The GHZ Forum

Sonic United has found something very interesting: A copy of SPEC magazine which contains one of the earliest Sonic appearances!

Standing for Sega Players Enjoy Club, SPEC covered all things Sega related including the Dreams Come True’s Wonder 3 concert tour from November 1990, which was the second time Sonic was shown to the Japanese public (The first was the Tokyo Game Show in June).

The article contains some early Sonic line drawings plus an "interview" with Sonic himself that explains his back story. Unfortunately, they didn't want to spoil the game, so much of the content has been censored. However, Sonic's home is referred to Christmas Island. This would later become Sonic's official birth place, but it seems like it might have originally been the initial name for South Island.

Oh, so that's where the Christmas Island bit (and Sonic spouting English phrases) originated, that's a great find. I love Tsukasa Mori's depiction of the classic Sonic pose - the slight difference in angle makes for a much more interesting visual, despite lacking the polish of the box art version.

"Expect much of next!"

Crazy Penguin wrote:I love Tsukasa Mori's depiction of the classic Sonic pose

You're familiar with his signature, then?

The website says that Ohshima contributed to this magazine. Are they inferring that he drew the title screen art as seen here, or did he do other, possibly non-Sonic-related, signed/credited art?

This is all so very cool! I never really gave much thought to what DCT played during that tour.

I love the early, early Sonic artwork - Sonic 1 conceptual stuff, the manga art, etc. I also really like that Ohshima artwork. It differs a lot from the latter classic Sonic artwork. It's always kind of interesting to see where early character designs can go before they become set in stone.