When will it be kill?
Tbh i have no idea, since Ken Penders fucked it all up with his 2 year old tantrum its hard to say. They seem to be settling shit out but its still got a long way to go desu.
Did Sonic Boom hurt the popularity of Sonic at all? Because that was a really bad video game, and a TV series with a really dubious connection to the source material
If Archie sonic dies, it'll be because of Archie itself.
>>82688153
The TV series actually did fairly well.
So did the comic too but then Archie started to collapse so it had to go.
>>82688146
Ultimately, I think the whole Ken Penders lawsuit was a good thing. Sonic needed a purging of OCs. And Flynn's been doing great with what he's got.
>>82688251
Yeah, pretty much. Horrible money management killed Mega Man and Sonic Boom, and Archie wants to push their new Archie book more. It's not even that great.
>>82688811
Eh, Ian works best when he's on clean up or using concepts already on the book and improving them.
Any day now.
>>82688966
This. I enjoyed the book much more when Ian was using the old characters. Everything seemed much deeper and more involved. Ever since then reboot, it's been kinda boring, outside of the fighters arc.
>>82689194
In that case it's because he's building everything up again.
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if thousands of middle-aged autists suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced."
>>82689194
Eggman's dozen is great so far.
Wait, did something happen with Archie?
The comics have been doing better than ever for a couple years now.
>>82689886
Kickstarter happened.
>>82689194
Superior arcs: Fighters, Spark of Life, Eggman's Dozen.
>>82689194
Before the reboot he was able to do a lot with the history of the comic, true. Post-Reboot SEGA has had a lot more mandates too, like characters not having family.
It's not all bad, and we've had a ton of good stuff, but I can understand being disappointed if you started reading for continuity and now all that's gone.
>>82689897
And what about Kickstarted affected Sonic?
Sonic's their best selling title.
Not until I get a god damn fighting game.
>>82688102
who knows, but at least we have solace that it beat out Marvel's Conan as the longest running comic adaption
>>82690886
Was that recent?
>>82689953
They tried a Kickstarter to get their comics in more stores, like WalMart.
It failed spectacularly.
Now they barely have enough money. That's why Mega Man and Sonic Boom died and Sonic took a break for several months.
>>82688102
>When will it be kill?
As long as there's a substantial autistic population in the United States, the Sonic comics will always sell.
Regardless of quality (people bought them during the Penders era).
>>82690245
>not an action RPG
Fighting games are trash and autistic.
>>82688811
>Ended up being late to Free Comic Day last weekend
>Waited behind a very long line
>Finally get in
>They had a considerably larger stack of Archie #1s left than most of the other comics
>Only half as many copies of Sonic left
I'm willing to bet they'll go back to the classic style within the next year once it gets into their heads that this reboot isn't working.
Maybe it'd be doing better if the art wasn't so horribly shitty looking. I mean just look at this hilariously poorly drawn cover and tell me that looks appealing in any way.
>>82688251
One of my favorite things to say is that Archie Sonic succeeded in spite of Archie, not because of it
>>82689194
Honestly the main book has gotten pretty damn repetitive as of late, though that's probably because of the worldbuilding. Thankfully there's only one more issue of that and at least the backup stories and Universe have been really damn good
>>82691189
Happened back in September
>>82689194
This.
I know people still consider the old world a complete mess, but a part of that made it more interesting.
>>82692303
>Honestly the main book has gotten pretty damn repetitive as of late, though that's probably because of the worldbuilding.
You're spiraling in your denial.
Flynn's Sonic pre-reboot was repetitive as FUCK and strung out for so damn long.
>Gotta chase that Death Egg
>Oh no. The Krudzu. Again.
>Mecha Sally! Noooooo!
>Still chasing that Death Egg.
>Uh oh, the Krudzu is back.
>We'll save you, Mecha Sally!
>Oop, almost caught the Death Egg, but not this time, better keep chasing...
And so on and so on.
The past wasn't better, anon.
>>82692706
That doesn't mean it isn't repetitive now. I never said that it didn't get a bit repetitive in the past, because that'd be wrong
>>82688102
He's got to fight the Predator!
Whatever happened to Afterlife with Archie?
>>82692706
#160-200 was better.
Also, wasn't post first Genesis wave time when Penders started fucking everything up? Mecha Sally and Death Egg and how much Naugus's reign dragged on was no doubt bad, but I feel like circumstances should be taken into account as well.
>>82692706
>Flynn's Sonic pre-reboot was repetitive as FUCK and strung out for so damn long.
