Sonic Super Special 15 Review - Bring Flame Retardant Material On Hand Posted by WB Knuckles: Twenty Years Later, The Chosen One arc, The Sonic Manga special, feeder stories for Sonic #100... All of this...All of this good potential for a special that could have been pushed up - wasted, for Scribble Scrabble, 4 pages of caked on ink, and 6 pages of crappy cheap ass snow. Shadows, my @$$ !!! "Heh...I picked up #15...skimmed it....said "What the hell kind of art is this!!"....carried it around for awhile...saw the Gen X comic and said..."I don't owe Archie a thing"...picked up Gen X comic and put #15 back...left comic store ^^" - A friend of mine, True Red upon seeing SSS15 Point blank - SSS15 is without a doubt THE WORST piece and/or example of sequential artwork I have ever had the displeasure of owning in my sad misbegotten life. There is no way you can defend this. There is no way you can even TOUCH this with a 10 Foot Pole. The only book that MAY be worse in comparison is Sonic 33, but at least ONE of the MILLION puns in it were funny! I'm not a professional artist yet. I never claimed I was. But i know a big steamy pile of monkey doo when I see it - and this, was a big steamy pile of ELEPHANT doo. The only "nice" thing about it was the cover (with Kaleidoscope Naugus :P), Spaz's Pro Art Piece (With Big Lipped Pimp Sugar Daddy Naugus complete w/Nose Boogers), and that one solitary line about Rotor I cackled at. Honestly, if I didnt wanna get the cover so I could scan it and the Spaz piece for SHQ I would've spent my money at the Arcade and played some Pac Man instead of wasting it on this. >:P Ladies and gentlemen: Sonic fans. If you see this book, unless you're a completist (and if you are, doubt its existance) - run away. Flail your arms, pull out your pepper spray, and scream like a baby. If you see SSS15 - RUN AND HIDE from it like it was the black plague lest it attack and kill you smothering you in its fake white snow. I'm almost tempted to walk into Books a Million with my reciept and ask for my money back. Anyways, enough bagging - on with the review. In the words of Johnny Storm, The Human Torch: FLAME ON! ^__^ The Cover: Sonic looks pretty cool. Upon seeing the image in B&W I _ACTUALLY_ thought that drip on his arm may have been blood, where he was cut (After all, everything else is in rags on him). But then I smiled and thought to myself "This is Archie! Silly me! They dont have that much guts. ^_^" I really like that puff of smoke coming from Sonic's nose to denote cold. Cool effect. And I like his gesture too. Spaz always does cool gestures. ^^ And then we come to the second point of this piece: Kaliedoscope Naugus! Called such because he now looks like he would if a fly were to see him! (As if he wasnt already ugly as sin, we now have multiple broken up images of him reflected on the ice) I can sorta see the effect Spaz was going for, but for some reason (I'm thinking its that main broken pic of him reflected above Sonic's head) it just doesnt work to me all the way. It looks...odd. I say this because of the _other_ images of Naugus reflected from the stalactites. It just..I dunno. Cool idea. I LOVE the way it pans out (and I adore that birds eye angle of Sonic backing away slowly - really adds effect). But I can't really think of a way it could have been done better. Too much blue used on the left, the distorted images look...weird. So I guess I'm half and half on it. Title Page! Probably the only piece of pretty artwork in the book sans fan art and Spaz's piece. Note the credits list Pencil and Inks by "Many Hands". I don't blame em - I'd be ashamed to have my name associated with that story and call myself a professional too. It _looks_ like "Many hands" had thier way with this stinker. Naugus Games! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.....Where do we begin with THIS one! ^__^ Sonic stands above the smoking rubble of Nate Morgan's old castle. This looks like Steven Butler vaguely, but I dont think so. he may be a bit messy at times but he's MUCH clearer than that. Actually I know that the castle scene was stolen from a panel in Sonic 67 (Check Sonic's flashback to the Naugus Trilogy - you'll find the panel there). His stance I'm SURE was lifted SOMEWHERE out of Sonic 64. I may be wrong on that one though as I dont have that book with me to check. First things first - It took Sonic something like 1-2 months comic time to travel to the Southern Tundra right? That took like 6 or 7 books with constant stops. Now lets assume Sonic didnt stop this time (Give me a break. >:P), so.....WHEN did he find time in current continuity with Robotnik flying around willy nilly back in control and underbooses everywhere and King Max turned