Favourite Knuckles stories

Carnival Night Conspiracy.

Loaded with great visual elements, funny writing and some absolutely brilliant action sequences against rides, troopers, worker bots and the Marxio's colossal gunship at the end.

Not to mention it holds Knuckles' most epic moment in the entire comic. Punching an entire zone off the island!

The Take-Over pips it for me. It was in the second issue of the comic I'd ever read, and it taught me the difference between the words takeover and overtake.
Re-reading it, I love the dynamic - the four villains beat Knuckles using cheap-shots and knockbacks, and never truly beat him. It's a good way for one of the characters with the most physical prowess to be bested and given the runaround for a good while, without losing face.
The art was top-notch as well - Dobbyn is seriously on a par with Elson for me, albeit for completely different reasons.
Finally, I love the panel after Knuckles is nearly knocked off the edge of the island by bats. The pathetic look really made me laugh, and feel sorry for him at the same time.

Mm, while I do like Carnival Night's artwork. I have oft said I consider Dobbyn's work hands down the best in the entire comic. Which considering the other artist is Richard smegging Elson is high praise indeed.

Ye gods I miss art like that appearing every other week from those two...

^ Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Love that one.

I don't recall any rampant sex in that story.

Dobbyn very rarely got anyone but Knuckles really to toy with. My favourite stories were the Captain Plunder ones, where it let Dobbyn's artistic flair really let loose. Thats where the love stems from, when he was allowed to break the pattern.

Elson did better Sonic characters, yes, but Dobbyn's strips overall had a wonderous detail, design, background and "alternate" character design I felt.

I suppose I don't even have to state thats all in opinion etc

Based solely on memory my favourite Knuckles story would have to be Carnival Night Conspiracy. My favourite moments in that strip were the white knuckled ride, Knuckles at a desk and of course the way Knuckles finally got rid of the zone.

Village of the Damned was a close second but I guess wasn’t quite as memorable.

Of course my real favourite was Revenge of Trogg but it’s doesn’t appear to be on the list (probably because it’s more of a Tails story).

On the Run is also a favourite of mine but didn’t get my vote because what I liked about it had little to do with Knuckles and more to do with Chaotix.

I must admit, I can't remember some of the STC-O Knuckles stories though I also think, if we're honest, we're all going to be voting for the original ones anyway. Knuckles is a bit of an arse in STC-O though, isn't he?

I'm giving it to Total Chaotix, but here's an in-depth look:

