Sonic the Comic #260

[Michael]

Wow, we're back again with more Sonic the Comic, four releases in six months ain't half bad!

Enjoy issue #260 and all the newness!




www.stconline.co.uk

[The Stiv™]

Get hyped and stuff!

[chrisengland8]

AWESOME Issue!

LOVE WHAT THEY HAVE PLANNED NEXT!!!

[The KKM]

Two stories in exchange for a faster update? I approve.

Main story- lovely colouring in the main universe; not so lovely on the virtual world. Think there's other ways to convey the difference.

A good simple story. Liked the twist of the machines. Shadow feels a bit purposeless, though. Also a bit too nice.

Lovely Emerl story, although I didn't expect to have him speak. Made me cringe a bit. But good art, loved the Chaos Emerl in the end.

Nice promises for next issue.

Lovely facelift on the site itself as well.

I approve.

[Beeth]

Adamis has been quite the busy bee this time round: the art for one of the stories, all the wallpapers, even the film review. He's sweeping the schedules today!

The Sonic story was okay, I think. Not great, not terrible. Had its moments, such as the house of cards opening and the train announcement. The green smoke thing digi-Shadow did was nice to look at.* I didn't feel it grabbed me dynamically though, and the front views of Sonic on the fifth page seem really off to me.

I really enjoyed the continuation of the Knuckles "Emerl" adaptation story. The art has its awesome moments (the drill-handed Emerl, the Chaos Emerl, the centre panel on page three), though the writing is absolutely spot on. Shay really has a perfect grasp on how to write a quintessential and fun action comic story. Also, given the sorta-return of Chaos.....

SPOILER: Click to show

Might someone else be getting their clogs popped in the next instalment?

Speculation, of course. But with the 20th anniversary of STC imminent, one never knows what the team have in store to celebrate the milestone. Incidentally I'm looking forward to seeing what happens, especially in regards to the return of Sir Nigel Kitching and Nigel Dobbyn.


*this sentence sounds very much like I'm complimenting the appearance of his farts

[Tanner / Ogilvie]

"Much like you, then." Buuuuurn! I loved that line far, far too much.

"It was the egg that came first." Also love that one. Good to see Robotnik coming up with his own witty comebacks.

Nicely ironic to see Sonic and Shadow now fighting on the same side despite the latter's denial of being allies. Can't wait until the truth gets out at some point in the future, should result in some hilarious confusion!

I like the shorter, quicker issue approach that's been taken lately; it takes full advantage of the benefits of not having the same constraints as a physical comic.

Excellent work for the team overall!

[Blizz]

Excellent work. I thoroughly enjoyed the Sonic story, and the Knuckles one was good too, even if the art was a bit strange in places. I honestly didn't see the Chaos bit coming.

[Mambo's Here! Look Busy!]

Just gonna parrot what I said on SSMB:

Gotta say I freakin' love Adamis and Pete's work there. I like the way Adamis draws the characters and Pete's colouring is fantastic.


I did like how it was Shadow who figured out the Libra machine, and not Sonic(!) haha! Also liked the terrible puns and insults Sonic and Eggman throw at each other, although the line about nostalgia was a bit on the errrr... what? side. Afterall there was a Generations-referenced story not so long back. I do find how GUN are being written in quite interesting, and that their "war supplies" include massive springs and Mobius rings. Another interesting thing to note is that now Sonic has been seen brawling with someone in Metropolis Zone twice (Amy and Robotnik's Libra machine) and no-one has tried to apprehend him; there were even GUN operatives there and they didn't seem that bothered by his presence. Are we to assume that Sonic is really low on GUN's priority list?! Hmmm... *strokes invisible beard*



The Gizoid story was also excellent, and massive massive kudos to Shay for writing and drawing it! I like the direction in which Knuckles is being driven here, how this all fits in with his people, perhaps even his Guardianship and what not. (Perhaps the Gizoid is a Drakon guardian, although he looks too similar to the Guardian robots so perhaps he is a "prototype" Guardian before Knuckles was given the role?) I also really like Porker's development as Knuckles' unofficial sidekick! He's really the STCO tech geek, not Tails... and he is the only person who Knuckles can really stand to be around! ;D


In general, I think only having two stories and the review zone and what not is a better idea than trying to squeeze three stories in. Although I do miss Encyclopaedia Badnika! :B

[Arch]

Keep them coming. There may be relatively less content but this issue somehow feels more complete than some, so that's good.