into a paraplegic, to fly ALL THE WAY BACK down to the friggin South Pole, pay respects to Eddy, and fly ALL the way back? AND why wasnt Nate at least with him? After all, Nate would have a MUCH stronger bond with Eddy than Sonic - it WAS his home that was destroyed, and Eddy's last words WERE given to Nate. I admire the sentiments and the introspect into Sonic's head (maybe he's supposed to feel guilty or something) but they just couldnt leave well enough alone could they :P Thus we go into flashback mode. Note the choice of words "Forbidden Zone"....last I heard it was called the "Zone Of Silence", maybe?! C'mon at least get your own bass-ackwards continuity right. Not to mention that in S91 Rotor supposedly returns and meets Sonic into some "Forbidden Zone" there. Just flop any any old zone anywhere and call it forbidden when you wanna throw away a character you don't know how to write I guess. >:P Sonic does a spin and skids to the ground with a graceful Tonya Harding leap. He then...oddly...changes head shape and pulls out a single rose from beneath his cloak. Now this is either the heaviest rose I have ever seen or Sonic is just out and out too d*mn fat. Either way he sets the rose on the ground, its sheer massive bulk is enough to cause the ground to give way (Guess those petals must have been on steroids!), and doing what looks like a really ugly gesture of a Ballet move gracefully falls into a pit of India Ink. .... Black. 4 pages of nothing but black ink and spaces left for oddly distorted eyes. Archie _THIS_IS_NOT_SCOOBY_DOO. I kept expecting Sonic to pull a Tiny Toons and start playing Pong with one of his eyes or something. >:P Anyway, Sonic wakes up in a "deep crevasse"! Yeah. Nice how you left a little spot of white splatters to signify a hole in the fake sky. Whoops! Thats the Sonic Adventure adaption. My bad! >:P Sonic's disembodied cyclops eye then decides to have fun and play tricks with our mind! First it barely opens, THEN IT GETS ALL WIDE!!!!!!, then we get a clooooooooose-up, then it looks down in confusion as it wonders what it stepped in, then it gets all big and scary: WHOOOOOOOOO - OOOH! I SCARED!!, then it turns sideways, tries to do a lopsided cartwheel (but fails miserably) and thumps itself thus reproducing a rougue thought ballon which tries to run away from this train wreck of a comic book, then it looks up at the preceding panels and goes WHY-WHY-WHY-WHY-WHY. Many people asked that same question after they bought this rotten egg. :P Sonic's cyclops eye then magically splits aparts like an ameoba and sings to itself "I'm Not Happy! (Neither Am I) La De Dah Dee Dah!" (where an eye gets music notes from I have no idea...). Then it magically reforms itself and stares when it notices the reader cursing himself at having bought this horrible excuse for killing trees. Walking away from the giant **NAUGUS GAMES CHAPTER 2** that pops up out of nowhere and hits you like a screaming truck, the eye then walks away mad at the sorry bit part it played. It then turns sideways while its pupil desperately wishes to escape so it can play Salvador Dali like a meltintg clock and kill itself in its misery. Tired and weary, Sonic eyes come back together with remnants of its body as it sees..."the light"? ARE WE DEAD!?!?! IS THIS STORY OVER !?!?! No! Your hopes have been dashed! Now what looks like....hands?...grasp the big gleaming white hole (Stare into the Light Luke Skywalker....) Sonic, pissed that he missed out on all the fun his eye had, then magically morphs size in the darkness, becomes MUCH taller and prepares to take his Popeye The Sailorman stance. I guess the plan here was to eat spinach and punch the hole of gleaming white into submission >:P Instead we enter...artwork...again....I'm beginning to wonder at this point would it have better to just taken the black and leave the artwork alone? At least that way I wouldnt have to bleach my eyes after this is over. Anyway Sonic, now drawn WORSE than before (you were expecting maybe Claude Monet?) finds "a whole mess of Power Rings!" Well GAWWWWWWW-LEEE, thank you for the obvious Gomer Pyle! Sonic then makes the statement that Nate told him he turned into Super Sonic (a blue Super Sonic....didnt you call it ULTRA Sonic every other time? Egad...) and that he was "da man". Not in THIS story Homey G-Money. This is so sad...They dont even get the friggin word ballons right people! The word balloon at the _bottom_ of the second tier is supposed to be at the top, and the one at the TOP is supposed to be at the bottom! The way its set now, the conversation doesnt even make sense or flow with the words in the next panel !!! Its like starting a sentence dead in the middle, making the middle its