Knuckles & Tails Proposal

[Nigel Kitching]

I came across this. It's posible I've posted it before on the STC list but it may be of interest to anyone who hasn't already seen it.

Of course this kind of thing may be incredibly dull - I don't know, feel free to tell me...

KNUCKLES & TAILS
PROPOSAL BY NIGEL KITCHING. 4/4/95

THE REVENGE OF TROGG

This is a version of the old vampire story; I’m not using vampires exactly but rather the idea of evil causing a mental and physical change in the victim. In this case there is also the opportunity for redemption.

PART 1.
In his Gem Chamber on the Floating Island, Knuckles picks up the reading of an unidentified energy surge - it is the opening of the portal which is the gateway into the Nameless Zone. Knuckles rushes to investigate just in time to see Tails vanish into the portal. We know that Tails is being called upon again by his people but Knuckles take it as an abduction of the little fox. Knuckles leaps into the portal to rescue Tails. In the Nameless Zone it is Shaman Warpull and the village elders who have called Tails. When Knuckles appears also, they naturally mistake him for Tails’ sidekick, Sonic. The menace which Tails has been called to deal with is Errol Blackthorn.

PART 2.
Errol Blackthorn has returned from a quest in the Land Beyond (the area where the evil Trogg lives) but he has come back greatly changed. He is now more like a demon and is running amok. After a battle Tails and Knuckles succeed in capturing him. Errol’s mission had been to go into the Land Beyond and rescue the two Enchanter Kings who have been kidnapped by Trogg. Trogg, you may remember, was once the third Enchanter King before he was corrupted by his contact with their equivalent of the Devil. Knuckles, by the way, is having great fun pretending that Tails is a hero figure and he is only the rather pathetic sidekick known as Sonic.

PART 3.
Knuckles and Tails travel to the Land Beyond to try to rescue the two missing Enchanter Kings. They encounter all manner of nasties in this zone, but succeed in reaching the Labyrinth in which Trogg resides. They are accompanied by Errol’s sister who knows her way around the Labyrinth and is determined to find a cure for her brother’s apparent possession by evil spirits. This female is going to be a warrior woman and capable of taking care of herself. She is very confused by an obvious tough guy like Knuckles being subordinate to little old Tails.


PART 4.
Our heroes find the two missing Enchanter Kings and we discover that Trogg is attempting to change them (in the way they did Errol) into becoming evil. It will be re-stated that Trogg himself used to be one of the Enchanter Kings and on the side of good before he contacted the Evil One. The two Enchanter Kings are resisting their conversion.

PART 5.
Clever and exciting rescue of the two Enchanter Kings.

PART 6.
The rest of the clever rescue. The two Enchanter Kings are returned to the Nameless Zone, but, in an unexpected twist, Trogg himself succeeds in getting into the Nameless Zone (he is normally denied access by a powerful magic spell). In the final scene we will see the evil Trogg once more restored to his previous good self. With the three Enchanter Kings now back on the throne, the Nameless Zone can look forward to even greater prosperity in the future. No one ever finds out that Tails’ companion isn’t Sonic and Knuckles gets great pleasure out of saying things to make the locals’ impressions of Sonic even worse - this embarrasses Tails greatly. Errol, by the way, is also restored.

[Zerolus]

I saw the word 'proposal' and thought it was a story about Tails & Knuckles getting married, with Sonic taking the role of the insanely jealous villian of sorts. Now I'm disappointed.

It's pretty interesting to see things that never made it into the final product of the comic. Even though the story could do without certain parts, they do help pace out the story and give it a good length. Really would've liked to see more of Knuckles making fun of Sonic that way though.

[Ed]

I find it interesting. Especially interesting is the thinking behind it, the vampire story motif, which I hadn't really thought much about at all. My main memory of "Revenge of Trogg" (besides absolutely loving it) is that it taught me the word "zenith".

Also quite impressed you managed to swing a 6-parter to draw. I seem to remember you saying at one point that you had difficulty getting editors to sign off on you drawing your own Sonic-universe stuff for reasons which were never clear to me. Trogg is really manic here -- it sells the character much better than the artist who did the first story (whose name escapes me).