It was repetitive immediately after the reboot, too.
>Everything's different
>gotta go on a quest to restore everyone's memories
>Long, tedious quest
>One character at a time
>Everyone gets their memories back
>Oops, the old universe is gone so it really doesn't matter since history is different
>Everyone forgets about the old universe anyway
The only reason Flynn writes for Archie is because they're the only ones with low enough standards to hire him.
>>82692812
Put on hiatus, but it's coming back relatively soon
>>82692822
>Also, wasn't post first Genesis wave time when Penders started fucking everything up?
I think around the time of Endangered Species is when shit started to go down. The krudzu wasn't even supposed to be part of that story originally, nor was Shard. The entire damn thing had to be rewritten, and everything after that had to be hastily edited to remove all mention of Penders characters
>>82692852
>>82692706
So the lesson here is that Ian shouldn't do long as fuck arcs and stick to shorter, more concise stuff?
>>82692852
Well, can you blame them, Flynn's shit sales 8-9k consistently.
>>82692852
You can blame the editor at the time for that particular story arc.
>>82692969
I swear to god the minute the reboot rolled around, the editor had a fucking stroke and went full retard.
>>82692969
>You can blame the editor at the time for that particular story arc.
Sauce?
Why would the editor want a reboot to eliminate old continuity, then a story arc restoring memory of the old continuity, then have everyone immediately forget the old continuity?
>>82692887
>stick to shorter, more concise stuff?
Even he fucks that up all the time. He just can't into pacing at all.
>>82693203
>Sauce?
I know Ian talked about it on Bumbleking, but god knows if I can find it again
>Why would the editor want a reboot to eliminate old continuity, then a story arc restoring memory of the old continuity, then have everyone immediately forget the old continuity?
This is the same man who forced Ian to kill off Team Dark in Worlds Unite to make things more "personal". And considering the average quality of the editors on the comic, are you really surprised?
>>82693231
Maybe that's why Universe is consistently good, because the pacing's done for him.
>>82693231
>He just can't into pacing at all.
God, he's only had 10 years to fucking practice.
Was the comic ever good?
>>82693416
Pre Death Egg was good.
>>82693439
Hell, wasn't the best story of the entire comic (Thicker than Water) right before that whole thing started?
>>82691280
Woah, I didn't know they did a break for Sonic.
What were they thinking
>>82693488
Yeah, an unannounced 3-4 month hiatus that ended as randomly as it began from December to March
>>82693439
>Pre Death Egg was good.
You mean Flynn/Yardley era pre Death Egg/Mecha Sally?
It was almost entirely clean-up duty to fix all the horrible shit. YEARS of clean-up duty.
I don't know if that's legitimately "good". We're just looking back at it as being "better" than the Penders era we were emerging from.
Objectively, those stories weren't good and were crippled with the continuity they had to fix.
>>82693504
>You mean Flynn/Yardley era pre Death Egg/Mecha Sally?
Yeah, but the clean up ended around 175 I'd say. By the time issue 200 rolled around clean up was long done
>>82693504
Pretty sure 161 to Knothole's destruction is the actual clean up period.
>>82693416
The only time it was ever enjoyable was the first 2 years of the comic when it was almost completely trying to be funny.
>>82694509
>t.anon from Bizzaro World
>>82694793
No, Bizarro world anon would praise Penders. There is some good stuff in the first 2 years though. But he didn't even mention Mecha Madness, which is legit one of the best stories pre-reboot
>>82694509
Michael Gallagher was the best. I wonder what he's doing now.
>>82694793
Nah. The more recent Sonic comics are just bland as fuck. Only enjoyable if you're a hardcore Sonic fan or a young child. The older ones were legit funnybooks.
>>82695145
>The more recent Sonic comics are just bland as fuck
Maybe the main book but Universe has been consistently good since the reboot started
>>82695145
>using the funnybook maymay
kys
>>82695438
Memes are for children, like Sonic comics. So, no.
>>82692706
I think people might be starting to realize Flynn's run is just a couple short bursts of quality in a decade of mediocrity.
>>82695200
Universe has been consistently good since the beginning.
Flynn's best when he isn't tied down by 1) covering the main story of a metaplot and 2) Sonic him-fucking-self.
>>82689783
Well he's been building for years and he hasn't even gotten out of the adaptation of a shitty, 8-year-old Sonic game, so I don't know what's going on right now.
>>82692822
160 and 161 is an easy sell: Sonic and Shadow beat up goofy robots and fight another Sonic clone.