beginning, and then jamming it all to an end. >:P And dont even ASK what the heck that thing is on the bottom tier, first panel - I just draw, I dont decipher heiroglyphics! Anyway - all of its supposed to be Sonic making a wish to get out of the hole on one of the rings only to succeed in wishing Naugus back into existence instead......I swear Archie has turned Sonic into a dumbass for this story. Suddenly there's a huge flash, which knocks Sonic back as you turn to the next page the art gets even _WORSE_ as we get two large unnecessary splash pages: a really sad closeup of Naugus's claw emerging from the rings and the second being the UGLIEST cariacture of him I've ever seen flying around with large..things that represent flames in the background and looking like he has Roto-Rooter Blades in his mouth. Dont even get me started on how Sonic has a hand protruding from his head. >:| Then get this - the art _GETS_WORSE_!! Betcha didnt see THAT comin'!!! Sonic doesnt even LOOK like Sonic on page 13. Its just a badly drawn piece of fanart colored blue with one spike wearing a brown blob that resembles a shaggy mothballed coat. And you call this sequential art? People go to school, strive to better themselves in art only to be outranked by _THIS_? You have good people online like T2, Ruby Echidna, Bara-chan, Lien Nguyen (me! ^^ hehehehe) or a number of Sonic fandom that can draw better than this or would die to become artists and get their break in the industry and learn; and are discouraged because thier portfolios arent good enough or they dont have enough experience! Then you have really talented guys on your staff like James Fry, Ron Lim, or ANYONE And THIS is what gets printed as material? I can understand Archie's need to "clean house" but _THIS_ is quality artwork? This is what they clean it with? This is the final special that we waited something like 4 months on, only to get this low budget crap? Look at some of Team Artails art archives, or Spaz's covers, or James Fry's art. THATS consistency. THATS artwork. THAT is quality material that people do thier darndest on and put thier effort and sweat into for little pay. This? Somebody got paid for this? GIVE ME A BREAK! This was something that was slapped together at the last possible minute to fill 25 pages. And I meant every word I said. >:P According to the story (yes there is a story behind the stickmen) Naugus' mental connection to the rings allowed him allowed him to warp the rings to his purposes. All Nate did back in Sonic 66 was suck the rings out of him so he could vanish forever. WHAT ?!?!?! And you couldnt have sacrificed one of those lame ass droning text boxes back in Sonic 66 for a small word balloon to explain what happened back then??? You had to wait till a sorry special more than one year later to clarify the ending of an already sorry storyline that you didnt know how to end properly? Sorry if sound bitter and angry people, but I think that I and pretty much anyone who bought this have every right to b*tch on this one. I and many other fans paid $2.49 for this swill. Thats my CANDY MONEY dangit! ^__^ Sigh.....Now they've got my dander up... ^____^ Naugus then de-evolves to that of a large stone faced toad while a big ball of flame and a sound effect take up half a dang page. Sonic then runs away. Naugus then morphs into an elf in the face while a jaggy-lined Sonic runs away at an angle that just looks downright weird. Naugus: "You Mock Me at Your Peril?" D*mn skippy! Noggy then hurles a fireball which barely misses Sonic. And in what has to be the silliest line I have ever heard, Noggy bares it all and decides to turn into Storm from the old X-Men cartoon: "I am a master of elements! Now experience the overwhelming power of a snowstorm!" And then.....then we get the snow.... 6 long pages...of the same pattern of snow....Someone found a cute pattern, learned the fill technique in Adobe Photoshop, and went bonkers. No artwork except for the beginning panel and end. Just.....snow.....I was gonna stop now and just move along hanging my head in shame, but I really take pleasure in mocking this story. ^__^ Sonic doesnt know whats worse - this or the "Cave Of Doom". I would have preferred the "Cave Of Doom". At least that way I could make more eyeball jokes. So for the next 6 pages (as Dan Drazen said) we get transposed dancing thought ballons with stuff like "Where Is he?", "The Wind Is Blowing So Hard", "Missed me NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH", and my personal favorite "STILL YOUR TOUNGUE"? What toungue? We can't see it cause of all the danged snow and the fake sky! Whoops! that was the Sonic Adventure Adaption! My bad! ^__^ Sonic wonders where Noggy is...Right next to