Sonic comics

I know Archie comics are kill, and that IDW is starting anew. But what stories from the old sonic series are the very best? I'm looking into getting some of the old Sonic comics and I don't know where to start, other than avoiding Ken Penders. I never watched Sonic SatAM, should I watch that before getting anything?

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Thumbnail made it look like she had some prominent bush...even for a fur covered individual...

The solution is simple.

Everything pre and including Endgame arc.

You can literally just start from issue #0 (they had a mini from 0-3 before restarting at #1) and go. They used the same series bible to start with and the stuff they borrowed from SatAM is so surface level that going back and watching it will only put things in slightly better perspective rather than actually explaining anything.

I'd recommend just plowing through all of it because every story is easy to breeze through and you'll get plenty of scattered cute kids' tales and absolutely hilarious clusterfucks all throughout. But if you really, REALLY want some recommendations from before the modern run at 160+...

-The first 10 issues. Nothing but silliness, but it does a good job of setting up the cast.
-The first story from #14, "Tails' Taste of Power." Good character focus story.
-#15, because I just think it's fun and has nice art.
-#20's first story, "That's the Spirit!" Again, just another fun story.
-#23, because it's a solid little all-rounder issue that also gives a lot of character setup for Antoine and Bunnie.
-#25, as it's a lovely Sonic CD adaptation that ends up becoming the book end of the Archie Sonic run. #26 is also fun, but it's pretty middle of the road.
-The Sonic Triple Trouble Special, again just because it's one of the best goofy stories.
-"Growing Pains," the backup strip for Sonic #28 and 29. It's a Tails story that leads into his miniseries. Speaking of which...
-Read the Tails Miniseries. It's pun-filled fun.
-The 'Uncle Chuck Saga' by Angelo DeCesare. Three Uncle Chuck stories, namely in Sonic #30, #34, and #37. They're meant to be spaced out, but you can read them in sequence if you'd like. It's a nice little arc about Sonic's uncle.
-"Ring of Truth" from Sonic #35. A fun cosmic adventure where Sonic goes through trippy nonsense and contemplates existential philosophy. It's just an excuse for the artists to have fun, really.

continued

Well, first off, don't listen to anyone who tells you to avoid all Ken Penders. He wrote some really decent stories during the book's early years, particularly the Sally backup stories in #17 and #18. Also, he was largely responsible for the shift away from the silly AoStH style to the darker, more mature SatAM style. Whether that was a good thing or bad is debatable, but I don't think the comic would have lasted so long with the old style.

And yeah, he borrowed a lot from Star Trek and James Bond for his Knuckles stories, but some of those are pretty decent as well. People like to meme about his shitty art/Knuckles' dad putting him in a microwave as a baby/that one pic with all of Knuckles' ancestors, but if you'll find at the very least he wrote a handful of decent-to-great Knuckles stories featuring characters that, unfortunately, showed more potential than he himself was able to tap into with his meager skillset.

-"Bunnie's Worst Nightmare" from issue #37. Great character focus story about her anxieties. Penders later actualized her unrealistic anxieties in a different story because he's an idiot.
-The MECHA MADNESS arc, Sonic #39, the Mecha Madness special issue, and Sonic #40. Probably the best story arc of the 90's run, it's just a whole lot of well choreographed fight scenes interlaced with terrible puns and well executed visual humor. The first two parts are more on the serious side while #40 ratchets down the tone quite a bit.
-Super Sonic vs Hyper Knuckles isn't something I personally like, but you might get a kick out of it.
-The Sonic Blast Special is one last hurrah for the goofy comedy-action stories.
-Sonic Super Special #1's backup story, The Map, is a weird Antoine-focused story where he acts kind of like a GI Joe. Definitely worth the read despite how OOC it is.
-"Total Re-Genesis" from Super Special #5 is a poorly drawn but decently written Rashomon episode.
-Super Special #8 is bad anime. Read that shit. It's horribly funny.
-Sabrina #28 and Super Special 10 have a good Sabrina crossover with art by comics legend Dan DeCarlo, but I don't blame you if you don't want to bother.
-"Giant Robotno" is a legitimately well written story about Sonic traveling to a universe that works on the rules of a mid to late 90's mecha series. The art's pretty bad, which is a shame, but the writing is solid, especially if you're familiar with the source material it's drawing from.
-Issues 51 and 52 are okay, but not worth crying over if you skip them.
-"Icon" from Sonic 62 and 63 is pretty good.
-Issue 67 is strictly "okay" as an Indiana Jones parody.
-#85-87 feature a decent Silver Sonic fight that's poorly drawn and a well-scripted story about Sonic vs Metal Sonic that's based on the Sonic OVA.
-#103 and 104 feature a 90's Guardians of the Galaxy parody if you're familiar with that and like self-deprecating humor from that series' writer.

continued one last time

>issue #37
Best cover, IMO

-103 to 105 also features a story about the Downunda Freedom Fighters from the Tails miniseries if you liked that. It's okay.
-#111's "I'll Shoot the Sheriff" is a cozy story about Antoine's dad and a wannabe Sonic-Robin Hood.
-#126 and 127, the first two parts of Sonic "Tossed in Space" are pretty entertaining on their own. Sonic meeting some ant aliens and encountering a hyper-evolution planet.
-#138-141's "Return to Angel Island" is a pretty interesting story, but is far more enjoyable if you read Ken's work as it's a BRUTAL teardown of all of his shortcomings as a writer. Basically an extended "Fuck You" in narrative form.

