Sonic the Comic

The mascot of the comic was a robot named Megadroid, composed of parts of a Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Megadroid was the persona used by the editors of Sonic the Comic to answer letters and provide story recaps and general magazine news (much like Tharg in 2000AD, and in fact created by former Tharg Richard Burton). He acted as a liaison between the readers (whom he called "boomers," deriving from the term "sonic boom") and the "humes who think they're in charge".

Megadroid had two one-off strips; the first (#41) was a tour of the STC offices for the Christmas issue, and a second (#83) in which he ran away from the STC offices to a seaside town only to return from his harrowing experience to attend to the needs of the boomers.

Megadroid was dropped from the comic in 1998, and with him the "Speedlines" letter page vanished. Speedlines returned in 2000, though it was no longer a regular feature and instead of Megadroid, the letters were supposedly answered by Sonic himself (actually editor Andy Diggle and later Steve MacManus).

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, Woodrow Phoenix, Roberto Corona, Mike McMahon, Kitching himself and many others. The first editor was Richard Burton.

Several of the comic's contributors have found success elsewhere in comics. Mark Millar, who wrote the first Streets of Rage storyline and some Sonic strips, has since written major titles for DC and Marvel Comics such as Wanted and Civil War; editor Andy Diggle has since become a comics writer; and Road to Perdition illustrator Richard Rayner contributed to Decap Attack scripts.

The demise of STC began when budget cuts at the comic led to the number of pages being cut from 36 to 32 beginning with issue 95 in 1997 and as a result, the loss of the news, game review and game tips sections (though the slow phasing out of these sections had already been ongoing since early 1995). Despite being one of Fleetway's biggest selling comics in 1998, from issue 133, published that July, one strip an issue was given over to reprints to save money as part of Fleetway's policy of five-year reader cycles (issue 133 was published shortly after the comic's fifth birthday). Later in the year, the mascot Megadroid was removed, along with the "Speedlines" letters page. Two further strips were replaced by reprints in issues 155 and 157, leaving just the main Sonic strip and the cover as the only new material in each issue. With the lack of new supporting character strips, Nigel Kitching was asked to share the main strip with Lew Stringer, causing the plans for the "Shanazar" story arc to be heavily altered.[2]

During this time, the main strip's stories came under the "Time Zone" banner, mostly being set on Shanazar and then later involving dimensional portals leading to other dimensions and Earth's history (identical to the previous Amy and Tekno stories) due to editorial preference. Neither Mobius nor any of the main characters bar Sonic and Amy featured, and the lack of ancillary strips meant no other stories could be told. Following issue 157, Lew Stringer replaced Nigel Kitching as the comic's sole writer.

After Andy Diggle became the comic's editor, Stringer's run concluded with an apocalyptic final storyline, and Kitching returned with issue 175 for a ten-part adaptation of the videogame Sonic Adventure. From issue 185, the comic became fully reprint, aside from new covers drawn by Richard Elson. This happened at short notice – even Kitching was not aware that issue 184 would be his last until he requested an extension for the ten-issue storyline he was in the middle of writing, having apparently already made plans for future stories that would follow it. He revealed the cancellation to fans on the unofficial STC Yahoo! Groups mailing list on 19 April 2000, a little over two months before the last issue was published and only a few weeks after he himself had been made aware of the fact. As a result, the final story ended with a handful of loose ends from earlier stories left untied.

Fully reprint issues continued to be published until issue 223, which reprinted the four-part storyline "The Evil Empire" and featured an article by Nigel Kitching about his time working on the comic, an abridged version of which was posted to the STC Mailing List.

As the central protagonist and main character of the comic, Sonic's personality differed slightly from his typical portrayals in other Sonic fiction; a flawed hero, he can act arrogant, rude and somewhat self-centred, being condescending towards Tails in particular (often referring to him as "pixel brain"). Despite his flaws, Sonic will always rescue the innocent from danger when the situation arises. After Johnny Lightfoot's death at the hands of Chaos, Sonic blames himself and disappears for a short while, returning from his self-imposed exile with a less egocentric attitude and a stronger will. Sonic's origin was first used in 1991 in a Disney comic then now put into Sonic the Comic. Sonic was once a brown hedgehog, he then one day met the scientist Dr. Kintobor who invented a machine powered by the mysterious power of the Chaos Emeralds. Dr. Kintobor also invented Sonic's trademark speed shoes to help amplify Sonic's speed. While testing Dr. Kintobor's invention, Sonic broke the sound barrier, giving him his looks and speed. The adaptation of Sonic Adventure led to Sonic's redesign to match his modern incarnation.