you KRAK !!!!!! Sonic then thinks "He tagged me he tagged me!" Laser tag in the snow. Joy...Meanwhile that danged ***NAUGUS GAMES CHAPTER 4*** pops up uncontrollably again. So Sonic then decides "Hell I cant see, I'll just run all over the place like a ninny!" Boy - our hero just gets smarter with with every sentence ^^ Of course - according to Noggy "This storm will follow you everywhere you go!" More excuse to fit in more useless snow. :P After Sonic decides that he cant run all day in a Photoshop pattern he then strips nude and streaks back and forth across the pages since no one can see him! Joe Hedgehog! The ONLY LINE in this whole thing worth reading - that Rotor line with the "Extravagant Vocuabulary" crack. THAT was hilarious ^^ **sigh** More snow...more stupid sound effects. Sonic then decides to attack with "bad names" and "kindergarten insults": Sonic: "Poopy head! You have cooties!" Naugus: "Your momma! Mobian Booty Scratcher!" Yes folks who didnt buy the book, it was pretty much that sad. Sonic then remembers (GASP!) that he had a power ring in his pocket the whole time. End of snow. Thats it. Big fat hairy deal. Sonic then changes art style AGAIN....I cant even comment on this anymore, bad or not...Naugus is then dragged (I guess - I'm too sick of this to figure it out) back into a portal, proclaims they will meet again (GOD I HOPE NOT !!!!!!! KILL HIM !!!!!! PLEASE !!!!!!) and vanishes with a small "blip" Sonic then throws away the ring and walks off. By the way - that rose that fell into the "deep dark crevasse" back before the India Ink pit? Its now sitting on the ground again next to the ring. Tuxedo mask walks off, end of story. I wont say that story was a waste of precious moments of my life that I can never get back. I think anyone with 1/4 a brain cell can figure that out by now. :P Anyways - next story...(***crying*** THERE'S MORE !!! NOOOOOOOOO !!! MAKE IT STOP!!!) Sonic Spin City - or how to draw a story in nothing but black ink and no color. Actually I spent more time wondering if this story was done in scratchboard or just plain black and white ink. Either way I will give Mike Gallagher credit. There were some REALLY cool panels in this, that I honestly have to look back at and give kudos too. Examples: The "dead mangled swatbots" in the rain puddles on Page 2, The water splash on Page 3, the EXCELLENT rendition of Sonic under the shadow of the Rusty's sign on page 4, and lastly the glass breaking on the final page. Drawing stuff like this in straight ink or scratchboard is _NOT_ easy to do and VERY time consuming. The outcome may not look like it, but the process is kinda meticulous. One wrong mistake and you mess up your whole story - especially since your WHITES are your "outlines" in this and you have to make good use of negative spaces considering you only have 2 colors. THIS may not have been the best Sonic piece in some panels, and the story may have been WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY over peoples head to get the source material it parodies, but _THIS_ is artwork and I will give Mr. Gallagher kudos for it. He definetely spent some time on this. Anyways - the story parodies Frank Millers Sin City. I've never read it myself. The only thing I've had the pleasure of reading by Frank miller was "The Dark Knight Returns" an almost apocalyptic Batman story with a girl Robin. VERY good piece of material and everyone always talks about it. Anyways - no words are said in the story, instead Sonic narrates it almost like an old surreal Casablanca thing. To be honest - if you read this story SLOWLY and ignore that the first one ever existed, its somewhat decent for what it is, just...odd and out of place, and the ending kinda just faded off making it kinda pointless, but it was a "different" kinda pointless. I actually would have preferred at LEAST THIS and something else I guess as opposed to the previous 25 pages of brain killing tumor that could wipe out a third world nation. One thing though - that whole Bunnie swatbot dancing thing with the whip action striptease goin' on was just downright _WEIRD_ O_______O Like I said...odd...but weird...Its not something you'd see in a Sonic story. Its just different and the fact that the source material is just WAAAAAAAY out of peoples heads. Nobody who reads Sonic knows what that is or is gonna get it. Heck I dont get it all. ^^ And if you went through the first story it just sorta killed it regardless. Sonic Pin Up! Sonic braves the elements of a Snowstorm.....while we get a view directly into Noggy's big cavernous crevasse of a nose! And what on EARTH is up with those 1970 Sugar Daddy lips! I keep expecting it to be Yoda or something. Cool pic from Spaz. ^____^ We