(Sorry if the rest of this sounds like complaining, I'm not. There were more good parts than bad).

Cover looks great. I'm not sure about the variant covers this time around, though; they're pretty pointless and look little more than glorified wallpapers. Nice art, still.

The Sonic story was good old-fashioned Sonic/Robotnik fun, again. Not only that but it keeps up one of the ongoing plotlines without it feeling tacked on. The entire Libra idea is a great one, really clever if it's not been done before.

A couple of things annoy me about it, though. Why would Sonic use a passenger train to destroy Robotnik's machine, potentially putting lives at risk? The impact showed that the people on board weren't safe and it could have been worse if Shadow hadn't stepped in.

And Sonic's line about being able to outrun missiles? Yeah, great, but the last time he did that, the Green Hill Zone was massively polluted and Sonic went to prison. Didn't work out so well then, hm?

I really liked the supply drop, but I didn't really see anything in that crate that would have helped the general population? Springs and rings?

Not too sure what to make of this Knuckles story. The first part introduced a lot of intrigue and exploring and then suddenly "It's Chaos!" Or is it? Well it's not, but it might as well be. Except it's a robot that looks like it's made of water or whatever Chaos was made of. The entire thing just sprung up from nowhere and, if it wasn't for that single panel that somehow revealed everything to Porker, it would have made zero sense to me. Sorry Shay, great art again though.

Review was good, but entirely unnecessary. I understand that it's got Sonic and Robotnik in it, but it's definitely not about them. Still, I've always liked the Review Zone and it's always good to see the old features make appearances.

I'm psyched for the 20th anniversary celebrations. Having just seen a glimpse of a reminder what Kitching/Dobbyn can do in the last Decap story, I'm really looking forward to what they're doing next issue. In fact, I'm wondering what everyone's doing! As long as there's no Cedric.

[Pete]

Mar 3, 2013 15:55:03 GMT Mambo's Here! Look Busy! said:

Gotta say I freakin' love Adamis and Pete's work there. I like the way Adamis draws the characters and Pete's colouring is fantastic.

Thanks, Mambo!
As some have said, I did the colouring for the "real world" segments, with newcomer Shimsham doing the "digital" panels. But working with Adamis is always fantastic!
But my hat goes off to Shay with Skeletons- it's exactly how I would imagine a modern day STC strip would read, and Shay has a great grasp of emotive characters without becoming too cartoony.

[L. T. Dangerous]

First off, general thoughts, I have to say a big well done and thank you to the guys involved in this issue because of the little things- the introduction of the Data Zone based on our feedback (very well implemented, I thought) and the two strips leading to getting an issue out sooner, rather than holding onto them for months on end. Admittedly, that may be influenced by the run up to the 20th Anniversary as I’m sure the issue planned for that is going to be pretty special in terms of content. Either way, it’s nice to have an issue sooner rather than later. Kudos!

Sonic’s story, then, and I’ll admit it took me a re-read to understand the title. But, that said, it is a very clever title and maybe not everyone is as frontal-lobally-challenged as me. This is an excellent concept for a story let down by a few small components, but I’ll get onto that.

First off, Spike’s Place is a nice nod to continuity, as is Sonic’s hooded robe. Little details like this are a great way to use STC continuity without weighing down the comic. On a general art note, I’ve been told this was actually drawn ages and ages ago and even though Adamis’ art has improved enormously since that time, this is still of an excellent quality. Pete’s colours are, again, absolutely gorgeous. Pete and Adamis make a really good team. I’ll concur that the colouring in the virtual world isn’t as strong, but it’s not awful by any means- as in the Chaotix strip where anti-virus Shadow debuted, the use of different colouring techniques (and different colourists, come to that) between the worlds is a brilliant idea and I think it needs to be retained in future strips.

