Sonic the Comic

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Sonic the Comic, known to its many readers as STC, was a UK children's comic published by Fleetway Editions (the merged companies Fleetway and London Editions, which progressively became integrated with its parent company Egmont until it became known as Egmont Magazines) between 1993 and 2002. It was the UK's official Sega comic and was released every fortnight at 95 pence, later rising to £1.35 before the final issue.

Contents

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Setting

The comic featured the adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and his motley crew of freedom fighters as they struggled to liberate the planet Mobius from the control of the evil dictator, Doctor Ivo Robotnik. It also included a few other original characters like Johnny Lightfoot and Porker Lewis (based on the generic rabbit and pig characters freed from Badniks in the Sonic games), Tekno the Canary and Shortfuse the Cybernik. Robotnik's assistant was Grimer, a green scientist who was insanely loyal to Robotnik throughout the comic's run.

The Chaotix Crew appear in STC. Nack the Weasel was once a member of the group, but he betrayed them at one point. In STC, Vector the Crocodile, Charmy Bee, Espio the Chameleon, and Mighty the Armadillo are the Chaotix members. Many other sub-plots and storylines have appeared in the STC comics, such as Tails' adventures in the Nameless Zone, Knuckles' quest to discover the fate of for his ancestors and Amy Rose and Tekno the Canary's adventures through time and space. Occasionally, storylines would be devoted to Robotnik himself.

The adaptations of the Sonic video games were generally closer than those of the Archie comic, although changes were still made, particularly in the case of Sonic Adventure. This storyline occupied the final issues of the comic containing new material - after this arc ended in July 2000, all the stories in the comic were reprints of earlier stories. The comic finally ended with issue 223 in January 2002, which contained a special retrospective piece written by major writer Nigel Kitching.

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Format

The comic generally had a format containing four stories, each usually following different storylines and being written and drawn by different writers and artists. The first was always a seven page story about Sonic himself (except for one issue which began with Tails instead), and in the earliest issues, the remaining three would involve a different Sega game character (see list below). As time rolled on, Sonic's influence spread, and the other strips were supplanted by supporting-character-based stories such as Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Chaotix, Captain Plunder (an original character, created by Nigel Kitching) and the anthology, "Sonic's World," which would focus on different characters as it saw fit.

Other stories featured were based on various other Sega video game titles. Each run usually lasted for six issues. These included:

Of these, "Pirate STC" was the only strip not to be based on an existing game; instead, it was based on original characters featured in television adverts for the Sega Mega Drive and Mega CD consoles - most recognisably, a man wearing a fez. Decap Attack, meanwhile, outlasted all the other non-Sonic strips, being Nigel Kitching's pet project of sorts.

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Megadroid

The mascot of the comic was a robot named Megadroid. Megadroid went through several redesigns over the years that the comic was in print, but he is most commonly recognised as being comprised of parts of a Sega Mega Drive.

Megadroid serves as the "face" of Sonic the Comic, answering letters as an editor would, and providing story recaps and general magazine news on the inside front cover. He acted as a liaison between the readers (whom he called "boomers") and the "humes who think they're in charge".

Megadroid was dropped from the comic in 1998, and with him the "Speedlines" letter page vanished. Speedlines returned in 2000, though was no longer a regular feature and the letters were supposedly answered by Sonic himself.

As of STC's unofficial revival in 2003, Megadroid was also brought back, and received the job of welcoming the comic, and (As far as can be told) game reviewing. His mid-section is now made of a Nintendo GameCube.

A short computer-generated animated movie was made by fans in 2004. It showed Megadroid hosting an office party, getting fired, leaping out the window and getting short-circuited by one of his own tears of despair. This film showed Megadroid in his form in the original STC from 1995-1998, presumably relating to Megadroid's sudden removal from the comic.

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Writers and artists

The bulk of the work in the comic was written by either Nigel Kitching or Lew Stringer, while art was provided by Richard Elson, Nigel Dobbyn, Carl Flint, Roberto Corona, Mick McMahon, Kitching himself and many others.

Several of the comic's writers and artists have since had success elsewhere. Mark Millar, writer of the first Streets of Rage story and some Sonic stories, has had success writing comics in the Ultimate Marvel line. Dermot Power [1], who contributed several pieces of cover artwork, has worked as a concept artist on Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and other films. Andy Diggle, who was one of STC's most creatively successful editors, is making waves as a writer at DC and now Marvel on such titles as The Losers and Punisher.


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Demise

The demise of STC began when budget cuts at the comic led to the number of pages being cut from 36 to 32 in 1997 and as a result, the loss of the news, game review and game tips sections. Despite being one of Fleetway's biggest selling comics in 1998 (at one point that year it was outselling 2000AD), from issue 133, published that July, one strip an issue was given over to reprints to save money as well as Fleetway's policy of five-year reader cycles (issue 133 was published shortly after the comic's 5th birthday). Later in the year, the mascot Megadroid, along with the letters page, known as Speedlines, was removed. Two more strips were later replaced by reprints as a result of dwindling sales figures, leaving the main strip to be the only new material from issue 157 (issues 155 and 156 had 2 new stories, though this was merely to let the existing Amy and Tekno story draw to a close). With only one new strip an issue, the sales figures dwindled enough to allow Fleetway to make the decision for the comic to be full reprint from issue 185 (albeit with new covers drawn by fan favorite Richard Elson). Many fans have been critical of Egmont Fleetway for treating the comic the way they did, and many believe that without the budget cuts and reprints that the comic would probabally not have ended. Andy Diggle was editor for the comic's final two story arcs (one by Lew Stringer, the other Nigel Kitching's adaptation of Sonic Adventure), both of which were well-received by fans.

The comic was cancelled at short notice- even writer Nigel Kitching wasn't aware until a few weeks before he wrote the last issue that Issue 184 would be the last (He had requested an extra 2 issues for the Sonic Adventure adaptation to flesh the story out more, it was when he did this he found out. Before this, he wasn't even aware STC was to end, and had made plans for future stories). He revealed the cancellation to fans on the STC Mailing list on April 19, 2000- a little over 2 months before the last issue was published, Nigel had only been aware himself for a few weeks before this. As a result, many feel the ending of the final story to be lacking for a final issue (especially with several loose ends left untied), although they also feel it's probabally the best that could have been done considering the short notice, and it would have been a good ending to the story if the comic had continued.

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Sonic the Comic Online

Sonic the Comic - Online! (or STC-O! as it's commonly referred to) is an unofficial web-based continuation of Sonic the Comic. The strips continue the adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and his group of Freedom Fighters from where Nigel Kitching's Chaos Arc left off back in Issue #184. STC-O!'s first issue starts at #224, because the original STC started fully reprinting old strips from #185 to #223, meaning there is a huge gap in these issues with no new material.

The comic does not have the backing of either Egmont Fleetway or Sega, but since it has been given many of the original STC writers and artists have praised the website and allowed it to continue. Thus, it is considered among STC fans as "officially unofficial" - the closest to an official continuation there is likely to be.

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External links

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