lost the super special with 3 potential monsters after it, for this filler swill. We lost Knuckles RIGHT BEFORE Sonic Adventure thanks to Archie's wonderfully bright and intelligent suits. We've got Sega who wont even so much as let Sonic squeal in glee without police protection. And Sonic 100 is not that so far away anymore....THIS is supposed to make me anticipate the milestone issue? THIS is supposed to bring in new readers and increase sales. This is quality product that you expect your readers to be happy with? You've _GOT_ to be out of your pea picking minds. I'd pretty much say that Archie and its execs and the people behind the desks are TRYING to cancel Sonic with every breath in them. I dont think they even want our readership or our fandom if they throw this at us. In fact - I'd even go as far as to say that it doesnt seem like some people who produce the book even care about what they write or draw anymore. I think some may see it as a chore, instead of a job, or something that makes them happy. I know it felt, to me, like a chore reading it. And I _KNOW_ I'm not the only one. Yeah, some do care obvioulsy, some of them, I think, REALLY do care, look at Mr. Fry and KP who actually take time to converse with the fans and see how we feel, though i dont think KP can anymore since someone twisted his words and Archie had a baby. But its not the same anymore. I swear....If I didnt like Sonic fandom and the people in it, and the many people who I meet that are cool to converse and even cooler to be around I'd sorely drop this book - and maybe Sega - like a bad habit. Stuff like this really doesnt give me reason to stay. I'll stick it out though. I'm overly optimistic and I always said I would. Plus, at least we still have the MAIN Sonic book and 100 issues to look forward too. Thats something to be happy about. :) Anyways admire the fan art - thats pretty much the only real colored art you're gonna get in THIS book. :P And at least the Chibi Rose picture is cute. S91 review to follow soon. BTW this and any other review I do to Archie. Perhaps that'll make SOMEBODY stand up and take notice... End review. **WB prances off to go play with his eyes in the dark** Jonathan H. Gray The Dubba Dubba WB!!! Sonic HQ - www.sonichq.org Crystal City Castle - www.geocities.com/blackbat4 Dub's Signature!: Starring Jonathan Gray as that wacky Chicken Eating Animation Freak! ^________^ "That's All Folks!" ------ LOL! Posted by Caryn That whole thing with Naugus on the cover reminded me of a song.... "Picture yourselfin a boat on a river With tangerine trees and marmelade skies Somebody calls you You answer quite slowly The girl with Kaleidescope eyes...." (Taken from "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" by John Lennon and Paul McCartney) ------ See? I'm not the only one who hated it with a passion! - Lady Laguna ------ My Review Posted by Romantic@Hart Just this: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAG GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RUN FER YER LIVES!!!!!!!! ------ This is bad! Very bad! Posted by !! I haven't read SSS#15 and I don't care how bad it is because I like collecting the comic book. Besides (maybe I'm in denial) but nothing can be THAT bad. I also think that Archie is trying to kill of Sonic. As my third and fourth grade teacher use to say,"You have to try to fail this bad." I think Archie must be trying because no company or its bean counters are THIS inept. My theory rest on the number of comic books per subscription one can get. A year ago it was 6 or 12. Six months ago it was 8 or 10. Now only three months or so later it is (I think) 4 or 8. I really think that Archie is trying to nail Sonic and thats why I will buy to the bitter end. As long as Archie has some kind of sales it can't truly justify canning Sonic. That is why I'm also buying SSS#15. If they can unload all that crap, then Sega will think that Sonic still has a following and force Archie to keep printing. ------ THAT REALLY TICKS ME OFF!!!!! Posted by MaryEchidna First of all from the way you discribed it, there is NO WAY am I actually gonna buy THAT comic! There is nothing that gets me upset more than seeing a comic that not only has some pointless boring story, but also has art that really sucks!!! Hear I am trying my hardest to become one of the best comic artist ever, working my butt of drawing everyday learning new stlys then seeing someone who actually made it into the feild doing art that I even drew better than when I was preschool!!! And the thing THAT REALLY TICKS ME OFF IS THAT THEY SHOWED THIS INSTEAD OF KNUCKLES 20 YEARS LATER!!!!!! AAAAHHGGG! I bet that the people in ARCHIE are TRYING to cancel Sonic!!!!! ------ YEAH! U tell 