big collection somewhere (mostly the very early issues) and just blew through the whole thing. I don't know if it was as "gripping" as I was just curious to see what they'd do with it next, it was just really fascinating to see what had been going on overseas for all this time. I was also impressed with the art, not necessarily in the interpretations of the characters, but just how much more effort was clearly being placed in it than Archie's version. Even today, with computer coloring, Archie's colorist could learn a thing or two from the more "painted" look of the Fleetway comic. If there were a collected version of these comics I'd love to own it.

The first page of <a href="http://www.sonicstadium.org/comics/inde ... =004">this issue</a>, incidentally, had me rolling on the floor.

Post by **Crazy Penguin** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 7:11 am

G.Silver wrote:I was also impressed with the art, not necessarily in the interpretations of the characters, but just how much more effort was clearly being placed in it than Archie's version. Even today, with computer coloring, Archie's colorist could learn a thing or two from the more "painted" look of the Fleetway comic.

99% of the time in STC the penciler would do their own inking and colouring. Richard Elson was on most issues of the comic, usually doing the 7 page lead. Considering it was a fortnightly it's most impressive indeed.

Jason Jensen, the colourist on Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog is either really bad or really lazy (both?), observe:

Post by **G.Silver** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 2:43 am

It seems like he's more lazy than anything else to me. His coloring is mechanical, he seems to have an eye for it at least (gradient-filled or not, that panel is somewhat striking) but he doesn't seem to think about what he's doing and the sheer number of coloring errors or misinterpretations suggest that he just doesn't care enough to do it right. I don't care for the style of shading he uses either, I'd really like to see WB's art done with some really vibrant, solid colors, like StC had. There's so much complexity in the drawings that it might come off a bit guady, but it also might be really eye-popping.

The good kind of eye-popping. Not the kind that involves a hammer and nail.

It does seem like the past few issues have been colored better, but it may be that WBs art simply requires him to pay more attention or he'll look even lazier than he did before. Or maybe it's just that my expectations are so low....

Post by **Esrever** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 4:36 am

Ultimately, I think it's a speed issue more than a laziness issue. Archie isn't exactly a massively high-paying comic publisher... that's why their comics are so much cheaper than, say, the latest Spider-man or Batman books. Jensen is probably devoting an amount of time colouring each issue that is more or less in line with how much he gets paid.

Post by **Popcorn** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 5:44 am

I actually mailed both Elson and Kitching a few times. Elson said he actually doesn't like Sonic at all, which is kind of tragic; and Kitching told me he'd never even played a Sonic game...

-wyvern · Post by **-wyvern** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 6:44 am

The fact that they do not empathise with the characters makes them all the more talented for the quality of thier writing.

bcdcdude · Post by **bcdcdude** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 2:37 pm

Popcorn wrote:I actually mailed both Elson and Kitching a few times. Elson said he actually doesn't like Sonic at all, which is kind of tragic; and Kitching told me he'd never even played a Sonic game...

Blimey! Tragic indeed. A testament to their work then. They could've easily said "Don't like the fucker - can't be arsed to put the effort in", but they did. The way it was written, you'd think they were huge fans!

Post by **Popcorn** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 2:41 pm

Or that they'd get fired otherwise.

j-man · Post by **j-man** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 5:02 pm

I liked it. They need to seriously compile all the best stories into a TPB - Sonic Terminator, Bruticus, Running Wild, The Brotherhood Of Metallix, Chaotix, Sonic 3 + Knuckles, Knuckles' Chaos Emerald saga, all the classic stories that got me to convince my mum to shell out her hard earned every bi-weekly interval.

Neo Yi · Post by **Neo Yi** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 9:09 pm

Living in America, I've only read a few (thanks to a friend from England). While I can't make a solid judgement (I only read like 4 issues), I DID like their crazy psychopath Super Sonic. I liketh insanity.
Concerning Archie, I have my ups and downs for it...
~Neo