Carnival Night Conspiracy is great, the Marxios are top notch villains even if you hadn't read their first story (which, at the time, I hadn't), the action is wonderful and the art is lovely.
Knuckles vs. The Cybernik is a pretty pointless filler story, the art isn't special (and sometimes borders on naff) and it's practically identical to every "good guy misunderstanding battle" story ever written. Forgettable.
Total Chaotix has amazing art, an awesome story, some great fights and manages to introduce a shedload of new characters without causing any pacing issues. All this while setting up a larger story arc in the Sonic strip.
The Homecoming is in my top three, I think. Zachary is a brilliant villain and the twist that he was a bad guy was great at the time. On a related note, I loved how STC never featured any more echidnae in the present day timeline, Archie ruined Knuckles' backstory very early on by introducing his family and friends.
The Graveyard was, I thought, a good look into the echidna people, though definitely the weakest chapter in the "New Master Emerald" trilogy (The Homecoming being the first chapter). The Kohenyu do seem to let Knuckles go a little easily; I think, more realistically, they'd have killed him anyway, but that doesn't happen to main characters in licensed kid's comics so it's entirely forgivable.
New Master Emerald was a nice little one-shot, a cool story that properly introduced the robot guardians. Nothing groundbreaking, but a good, solid story.
The Ghost Ship is a great Plunder story where Knuckles is essentially just along for the ride. That's actually a good dynamic to have for a change, given he's normally the main focus in some extremely character-light stories.
Troubled Waters was a fun story with a villain who's actually quite Stringer-esque- someone who's a bit crap but has control over Robotnik's tech. Not too memorable but entirely inoffensive.
Village of the Damned gets bonus points for getting the word "damn" into a kids' comic on numerous occassions. It's also a pretty great story, if a little familiar. The ending is marvellous- Knuckles is rendered completely impotent because he knows he has to do the right thing, which is let Robotnik live and, brilliantly, Robotnik absolutely knows he has the psychological upper hand. Things like that are why Kitching's scary Robotnik will always be better than Stringer's goofy Robotnik (not a dig at Lew, you understand).
The Good, The Bad and the Echidna is a pretty amusing story, with a good villain, a neat concept and also manages to brilliantly flesh out a whole new part of Mobius. Plus, it's good to see for once a villain get his just desserts. I'm not saying they should all have died a gruesome death, but it's very refreshing in a comic where the baddies always seem to escape or fall off a cliff in a shroud of fog etc.
Roots isn't a massively memorable story in my opinion, though introducing Ebony and Pyjamas is something that would have impact on Super Sonic strips down the line, so it's still important. I also like how Kitching didn't just go for a twee happy ending and it ends on a pretty ambiguous note.
Victims is one I have a little difficulty remembering and, in fairness, that's understandable considering its purpose- fill in the gap between the previous story and issue 100.
Loose Ends is a story that needed telling post-100 and Kitching did so very well indeed. Not a hugely important story, but one that's well told.
On The Run is really a Porker story and a bloody great one it is too. I always loved when the sidekicks would get expanded upon. It seems Nigel favoured Porker while Lew went with Johnny more often and, to be honest, I think Nigel's interpretation was far more interesting (Johnny was a pretty dull action hero and it's actually a huge shame the Agent X storyline had such a gigantic cop-out ending). I love the ending to this story. Oh, and, yes, it creates a continuity problem, but who bloody cares, eh?
The Take-Over is absolutely awesome. My second favourite Knuckles story and a massive, massive shame it's the last Knuckles strip in the print comic. I think it's a total shame the back-up strips couldn't have alternated between Sonic's three friends once the reprints came along and instead we had a dozen inconsequential Tails and Amy strips. I'm absolutely not intending to sound bitter about Lew's work, do bear in mind I loved it. But I think cutting the Knuckles strips was a mistake that affected the comic tonally as Knuckles was always afforded adventures that were a bit cleverer or darker than the other main characters (excepting the major Sonic plot lines, that is).
New Year Twister (w/ Tails) was completely forgettable and, truth be known, a bit arse. "Sonic and Tails Behave Like Absolute [censored]s" would be a more apt name for this one. Again, I'm siding with Nigel rather heavily here (it's difficult not to when he wrote all the Knuckles stories except this one and "vs. The Cybernik") but this was [censored] and I think we all know it. Sonic is almost out of character here in his [censored]tery.
Reunion is a good story, though I feel Ebony was shoehorned in there as a plot convenient character (it doesn't help she disappears right after and only just showed up again in #252) and Knuckles is, for some reason, completely immature. I know, I know, Knuckles has yearned for the secrets of his past for so long. But since meeting Sonic, he's become a hero first and foremost, so it's very unusual to see him acting so selfishly (and if you want to couple it with him bursting into tears a few stories back in the print comic, it makes one worry about his character a little bit).
I'm afraid I don't remember Trouble in Paradise, Horror on the Haunted Hill or Solitary at all. It's been a long time since I read them.
Vichama Is Coming Home is a great story. The art is dazzling, some of STC-O's finest. The downsides include a deus ex machina, a villain who turns into a Cockney and, bizarrely, becomes too stupid to live at the end (why didn't he just kill Knuckles a second time?).
The Prisoner is a good story with a neat set-up for further adventures. There are two things I ask of the team: 1) please don't forget about the ending to this story like you seem to have forgotten Chaotix talking about super secret blueprints and files; and 2) for the love of God, don't have Zachary lead Knuckles to a city filled with echidnae.

Also, you left these off the list from the Knock-Out Special:

Traitor of the Lost Pyramid is a pretty great Chaotix story, with the return of Nack and the all-important debut of his shrink/growth technology.
Jake's Story has an inexcusably poor ending and also makes Knuckles look quite inept at rescue missions.
Reflections is a good concept, but it's very familiar and, to be honest, doesn't seem like a Knuckles story at all. And it ends on a pun, which is very bizarre for Nigel.

The Knock-Out Special's a bit weak, really. That said, Nigel had to write three whole stories (including what was essentially a two-parter) for this special, plus another two-parter for the Sonic special, plus whatever bonus material he wrote for both (I seem to recall him saying the 1994 Sonic special was written practically entirely by him) on top of whatever writing duties he had for the fortnightly comic at the time so if the two "back-up" strips aren't very good, I do think they can be excused a little on the grounds that they at least aren't terrible.

All in all, Knuckles was probably the second best series in STC, second only to Sonic. It was a massive, massive shame (and a huge mistake, judging by the size of his fanbase) when his stories were cut.

So many great Knuckles stories came about and the fact that Dobbyn drew him the most means I got really acustemed to seeing Knuckles in his art style.

It's a hard to choose but I have to say 'Village of the Damned'. Dobbyn's expert use of painted colour leads to a very atmospheric and also errie story. It was a dark tale which ended in a fantastic manner; Robotnik himself laughing at the knowledge that even when backed into a corner Knuckles can't do anything to him. He even goats Knuckles to kill him, naturally knowing the echidna couldn't possibly do it.

"Jake's Story has an inexcusably poor ending and also makes Knuckles look quite inept at rescue missions.
Reflections is a good concept, but it's very familiar and, to be honest, doesn't seem like a Knuckles story at all. And it ends on a pun, which is very bizarre for Nigel."

In the script this ends with Knuckles saying "Oh never mind, it was nothing important..."

What does the printed version say? Looks like I was rewritten by the editor again.

Well in that case the script said:

"Pity... that mirror would have looked really good in my bedroom!"

There was a time when I didn't read the scripts when they were printed because I couldn't bear the editorial changes. If there is a pun or something odd then it may well be that I didn't write it.

One day I'll let everyone see some of the original scripts to compare to the stories where my writing was changed significantly.