'em!! Posted by Emerald~Echidna Another example of Knuckles scraping at the bottom of the barrel of a chance to shine like he was meant to! Every time he has the chance to be a star, he is for some odd reason booted off. And what's worse about this situation, they had to give us this mockery of quality production when instead we could have in our hands the very 20 years later, staring the most anticipated Lara Su! But no, we won't get to see her till 100, as I've read. Ah well, better than never. --- Posted by BobR What everyone fails to forget is that the K20YL storyline was to be SSS #16...which was in preproduction stages. SSS #15 had already gone into production when word was sent down from Archie's publisher that the SSS's were being canceled. This occured far too late in the cycle of things to pull the current #15 and substitute #16, which wasn't ready to even start production, and still make the publication deadline. If they'd have missed that, there wouldn't even have been a #15... This decision was based strictly on business acumen, which has absolutely no bearing on fan desires or the wish to keep fan loyalty. It's all economics. Ask yourself this: if you had to work 100 hours to make $1000, or work 100 hours to make $100, which would you do? To Archie, the former is their in-house titles, the latter the licensed product from Sega. Who's going to get the short end of the stick? What only the best of companies recognize is that to be really successful, you have to strike a balance between economics and emotion...and we all know how foreign emotions are to Archie's publisher. Just read any past news articles in the last few years concerning Archie Comics...you'll see what I mean. When companies start making decisions based strictly on economic factors without taking customer loyalty into the equation, then those companies will end up making colossal errors that will cost them dearly. Look at the boondoggle created by the introduction of "new" Coke. Coca-Cola forgot to factor their customer loyalty into the equation. They tried attracting new customers who preferred the other product by offering something similar, and ended up alienating those people who liked the original product and would buy nothing else. IMHO, this one of the reasons, if not the major reason, that the comic business is in the slump it is. In an effort to attract new readers, the comic publishers make wholesale changes to the comic, "killing off" long-standing characters and replacing them with new, "freaher" faces. But instead of attracting those new readers, all they succeed in doing is making their loyal customers angry, who then decide the comic isn't worth buying anymore. The net effect is they lose readers instead of gaining them. So they make MORE changes..and lose more loyal readers while attracting only a handful of new ones. Thus you enter the death spiral facing the comic book industry today. Coupled with today's economic considerations of manufacturing and distribution, it might just be a spiral they can't pull out of. --- A clear point Posted by Emerald~Echidna Exactly. I'm not even in the proffession and I listen to fans and hear what they think should happen. What they hate and what they love about the comics. And adding more and more chars is definetly spoiling it for all the originals, thus making adventures seem less appealing when a bunch of, how I should say "RETARDED" characters with absolutely no purpous or taste whatsoever and are there just to be there! I say, send everyone back (xcept for Sonic and Sally's parents) to where they came from and have it just be the original Freedom Fighters. We don't need Renfield Rat, Mamoth Magule, Ebony Hair, Wynmacher, or any other of those stupid wretched chars. I mean, can't you admit the adventures were more inticing when it was just them. Rotor is being shoved off to the side, and why the heck did Charmy have to leave?!?! He's a member of the Chaotix for crying out loud, one of the classic characters from Sega! Well, we should see more of him, maybe have Knuckles and the Chaotix stop by once and a while (When this stuff is all settled). I got one more word for everyone CAFFINEATED!!!!!!!!!!!! --- I understand that Posted by True Red : What everyone fails to forget is that the K20YL storyline was to be SSS #16...which was in preproduction stages. That's why I don't complain about the fact that SSS #15 wasn't K20YL or the manga special which was supposed to be #17. My complaint is if Archie actually LISTENED to the fans, they'd realize that they just cancelled the SSS one issue PRIOR to what could easily have been there two highest ever sold SSS (which would translate into $$$$ for them). K20YL has been coveted by