When Sonic is required to do some undercover work, he adopts the persona of "Bob Beaky", a heavily wrapped-up bird.

Tails is Sonic's best friend as well as sidekick. Tails is commonly insulted by Sonic, who often calls him "Pixel Brain". Despite this, Tails still looks up to him. Tails was born in the Nameless Zone. Similar to Tails' backstory in the Canon games, he used to get picked on due to his twin tails. Tails eventually ran off and was found by Sonic in the Swamp Zone. This depiction of Tails does not have the genius-level intelligence of his video game counterpart, but is capable of flying the Tornado on his own, and coming up with cunning schemes to triumph over his enemies.

Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald, which gives the Chaos Emeralds their power as well as the secret to the Floating Island's levitation powers. Following the adaptation of Sonic Adventure, Knuckles is also in possession of one of the Chaos Emeralds. In this media depiction, Knuckles is not too fond of Sonic's character, and is notably less gullible than his video game counterpart.

Amy first appeared in a two-part story where she was arrested by Dr. Robotnik's Trooper Badniks for the criminal offense of association with Sonic; she had been saying she was his girlfriend. While annoyed at the fact she had been lying about them being an "item", Sonic still had a duty to rescue her and did so, but to his horror realised that she was now a fugitive and would have to stay with the Freedom Fighters.

Amy's character swiftly matured as the comic went on and became one of the most valuable members of the Freedom Fighters, especially due to her expert marksmanship with her crossbow (as opposed to wielding the Piko Piko Hammer), which she created herself. The notion of a love interest in Sonic was, for the most part, underplayed and one of the comic's writers, Nigel Kitching, revealed he saw it partly as Amy just trying to annoy Sonic.[4] Several times, Sonic would be left exasperated by either civilians assuming the two were dating, which Amy would play along with or her playing up the crush. Because of this, when trapped on the Miracle Planet with her, he faked being lost for two days.[5]

She appeared often in strips, with a few solo stories by Lew Stringer where she saved the day without the others noticing. She constantly showed self-righteousness, pragmatism and quick thinking: in the story "Plasma" in #78, she both worked out how to defeat the villain and let Sonic believe he had as she knew that, as a symbol of hope for Mobius, "it's important that they think it's him who saves the day!". She also took a second-in-command role, taking full control when Sonic was absent or transformed into Super Sonic. When Sonic was lost in the Special Zone, she led the Freedom Fighters[6] until he returned in #100. At a later part of the comic's life, Amy would be mostly written by Lew Stringer as a straightforward adventurer and had a long series of back-up strips teamed up with her best friend Tekno.

Nigel Kitching originally planned for Amy to be more of an irritant for Sonic, influenced by 1930s and 40s "Hollywood screwball comedies" like It's a Wonderful World, but while still being a capable fighter. However, Deborah Tate wanted the character to be of a role model for girls, as she was the only female regular character at the time, and dictated that she be more sensible and mature.[7]

The Chaotix characters – Vector, Mighty, Espio, and Charmy – were written into Sonic the Comic as protectors of the Special Zone. The storyline had them framed without losing Sonic's trust. Along with Knuckles, this ensemble has been developed through many adventures as some of Sonic's best friends, always willing to help out.

Decap Attack was an adaptation of a Genesis/Mega Drive game. The strip outlasted all the other non-Sonic strips, seemingly becoming Nigel Kitching's pet project. Richard Piers Rayner co-wrote some episodes and Mike McMahon drew several.

The strip contained a very absurdist and manic sense of black humour, dealing with the daily life of Chuck, Head (the talking skull who, to Head's annoyance, gets thrown at enemies), the evil-minded Igor (who is constantly trying to kill Chuck) and the stereotypical mad scientist Professor Frank N. Stein, who is actually putting on his German accent and really comes from Cardiff. The game's adversary Max D. Cap only appeared twice, along with his accountant sidekick Rupert, who is constantly encouraging Max to be more stereotypically evil in his mannerisms. In the first story, he was chased away by the horror of Stein's newest creation, a creature cloned with half a brain ("...a Blockbusters contestant!"); in the second, he was in charge of the train to Hell ("now boarding for Hell, Damnation and Milton Keynes") that transported new damned souls.