[Nigel Kitching]

ed2 said:

I find it interesting. Especially interesting is the thinking behind it, the vampire story motif, which I hadn't really thought much about at all. My main memory of "Revenge of Trogg" (besides absolutely loving it) is that it taught me the word "zenith".

Also quite impressed you managed to swing a 6-parter to draw. I seem to remember you saying at one point that you had difficulty getting editors to sign off on you drawing your own Sonic-universe stuff for reasons which were never clear to me. Trogg is really manic here -- it sells the character much better than the artist who did the first story (whose name escapes me).

Well actually I was never allowed to draw the main Sonic strip if I wrote it for some reason (there was maybe one exception). I was the regular Knuckles artist and could have gone on drawing the series if I'd wanted. But I was keen to get Nigel Dobbyn into the comic - I wanted him on Sparkster but no luck. So with Knuckles I basically told the editor that I was so keen to have him on board that I'd give up the strip. Sounds kind of mad when I look back.

As far as my own opinion of my Sonic universe work goes, well, I just don't think I was good enough - Nigel was so obviously better and Richard of course. Though I may have been rubbish there were other artist who were ever more rubbish who still got work. On Decap Attack I was not bad - this was kind of in my personal style so that was okay. Obviously Mick was better (in some ways) on the ones he drew.

Still, nobody could quite draw Decap like me...

[Ed]

I think most of your art was really good. There were a few obvious clangers such as "Secret of the Tower" which I guess was knocked out really fast or something and that Decap one ("Mother" I think it was) where you seemingly tried to give a whirl to every single texture on the computer program you were using to colour it. But a lot of the stuff you did was really strong -- particularly Trogg and your Sonic's World stuff circa '96. Perhaps this is because you did stuff rarely and so played to your strengths. If you'd tried to do "The Graveyard" over Nigel D...

But then again, there are a couple of Dobbyn pieces that I think you'd probably have brought more too (especially the ones with more of a comedy skew like Spice Maidens and Crimson Cobra, perhaps even that Oscar the Pig thing even though Nigel's stuff on it was lovely). Nigel Dobbyn's work has a grace and stillness that seems to suit the more introspective, moody, dramatic stuff. But physical comedy and impishness and that kind of insane melodrama that characters like Trogg exhibited I think played to your strengths more.

Your style got more cartoony as it went along which I was slightly disappointed by. I liked the earlier stuff where there was a real gothic quality to your stuff, very detailed and gritty. I'd guess the style you evolved would probably be more commercial in the long-term though.

[RedsDrive]

mrcuddlebunny said:

Still, nobody could quite draw Decap like me...

Very true. I still maintain my belief that the three best artists on staff were Elson, Dobbyn and yourself.

[Pombar]

bluesdrive said:

I still maintain my belief that the three best artists on staff were Elson, Dobbyn and yourself.

I'd like to second this.
Your style may have been 'stylised', so to speak, but it was still very strong and served its purpose, it being strongest in Decap where no other art style (in my opinion at the very least) could really suit it that well.

[James2001]

I have to say that the art in the Knuckles & Tails strip was some of my favourite STC art. I don't know why, but I really like it for some reason, and not just because of how manic Trogg looks.

[Baron Canier]

I cacked myself when the ogre Errol Blackthorn appeared on a page all to himself, put it that way.

[Raxadian]

Knucles and Tails has proven to work well, specially in the nameless zone, I’m sure that if knuckles had been in STCO nameless zone comic thing, it would have been a lot better.

[Charles]

raxadian said:

I’m sure that if knuckles had been in STCO nameless zone comic thing, it would have been a lot better.

No it wouldn't - Knuckles being in it would lessen the moral difficulties Tails has to face, which is the whole story.

[Baron Canier]

What's wrong with the STC-O Nameless Zone story? I really liked it.

[Pombar]

The STCO nameless zone story was my (tied-)favorite STCO story so far! I agree with Charles, Knuckles wouldn't have contributed to that particular escapade at all.

[Tom]

the knuckles team-up was my favourite of all the nameless zone stories. probably my favourite tails story, too. (although that's facing such stiff competition as "recipe for disaster"...)

[Raxadian]

charlesrb said:

raxadian said:

I’m sure that if knuckles had been in STCO nameless zone comic thing, it would have been a lot better.