Knuckles and many Sonic fans alike just because of the fact that it deals with the future for OVER two years now (offline fans since Knuckles #25 & online fans for even LONGER). We're all going nuts for it. For the first time EVER Spaz was going to draw a FULL-LENGTH special. ALL 48 pages were going to be drawn by Spaz (unlike in Mecha-Madness or SSS #11). People who hate the comics were planning on getting SSS #17 just because of Spaz' art. That's why I'm angry and that's what I mainly complain about. SSS #15 was just bad, though. I might get one day if I have some money and I get into one of my "loyalist" moods. ------ Allow me to Clarify a Point or Two Posted by Ken Penders Regarding SONIC SUPER SPECIAL #15, those stories were done on an inventory basis. What that usually means is these are stories the editor has commissioned to have on hand in the event the regular creative team cannot meet the deadline for whatever reason. This type of problem crops up on a fairly common basis among the major publishers, so rather than skip an issue or delay publication, they keep the machinery running by reaching into the drawer and pulling out whatever stories are needed for the situation. More often than not, they're usually stand-alone adventures that don't affect the current status quo running in the series at that time. When Archie was publishing three Sonic-related titles, this was considered a prudent course of action. With the demise of a title or two, this resulted in a bit more material laying around than the publisher liked. Since the status quo of Sonic has been constantly evolving since it's inception, the shelf life of any given inventory story is limited. If it wasn't used within a certain time, it would be considerably dated in terms of the series. Nobody who works on the books wanted to see this happen, but circumstances dictated otherwise. Regarding the creative people involved, while I understand your feelings regarding the finished product, and how some of you feel you could do better (I was in your shoes when I was your age, so I know full well your feelings), the fact remains that sometimes there are other factors beyond talent that result in certain decisions being made. Maybe someday I'll go into them, but not at the present time. I wish KNUCKLES: TWENTY YEARS LATER had been ready to go when SSS#15 was being planned out, but even if it had been, there's no guarantee it still would have seen print in place of the material that did see print, as I was not privvy to the decision-making process. While that was far from being one of our finest efforts, I can assure you the people currently involved are doing their best to make Sonic every bit as good as we can. I look forward to hearing what you think of the coming issues, as I think everyone will be interested in seeing where we're going as we count down to issue #100. Thanks and take care. --- Your Clarification Resurrects an Unsettling Question Posted by Daniel J. Drazen Let's cut to the chase: : I wish KNUCKLES: TWENTY YEARS LATER had been ready to go when SSS#15 was being planned out, but even if it had been, there's no guarantee it still would have seen print in place of the material that did see print, as I was not privvy to the decision-making process. This reminds me of a question I posed a little while back: What if management at Archie, the decision-makers, STILL aren't sold on K:20YL and either want to tweak it to death or bury it? What assurance(s) do you have that the story still has a green light? It kills me to think that "Rugrats" is such a hot property right now, despite the fact that it premiered in 1991. It's clear that Nickelodeon was committed to backing the show until it became an "overnight sensation." I frankly have NEVER, EVER felt the same level of commitment expressed by Archie management for Sonic; the fate of the Knuckles title and now the Specials is evidence of their true feelings. Archie is publishing the book at Sega's pleasure, not their own. They're treating Sonic (and the creatives) like red-headed stepchildren while their true affection is for Sabrina and the Riverdale crowd. If Sega wasn't involved, they'd probably have cut Sonic loose by now as well. Which makes me doubt that we'll EVER see K:20YL. I hope I get proved wrong, but I'm not going to bet cash money on it. --- Ditto Posted by WB : Which makes me doubt that we'll EVER see K:20YL. I hope I get proved wrong, but I'm not going to bet cash money on it. Ditto. And thats all I gotta say bout that. :P --- *Pats Danny one the back, smiling* GOOD SHOW! Posted by EmmyEchidna AMEN TO EVERYTHING! I support you 100%! --- Amen to that! Posted by !! If what you said isn't the ever love'n truth, I don't know what is. ---