Three comic strip series based on the Streets of Rage Genesis/Mega Drive games were published in Sonic the Comic. The strip first appeared in issue 7 of STC and was written by Mark Millar, and the last Streets of Rage story ran from STC 41-46 and was written by Nigel Kitching. All three series featured artwork by Peter Richardson.

The strip was set in a city ruled by Mr. X and his organised crime group The Syndicate, who were opposed by the video games' player characters Axel, Blaze, Max and later Skate. In the first story, Axel, Blaze and Max quit the police force and become vigilantes. Streets of Rage was darker and more violent than STC's other strips, and the stories were relatively long for the comic, being told over six parts.

Four 32-page compilation books were released by Ravette Publishing in 1994. Early Sonic stories were reprinted in Sonic the Hedgehog Beats the Badniks (issues 1–4) and Sonic the Hedgehog: Spin Attack (issues 6 & 8–10), while Shinobi: The Fear Pavilion (issues 1–6) and Streets of Rage: Bad City Fighters (issues 7–12) each collected the complete first story from their respective series.

Twenty-five copies of each book were given away as competition prizes in issues 23 (Beats the Badniks and Spin Attack) and 24 (Shinobi and Streets of Rage), although in each competition the winners were unable to choose which of the two books to receive as a prize.

In 1993, Virgin Publishing released four Sonic novels, written by James Wallis, Carl Sargent and Marc Gascoigne under the collective pseudonym "Martin Adams".[8] These were based on the origin established in Stay Sonic and shared many similarities with early STC, including the origin of Robotnik and the early cast (Johnny, Porker, Sally Acorn, Joe Sushi et al.). The second title, Sonic the Hedgehog in the Fourth Dimension, involved a time-travelling Sonic being forced to ensure Kintobor became Robotnik, in order to save Mobius - several years before STC featured a similar plot element.

In its 87th issue, the British video games magazine GamesTM featured a four-page article on “Sonic The Comic,” entitled “Paper With Attitude,”[9][10] which included observations by various people who worked on the comic such as Nigel Kitching, scans of the comic, a production sketch of Captain Plunder, and the history of STC. Amongst the points raised in the article included the following:

• Unlike a number of other comics (such as those made by Marvel) any artwork was drawn only after STC was written as a full script.

• Halfway during Robert Corona's tenure, a new licensing agency came up with new guidelines for drawing Sonic, which included the position, orientation, and the number of his spikes varying from each angle, the fact that Sonic's pupils “always had to be touching some part of the outside of his eyes,” and the fact that they could never show Sonic's teeth.

• There were restrictions on the amount of violence allowed. A lynching scene in the “Knuckles” series, for instance, was redrawn to place the noose around his body rather than his neck, while in a “Sonic” story a gun was redrawn to have it fire a sucker dart. There was, however, more freedom in regards to other Sega franchises, as characterised by the “Decap Attack” series, where Kitching (in his own words) “got away with murder” and in terms of the story where the brain of the detective was physically removed to erase his memories, Kitching was “absurdly proud of this for some reason.”

• The Megadroid mascot was the creation of Richard Burton.

• Nigel Kitching decided to have Robotnik overthrown in the 100th issue because he felt that the fact that Robotnik remaining dictator of Mobius despite the number of times Sonic defeated him sent out a negative message: that evil “can never actually be defeated.”

• The news, game, and review sections were removed later on during the comic's run due to budgetary reasons.

• Positive comments were made about the unofficial continuation of STC, STC Online. Nigel Kitching noted that the people at STC Online "are producing rather good continuations of the STC strips." Robert Corona noted that he couldn't say “how impressed I am at the dedication and talent that goes into STC Online," feeling that it was great that "those guys refused to accept the end just because the publisher decided to pull the plug." Andy Diggle was also pleased about STC finding a new home, noting that "It's nice to see that STC actually HAS an online presence."[11]