My only niggle with page one is Robotnik repeating his line within the same speech bubble. That’s probably a personal thing because it’s something that irritates me in all forms of media It’s more that people don’t talk that way in real life and it takes you out of the moment. I know, I know, that’s the English student in me talking.

Spelling error on the first speech bubble of page two, “irritiating”. Only one I spotted this issue, so that’s not bad but, still, naughty naughty. I just want to say, by the way, this robot design is excellent. It’d make a neat boss in one of the games! I like the way Shadow and Robotnik’s relationship is fleshing out- Shadow isn’t on Robotnik’s side so rather than put the time in to try and win him over, Robotnik just makes him an enemy.

Now, Mambo’s already pointed this out but I want to expand upon it a little. GUN show up and comment on Sonic and Robotnik fighting. Instead of noting Sonic’s status as a fugitive, they just get on with dropping off supplies. Now, this could have easily been covered with a line like “Sonic and Robotnik fighting? Hey, if we’re lucky, they’ll finish one another off!” Instead, it just seems like a strange thing for them to ignore. My next problem is the “supplies”. So… what are the springs and rings for? I mean, yeah, I get it, they’re from the games. They don’t make any sense here. It wastes three panels- Sonic could have just bounced from whatever he chose, the use of springs doesn’t really add to the action in any meaningful way.

I love Adamis’ background gags and details and the bottom-left panel of page four has loads of lovely things that made me smile. Again, acknowledging continuity without smashing us over the face with it. The bottom-right panel is both one of my favourite and least favourite in the story. The Trooper enquiring who Robotnik’s talking to is brilliant and funny. Robotnik saying he’s video blogging is not. He’s not a teenager. Genuinely cringed at that.

Page five has some good and bad stuff about it, too. As has been touched upon, those front views of Sonic look weird but, then again, that’s not necessarily an art problem- Sonic characters in general tend to look unusual from the front. That said, the spines do look a bit Saiyan-y! Again, this was drawn a while ago so I suppose in a way it’s irrelevant but you see my point. Shadow figuring out the threat is nice stuff, it helps create a sense of difference between the two hedgehogs beyond one of them using guns; Shadow uses his smarts a bit more, Sonic relies on brute force. On a related note, I have to say I’m not massively keen on the red and black for Robotnik’s speech but it looks miles better than black on grey for Shadow.

Sonic’s line “Here, kitty, kitty” and basically everything Robotnik says afterwards really don’t work for me. Robotnik doesn’t strike me as a character who would say “lame”. Again, not a teenage girl. That said, the chicken and egg exchange is brilliant and JJ needs applause for that.

I don’t know whether it’s the art or the colouring but it’s not entirely clear how Shadow defeated the machines. I assume it’s something to do with him being a computer program. That’s my personal interpretation, anyway. Any official explanation?

The ending’s good stuff and a nice teaser for what’s yet to come between Sonic and Shadow. I’m glad the Shadow character hasn’t been retired. I know there are differing opinions on the matter but I’m all for keeping him within STC continuity. As I said, this was an excellent concept that had one or two weak moments letting it down- the difference between good and great.

Knuckles’ story is an excellent part two and a very strong follow-up to the first part. The fight scene between Knuckles and the Gizoid is a great way to display the Gizoid’s copying ability and an excellent set-up for the cliffhanger.

I love the “Echidnas are designated hostile. Pigs are designated hostile line” for two reasons- firstly because who in the hell finds pigs hostile? Secondly because no, really, who in the hell finds pigs hostile? I get the feeling there’s something we’re missing about the creator of the Gizoid.

Porker discovering the hieroglyphics of the Chaos/Gizoid battle is very interesting, but at the same time there’s still a sense that something is being kept secret from us. Who ordered the Gizoid to fight Chaos? So far we’re being made to assume that the Gizoid is either designed by, created by or used by the ancient echidnas- or any combination of the above. Now, I’m no historian, but I don’t know many ancient tribal societies that know how to make a robot. My immediate suspicion is further Drakon involvement than merely the presence of Chaos. Either that or it was Tikal before she learned how to fix karaoke machines

The revelation of the warnings on the traps absolutely blew me away. It’s so clever and all the clues we need are in the first part- but nobody picked up on it because of the way Shay presented Knuckles’ thoughts in the first part!