Everything from there to 170 is garbage. 171 is a pretty decent story, but most of that comes from Knuckles fighting a giant robot lobster.
This leads into a big event that's pretty overrated and establishes a new status quo...where we're immediately thrown into baffling political drama, plothole filled narratives that explain really odd minutiae (we REALLY needed an explanation for Mighty's strength?), and continuity heavy epics. And then Evil Sonic shows up for 8 issues of goofy nonsense and it's a blast.
So then we've got the "EPIC DEFEAT (read: pretty standard)" of Dr. Eggman and some Chinamen become the new badguys for twelve issues...and it's fucking boring. We get a 4 issue spinoff of this in Universe that's actually good.
I hope you see where I'm going with this.
>>82692907
Sonic is the highest selling book from Archie, and with subscriptions (the bulk of Archie's sales unlike other companies) which aren't included in Diamond, their sales reach 40,000 - 50,000 easy. That's within the top 50 best selling comics each month and beats lots of superheros.
>>82695988
Ian's run is terrible compared to Gallaghers and Bollers.
Annoys me how so many people act like Sonic was never good before Flynn, as if Penders was the only writer.
>>82698288
As someone who read through Bollers' run recently, it does not hold up as well as you think it does
>>82698288
>Bollers.
It wasn't as good as you think it was. It was somewhat the lesser of two evils, but far from being as good as you think.
The reason people act like that is because of just how bad Penders' stuff was, how the book couldn't make up its mind with various points due to how Penders and Bollers argued, and the legal issues between archie and Ken being a black mark on the guy's personal record forever
>>82698339
Also even then, Gallagher wasn't even the best writer pre-Endgame. That honor would go to Angelo Decesare, but of course he gets forgotten
>>82695988
Flynn's run has been getting too weird for me
>>82698559
>Trying to pass that off as official
Fuck's sake the font isn't even right
>>82698481
>>82698537
What's wrong with it?
Other than pic related, I guess
>>82688153
I think sonic fans are so used to bad games that the occasional utter bomb isn't going to affect it any. The game just won't sell and that'll be that. The show is decent enough that they can still make a buck merchandising it through non-game media.
>>82698985
Besides the absolute fucking butchering of Sally's character (Though Penders had a huge part in that), his run was fine when it was trying do it's own thing and not focusing on Acorn Royal Drama™. Problem is that that fucking drama plus the ungodly unbearable love triangles is what his run tended to focus on, as well as one of the most boring status quos the book has ever had (2nd only to Brave New Mobius. Holy fuck that was a trainwreck). The Sonic Adventure arc was pretty bad too, though the worst part was the ending, which wasn't written by him.
The thing that kills his run is the fucking melodrama that pervades it from ~78 until 125, which, with a few exceptions, just dragged on and on and fucking ON. I'll admit I'm probably a lot softer on him than I should be, because he did write some genuinely good stuff, like Return to Angel Island, but the rest of his run ranges from mediocre to bad. Also while the characters he created did get more developed than Penders' recolors, they pretty much overshadowed everyone that wasn't Sonic and Sally. Hell, Rotor was literally put on a bus for a good 30 something issues, and Antoine and Bunnie barely show up at all.
The other anon can probably explain why it's bad in a way that isn't scatterbrained as fuck
>>82699217
Whoops, meant for >>82698928
>>82699076
Flynn's run got pretty melodramatic at times. Remember the drama with Tails' dad?
>>82699334
Yeah. That lasted 2 issues. Bollers' lasted for 50+. and only briefly stopped when Sonic went to space. And then when he came back the melodrama reached critical mass. Though to be fair he did leave before Brave New Mobius (AKA 130-159) truly went to absolute shit, so I'm not going to be too hard on him for that time period
I've been reading the Archie Sonic comic since I was six years old, and its continued existence baffles and delights me. Even when it hits low points like it has now, or back when the book hit issue 100 or so, it's still the Little Comic That Could.
Is it the highest-numbered ongoing comic at this point? If it isn't it must be damn close.
>>82688153
Eh, kinda.
It gave youtubers something to make fun of for a bit but then it died down.
The 3DS game was just forgettable so nobody really cared for that. The TV show and Comic did pretty well though
>>82699334
yeah but there's a difference between a couple of issues and the long ass run bollers had.
It didn't help that the guy had plans for more of the stuff.
>>82699463
>Is it the highest-numbered ongoing comic at this point? If it isn't it must be damn close.
