Post by Matt on Dec 12, 2010 1:11:08 GMT
Lew Stringer: the Top 25 stories
Oh Lew, unfortunately there’s only a few things that come to mind when we think of Lew Stringer, one of STC’s longest serving writers. We think of Brave Hogs, childish puns, lesbians in space, raining bananas and possibly if we’re feeling nice we’ll remember Project Brutus, but probably add “I thought Nigel wrote that.”
Which is a shame because as much as there were some downright odd stories written by Lew Stringer, he also wrote some really good STC stories. This year I’ve re-read all of STC, and I got thinking about the stories I go back to, and so I’ve picked out 25 Lew stringer stories that are worth reading, and 5 that get honourable mentions. Before I start I want to say Project Brutus isn’t first, no Amy and Tekno stories feature at all and there's only two mentions of Tails solo strips. These might seem like major oversights, but honestly just none of them really ranked that high on my list, which isn’t to say they're all bad per say, just that what’s good about them is better covered in some of the other examples I’ve picked.
So starting with the few stories that didn’t make the list proper, here are the honourable mentions:
30: Hidden Danger
Art: Nigel Kitching
Issues: 77-78
Synopsis: Sonic arrives in the Tropical Jungle zone after it’s been attacked by Robotnik. The locals think it’s magic, where as Sonic doesn’t and just belittles them with lame one liners. It turns out Robotnik's new robot is invisible, and not being able to see it lands Sonic in trouble as he is quickly floored leaving Pixel Brained chum Tails alone.
In Part 2 Sonic recovers figures out a plan that involves getting the robot wet then covering it in leaves to see where it is and promptly attacking it. After falling into the river the robot is defeated so back in Citadel Robotnik, the dictator gloats that he’ll be able to make an unstoppable army of robot’s before Grimer admits the plans have turned invisible and he has no idea how to re-build the clocking device.
Why it’s (almost) on the list: Hidden danger is a standard back up Sonic piece by Lew, unfortunately it ran at the same time as the superb Voice of the People (STC 77) and Plasma (STC 78) and doesn’t stand up well in comparison. What it does do is set out what Lew can do, the strips are a nice and simple but effective story about Sonic battling against an invisible robot, Tails plays his role as a stupid side kick and Sonic smugly puts him down while defeating Lardbelly himself in true STC fashion.
While Nigel stories tend to be a shade darker and more serious, partially in this era (as evidenced by the stories mentioned above) Hidden Danger has more of a AOSTH feel to it, particularly with Sonic’s “Way too uncool” line in Part 1 as well as staying true to STC Sonic's character as a bit of a dick.
This strip also features what were reoccurring and very effective moments in both Lew and Nigel’s stories at the time. We see Sonic fight against a foe of the week, but we’d also cut back to Robotnik at Citadel Robotnik making it both a global and personal battle each issue as we often see Robotnik personal anger at defeat but also how it fit into his pan for continued global dominance, this issue also had nice notes tying in Robotnik clocking device to invisibility devices used in Sonic 3 and Grimer and Robotnik briefly mention the events of in Odour Zone (5 issues ago), which is quite nice.
Drawbacks: Grimer having the plans turn invisible doesn’t really make sense, and while I can already hear the comeback of “it’s a kid’s comic about a blue hedgehog”. I don’t care, I thought it didn’t make sense when I was 7 and it doesn’t now. The guy has sentient robots, yet he has to make plan by hand and somehow made them invisible. Plus he knows roughly how it made them now so new cloaking device should be easy to re make.
I know it just a line to finish the story but still it irks which is one thing that often comes with the end of an otherwise good Lew story.
Otherwise to that the dialogues a little rushed but it’s solid enough.
What’s it add?:Nothing really which is one of the reasons it doesn’t place higher, it just kind of sits there
Art: Nigel Kitching does art for this story, it’s simple and does the job. I’ve never thought Nigel was up there with the best STC artists when I came to Sonic, but it was never bad work so nothing really to comment on. The poses are solid enough and the action is easy to follow. The only gripe would be the robot that looked uninspired and un-Robotnik like, (weather that a choice of Nigel or Lew’s I’m not sure.)
next time the next 3 under 25's mentions
Rampage of the Mekanik
Earth Attacks
and Showdown.
Also I'll try and add some of sketches or something to liven up the posts.