Now, Knuckles defeating the Gizoid so seemingly easily was never going to be the way this story ended- and what a cliffhanger for part three! This plus the hieroglyphics from the final panel of part one really make me excited for where Knuckles is headed! Something big is coming to STCO, I can feel it! And I bet the seeds are sown in the third part of this story…

Love the wallpapers, I like the series of character wallpapers Adamis has done this issue and last. I think the Big and Super Sonic ones are my favourites this issue.

The Next Time page has me practically ecstatically excited. I really can’t wait to see what you guys have in store for issue 261! I know it won’t disappoint, regardless. I just have that feeling about it.

Now, if I can make one suggestion, the Data Zone’s return and implementation has been an excellent move. My suggestion would require more work than that but I think it’d be an excellent move for the site in general. It’s twofold, really. Firstly, the Data Zone could do with being implemented into previous issues. Secondly, the site layout on the previous issues could do with being brought in line with the current layout. It looks really excellent now and some of the previous issues are more difficult to navigate than absolutely necessary- it’s got to be off-putting to new readers who, after reading our latest issue, would logically want to go back to the beginning of STCO. Again, I know it’s bound to be a lot of work but I think long-term it’d be a smart move. Though I would definitely put it off until post-261.

Good issue, guys, well done. Very excited for where things are going in the immediate future.

[The KKM]

The Knuckles tribe was always shown to have good technological advancements when compared to its other incarnations in other continuities- from the Floating Island to the guardian robots. That said, it could also simply be a play more on the line of Sonic Chronicles, with another tribe of echidnas doing the Gizoid. We haven't seen what the full span of echidna civilization was.

And while I agree that having different colouring styles for real world and internet is a great idea, I do think the internet world could be conveyed much better to one's eyes, and the contrast with the great colours on the Sonic part of the story makes it all more painful.

Everything's painted with this bizarre bloom, and the world has some of the most awful colour choices I've seen. Look at the background- a red-to-green gradient? Bright yellow? It's all done with extra saturated colours offset by the lousy bloom shading job, and I really don't think it works in any other way than an unpalatable clash of colours. There is a reason why cyberspace is typically shown to be black-and-green or some variation of that, even in the Shadow game- you'll notice the virtual levels are made of dark and dull set pieces with vivid highlights, so you can easily notice what you're meant to notice.

It isn't as bad as I'm making it seem by going on and on about it, but it cal really be improved.

EDIT: Here, I know this may be overstepping my boundaries, but I did a quick panel in a half-hour or so to show what I mean.



You say the colourist for these scenes is new? I'm going to address him directly then.

What I did isn't perfect, but it's just me showing various ideas on how I think the digital world can be better conveyed. As you'll notice watching videos of the Mad Matrix level, computer world is mostly made of dark settings with vivid highlights, so as to call attention to them. So I did a dark background with some highlights on the floor, but the focus being the exploding machine. Made the explosion white, as I think that's a good colour for digital stuff exploding, and made the smoke and shadows green, for the same reason. You'll also note some highlights on Shadow are red, because of the floor.

What I did afterwards was go crazy with some simple filters. In Photoshop, you can do a lot with messing around with the Pixellate>Mosaic option. Doing it in different layers, for different pixellation effects- the debris of the explosion is the most pixellated, as if the data making it is already nearly gone. Shadow isn't himself pixellated, but his shadows and highlights are. After that, when I shrunk the panel to the needed size, I concluded by indexing it- making the image use limited system pallettes, which again, is a digital throwback.

I do think I exaggerated overall, but hopefully you can find something here useful and helpful.

And Adamis, good job on the wallpapers as well.