It's not overall but it IS the highest in terms of licensed comics
>Even when it hits low points like it has now,
The main comic is currently a bit bland, but believe this, this is far from a really low point
>>82699463
>Is it the highest-numbered ongoing comic at this point? If it isn't it must be damn close.
It's the longest running licensed book. I know that.
That's the most likely reason why they didn't reset to #1 for the reboot. Archie is proud of that status.
>>82699494
>It didn't help that the guy had plans for more of the stuff.
http://archive.sonichq.net/newsite/comics/kbsonicoverview.phpThis is still probably better than Penders' plans
I started, STARTED reading Sonic around the time where Antoine was replaced by his evil duplicate and tried to force Sally to marry him and the part where Bunnie kissed Sonic to try and make Antoine jealous (but it didn't work because Evil Duplicate).
Lord only know why I kept reading. I remember liking the arc where Uncle Chuck's Metal Sonic army went berserk, not because it was good, but because it wasn't full of relationship drama.
At least I was able to enjoy the entire run of Flynn & Yardley in real time and notice an instant upswing in quality.
I just don't know why I started reading in the first place. I think I was just bored and those comics were THERE.
>>82699380
>Yeah. That lasted 2 issues. Bollers' lasted for 50+
Well that's a bit silly. You're saying his run is nearly nothing but melodrama? We're talking Bollers, not Penders. I think you're exaggerating a bit much here.
Flynn has had tons of dramatic moments I thought were a sappy, but dismissing an entire run as "melodramatic" is ultimately too subjective a claim.
>>82699553
>I started, STARTED reading Sonic around the time where Antoine was replaced by his evil duplicate and tried to force Sally to marry him and the part where Bunnie kissed Sonic to try and make Antoine jealous (but it didn't work because Evil Duplicate).
>Started reading during the peak of the Dark Ages
How the hell did you survive
>>82699571
>You're saying his run is nearly nothing but melodrama? We're talking Bollers, not Penders. I think you're exaggerating a bit much here.
I probably am, but a good portion of it was indeed filled with drama concerning Sally and the Source of All/Elias/ the fucking stupid love triangle bullshit.
Though I will say his run still gets a bit too much flak because there is some good stuff outside of RtAI. That 2 part story where Sally gets kidnapped by Nack is actually really fun.
>>82693504
>Flynn/Yardley
>Objectively, those stories weren't good and were crippled with the continuity they had to fix.
Yeah, I remember he wrote a story about Dulcy secretly painting her nose ring a different color in order to fix some sort of continuity error or something.
Because really, Ian? Really? THAT was a story that needed to be told?
There's cleaning up bad storylines and then there's just delving into minutia that nobody cares about.
>>82699686
>Yeah, I remember he wrote a story about Dulcy secretly painting her nose ring a different color in order to fix some sort of continuity error or something.
That was before Ian's run though. Issue 156 to be specific.
>>82699463
>Is it the highest-numbered ongoing comic at this point? If it isn't it must be damn close.
It was for a while, but DC's is bringing back their old numbering. At least with Action and Detective Comics.
>>82699548
>however, (Evil Sonic) finds that he deeply enjoys the way Jules and Bernie treat him; when a threat rears its head, Evil is forced to be a hero, and in so doing, finds that he enjoys the role; as a matter of fact, Evil enjoys it so much, he decides to take over for Sonic permanently...and the only way to do that is by getting rid of Sonic
That sounds a lot more interesting than what we actually got in issue 150.
>>82699636
>>Started reading during the peak of the Dark AgesHow the hell did you survive
When you're living in the Dark Ages, you don't realize it's the Dark Ages.
Wasn't Scourge a product of the Dark Ages, though? That was pre-Ian, I think. The story where Rouge pretends to be into Evil Sonic to help him steal the Master Emerald and then Knuckles scars Bad Sanic's chest and he turns all green or some shit.
That... That was okay, wasn't it? I mean, except for the art. Even back then when I was new to the book I knew the art looked like something off of DA.
>>82699726
>Issue 156 to be specific.
Actually it was 155. Just double checked
>>82699806
>Wasn't Scourge a product of the Dark Ages, though? That was pre-Ian, I think. The story where Rouge pretends to be into Evil Sonic to help him steal the Master Emerald and then Knuckles scars Bad Sanic's chest and he turns all green or some shit.
Evil Sonic was before Endgame, but the transformation to Scourge was Flynn. In fact the Scourge story is literally Ian's first issue
I feel lucky as hell that I got into Sonic right as Return to Angel Island got started. I was pretty lost, but I caught most of the context pretty easily (and did some light research). Though I kinda lost my shit when I hit M25YL for the first time.