No it wouldn't - Knuckles being in it would lessen the moral difficulties Tails has to face, which is the whole story.

Yes it would!, having knuckles being the “Action Echidna” wont make tails fell better at all. It would make Tails fell useless.

And the STCO nameless zone thing needed at least one more page in the last part.

[Pombar]

It's not about making him feel good or bad. The whole story was based around the, as Charles says, moral difficulties and decisions that had to be made. Knuckles being a knucklehead and beating up anyone labelled as a 'bad guy' would've effectively made up Tails' mind for him, as he's far more of a follower than a decision maker.

[Charles]

raxadian said:

having knuckles being the “Action Echidna” wont make tails fell better at all. It would make Tails fell useless.

If Knuckles is getting involved and doing all the legwork, that means Tails isn't caught between the Enchanter Kings & Errol and not sure which way to jump, and having to deal with tricky, amibigious issues with no clear enemy.

He wouldn't be caught between this because Knuckles would head out and thump people until things changed.

[Raxadian]

pombar said:

It's not about making him feel good or bad. The whole story was based around the, as Charles says, moral difficulties and decisions that had to be made. Knuckles being a knucklehead and beating up anyone labelled as a 'bad guy' would've effectively made up Tails' mind for him, as he's far more of a follower than a decision maker.

I’m not in the mood to discuss that story again, if anyone still cares, my thoughts about that should be in an old thread somewhere.

But basically, I don’t like the past part of that story, while “Just Like Old Crimes” on the contrary, is one of my favorite Tails stories.

[The Shad]

I disagree with Pombar. In the beginning, yes, Tails was very much a follower. But he matured into a confident character, quite willing to stand up to other, far stronger characters. I mean, he was the first to punch the recharged Super Sonic.
And the Knuckles and Tails team-up was one of the scariest stories I read in a comic.

[Raxadian]

blackandredsoldier said:

I disagree with Pombar. In the beginning, yes, Tails was very much a follower. But he matured into a confident character, quite willing to stand up to other, far stronger characters. I mean, he was the first to punch the recharged Super Sonic.
And the Knuckles and Tails team-up was one of the scariest stories I read in a comic.

100% truth man, except that I don’t think having a Knuckles and Tails team-up was scary, I mean Knuckles was a better buddy to Tails that Sonic ever was.

[The Shad]

He was. And what it scary was just the sight of this huge, mutated Errol Blackthorn. Last time I saw him, he was all cute and cuddly. But the best Tails story ever was the one where he reflects on his role in the Freedom Fighters, and Johnny offers to let him join them on a raid, then can't go because he has to fight Trogg.

The good thing about the team-up was the differing characters. Knuckles: hard as nails rock head. Tails: Nice kid, innocent. Always living in someone elses shadow.

[Pombar]

Yes, but he had a pretty clear choice there. There it was more about courage - in that story there was no clear 'correct' answer, if there was a correct answer at all. As said before, it was a tough moral decision, and Knuckles would've just punched his way out of it, going for the guys classed as 'bad', which would've solved the problem in itself. Just solved it stupidly.

[Raxadian]

blackandredsoldier said:

He was. And what it scary was just the sight of this huge, mutated Errol Blackthorn. Last time I saw him, he was all cute and cuddly. But the best Tails story ever was the one where he reflects on his role in the Freedom Fighters, and Johnny offers to let him join them on a raid, then can't go because he has to fight Trogg.

The good thing about the team-up was the differing characters. Knuckles: hard as nails rock head. Tails: Nice kid, innocent. Always living in someone elses shadow.

For what I got from tails “Development” he no longer tries to be like Sonic, he just want people to threat him with a bit more respect, he saves the day and he doest even get haft of the media attention Sonic does. See "Just like old crimes".

[Baron Canier]

raxadian said:

I mean Knuckles was a better buddy to Tails that Sonic ever was.

Nah. Sonic just employs a unique kind of 'tough love'.

[Raxadian]

faeros said:

raxadian said:

I mean Knuckles was a better buddy to Tails that Sonic ever was.

Nah. Sonic just employs a unique kind of 'tough love'.

But that’s not the kind of love Tails wants, he wants Sonic to be “nice” with him.

Now all of you, get those perverts thoughts out of ya head!