[Adamis]

Just think about it : the entire strip was coloured that way. Pete saved it came later to do his work

RE Sonic's front views : yeah not a fan of that anymore. I inked that strip in early 2012, a good 6+ months before I did the Big the Cat strip. I've... changed a few things since

Glad you guys like that series of characters wallpaper (that I call myself "StCO Channel") because there are more to come (and lots of them are already done)

You guys should like the 20th anniversary stuff we've got for the next issues.

[ShayMay]

Mar 4, 2013 10:22:51 GMT Arch said:

Not too sure what to make of this Knuckles story. The first part introduced a lot of intrigue and exploring and then suddenly "It's Chaos!" Or is it? Well it's not, but it might as well be. Except it's a robot that looks like it's made of water or whatever Chaos was made of. The entire thing just sprung up from nowhere and, if it wasn't for that single panel that somehow revealed everything to Porker, it would have made zero sense to me. Sorry Shay, great art again though.

The Chaos thing's explained next issue, but I agree in that it did come a fair bit out of left field. My logic was that we'd seen the Gizoid be able to match Knuckles, now we should see it better him. It also helps a bit with the pacing: without giving too much away, next issue is the conclusion, and I needed some way for the Gizoid to survive the traps so that revelation didn't happen in the final chapter. If it did happen in the final chapter, it'd basically be two solid pages of explanation.
Of course, that method does create some problems of its own, as you've (correctly) identified. If I were re-writing, I would strongly consider removing the Chaos element, but I'm hoping it's enjoyable all the same.

[Charles]

Also the Chaos element means we all go HOLY [censored] IT'S CHAOS.

[ShayMay]

Mar 4, 2013 17:43:41 GMT Charles said:

Also the Chaos element means we all go HOLY [censored] IT'S CHAOS.

Hahaha! Yeah, that was a big part of it as well. XD

[L. T. Dangerous]

Mar 4, 2013 15:15:47 GMT The KKM said:

The Knuckles tribe was always shown to have good technological advancements when compared to its other incarnations in other continuities- from the Floating Island to the guardian robots.

Ah, for--

How the hell did I forget those?!

[Mambo's Here! Look Busy!]

How did Knuckles do...

Echidna Tech.

[Sam]

I know that there is sometimes comments on the art not being very good, but to those people I say this: at least they aren't drawing like Mick Mcmahon. Christ I find his work awful.

[L. T. Dangerous]

Well I hope Mick McMahon draws for STCO just to spite you.

[Sam]

That comment was out of the blue, and almost out of place. I was on the phone at the time when I wrote it, and I really wanted to get it off my chest. I'm currently reading through the entire series from start to finish, and I feel cheated when I see a) his covers and b) his storied artwork.

A lot of it feels really lazy and cheap - am I the only one that feels this way?

Does his other stuff look the same?

[ShayMay]

The fact that everyone hates McMahon's vibrant, stylised look and yet like Flint's amorphous, ugly characters and non-existent backgrounds is depressing. McMahon did some excellent stuff for Decap as well - it suited that universe more, for certain, but I've never had a problem with his Sonic work. He also did the first published appearance of Judge Dredd: his older stuff is more 'traditional'.
As for Flint, my criticism extends to his Sonic work and nothing else.

[Arch]

Mar 11, 2013 11:51:58 GMT ShayMay said:

McMahon's vibrant

don't

pfft

McMahon's colouring (this is the way I'm taking 'vibrant') is dull and lifeless and just doesn't work. I'm on the other foot; so many people here seem to praise his STC work when it just doesn't fit. His Sonic looks ugly.

Flint's no genius, but, the majority of the time, his Sonic characters look fine. He has some odd quirks (most of the time, people are throwing up devil horns for some reason and look dazed) but I like his line art. John Burns makes his strips look much better and it's a shame he didn't work with McMahon more.

[Chigs!]

I didn't enjoy Mcmahons work at the time and even today he's certainly not my fav STC artist, but I appreciate him more now that I've seen a little bit of his work outside STC and feel a bit guilty for not liking his sonic work now - he is a good artist, but he's probably tests to breaking point how far you can push the "house style" of the world.

[Sam]

Is Flint the one that did Badnik's Bridge? I remember, while not finding it as bad as McMahon's, I found the art in that not great.