>>82699463
might be some smaller comic like Gold Diggers.
>>82699878
>Though I kinda lost my shit when I hit M25YL for the first time.
How many brain cells anon? How many did you lose?
>>82699686
>>82699726
>>82699839
I don't think Ian even used Dulcy because he had no idea what to do with her
>>82699913
I didn't know any better, so I thought it was neatand may or may have not had lewd thoughts because of the artbut boring. It wasn't years after the fact that I realized how stupid it actually was.
>>82699962
Yup. 281 was the first time he's ever actually used her.. I don't think anyone had any idea what to do with her from the start
>>82699966
>I didn't know any better, so I thought it was neat and may or may have not had lewd thoughts because of the art but boring. It wasn't years after the fact that I realized how stupid it actually was.I'm almost tempted to storytime it now for some reason
>>82699878
>Though I kinda lost my shit when I hit M25YL for the first time.
Yeah, since I started reading mid Dark Ages I was at a disadvantage with that 25 Years Later stuff.
I remember thinking some of the fanwank was "neat", like having the Sonic Underground siblings being Sonic and Sally's kids, or how Robo-Knuckles wore the hat from the anime OVA.
But that was about the sum total of my interest in that storyline.
Dunno why Ian kept going back to it over and over again when he took over. And all that shit with Silver... Did Ian REALLY think he was a great character or something because he would not let it go.
>I HAVE COME FROM THE FUTURE! WHICH ONE OF YOU IS THE TRAITOR!?
>Hey cool, I remember that episode of X-Men with Bishop, too!
>>82700123
He salvaged Silver in my eyes, even if the traitor plot was annoying at times. As for doing 30YL, it was unnecessary except for trying to set up future plots (that really ended up going nowhere except for maybe the Ixis thing NOW). At least having Silver go to the alternate 20YL storyline was neat.
>>82700123
>Dunno why Ian kept going back to it over and over again when he took over.
That part I can explain. And again it ties back to the editor. This time though it's an editor that was usually really good: Mike Pellerito. Pellerito saw that the comic was sinking fast (This was before Flynn came on boarD) and decided to push Shadow and Metal Sonic. PArt of that push was going to be a story in M25YL where Shadow took over the world. Penders, angry that Pellerito asked him to use game characters, ragequit the comic. So Pellerito decided to make Flynn do it instead. As for M30YL, the details are a bit more iffy, but I do remember that it was a push by both Pellerito and Flynn to try and make MXYL one of the things that would show up in Universe from time to time (The Sonic X comics were going to be incorporated too, but seperately from MXYL), but after the first arc was met with negative reception, it was quietly put down. However, oddly enough M25YL issues sold decently well under Ian, or at least that's how I've heard
But yeah in general MXYL was a shitty, shitty mess
>>82700247
>But yeah in general MXYL was a shitty, shitty mess
I forgot to add "Except the Dark Mobius stuff, because that was legitimately cool)
>>82700123
>Dunno why Ian kept going back to it over and over again when he took over. And all that shit with Silver... Did Ian REALLY think he was a great character or something because he would not let it go
>I HAVE COME FROM THE FUTURE! WHICH ONE OF YOU IS THE TRAITOR!?
>Hey cool, I remember that episode of X-Men with Bishop, too!
Silver is actually a fairly popular character. And to be fair he was about to wrap all that stuff up before the lawsuit hit the comics hard.
>>82700371
>And to be fair he was about to wrap all that stuff up before the lawsuit hit the comics hard.
At that point though, he had been sent to the past without a return ticket. He was clearly going to stick around for a while after his traitor thing ended.
>>82701116
>He was clearly going to stick around for a while after his traitor thing ended.
>Tfw no more Silver and Shard bro-op
>No more Secret FFs
Fuck you Penders
>>82701116
Of course he was. Ian had no reason to drop Silver
The way that humans are in the new Sonic comic(like in Unleashed or 2006), is a bit nauseating.
Don't like the aesthetics at all.
I'm not saying Sonic should be post-apocalyptic like in the earlier comics, but I don't want to see Eskimos either.
>>82701690
>The way that humans are in the new Sonic comic(like in Unleashed or 2006), is a bit nauseating.
But the 06 humans and Unleashed humans are nothing alike. Honestly I think the Unleashed aesthetic works for the comic
>>82701751
Aesthetics wise, humans are closer to levels like Soleanna Castle Town, than the more advanced sci-fi of the older comics.
Well, G.U.N is still around, so there's that too.