And that's about all I can recommend in good conscience. Everything else is pretty much mediocre or worse, but don't take my word for it. Read this stuff yourself and form your own opinions!

As much as I hate how people meme about Penders...I really can't agree with this. At best I can see some people finding interest in #20, maybe the original Knuckles mini, and maybe a couple of the Kanterovich co-plotted stories like 13 and 16-18. His solo writing is...really bad. Like, if you've ever read the comics he's pulling from it's just grating. The only Knuckles arc that comes close to decent is the pilgrimage with Athair, but the rest of that series is just dreadful structure, pacing and delivery.

I'm more confused at you praising his Sally stories, though, as I always viewed them as generally being even worse than his Knuckles work.

I read his Knuckles run long before it became hip to bash him for stealing from other comics. I'd like to think that, were I to re-read them, what I know now wouldn't bother me, but it's hard to say. I hold no special love for the man, personally, not after everything he did with his lawsuits and even long before that. I idolized him as a child, until I hung around his message board long enough to find out what a dick he can be.

But still, I can't help but like Julie-Su as a hero, and Lien-Da and her brother as villains. Maybe it's my ignorance in not know where he aped concepts like the Brotherhood from, but that shit fascinated me as a kid. I never have been one to roll my eyes at the more sci-fi soap opera aspects of the series, because I don't need or want a perfectly straight adaptation of the games.

Re: the Sally stories, I'm mainly referring to the two-parter in #17 and #18, the one with her mentor, Julayla. I'll admit it's been years since I've read them, but what stuck with me was that they were the two issues that left an impression on Dan Drazen which resulted in him publishing reviews of the comics on his website for 21: andrews.edu/~drazen/archives.html

Also, I have fond memories of the Princess Sally miniseries. Maybe I just lower standards for Sonic, but I thought they were fun stories and a character like Geoffrey St. John, Bond stereotypes and all, wouldn't have felt out of place in SatAM.

>publishing reviews of the comics on his website for 21
*years

No, no, the fact that they're bad has nothing to do with him stealing things, it's just that reading 60's Marvel immediately makes him even harder to suffer.

I think your feelings are heavily clouded by the age you read the stories at and the bleed over from the fan community. Kragok is a non-character. Like, he actually has no discernible character traits at all. Lien-Da didn't even have a damn name until two years or so out and barely even showed up in Ken's stories. It's one thing to have a soft spot for these things, bu-

>I have fond memories of the Sally miniseries
Yeah. You really need to read this stuff again.

>mfw I found out my normie brother has the entire Archie run
Fuckin' hidden power levels

Now you're kinda making me want to storytime it, to be honest. I doubt it could be all that bad.

I was planning on storytiming Ken's work alone, but the higher wait times on storytiming these days put me off it.

If you wanna do Ken and Ken alone, through STH, Knuckles, etc, by all means, go ahead. Seriously, I give the guy as much credit as I can muster and don't dock him a single bit for being a cunt. He's barely ever written anything passable and most of his "good" moments are kids projecting on to vapid writing.

Nah man, if you think it's something you might get around to doing soon, don't let me stop you. I've never actually storytimed anything before, so my thread would probably suck compared to yours anyway.

Like I said, I'm not doing it because it takes too long now.

As far as I'm aware, it's Archie comics 160 onwards. I still need to read 'em though.

Please fuck off you god damn attentionwhore.

Literally just passing on a recommendation someone gave me, autist.

Not sure what you mean by this. Like there's a limit on how many storytime threads there can be at once, or...?

>tripfagging for no reason
>calling other people autists

Here's another (you) champ

Silver saga, fighters and thicker than water were my favorite arcs.

You're the retard giving me attention when all I wanted to do was talk about Sonic comics.

You have to wait 60 seconds after posting an image.

This means three issues can take up to an hour and a half to post.

You wouldn't even be responding if you wanted to talk about Sonic, attention whore.

Ah.

Do you even realise what you did? I came to talk about Sonic and you posted something that was completely off-topic, starting off this whole conversation. You're an idiot. I'm past it. Not replying anymore.

So god damn annoying. It's put me off storytiming all together.

It wouldn't hurt to watch SatAM first. The pilot is great and there are quite a few memorable episodes spread out across the two seasons.

Seems to be 20 seconds with a Pass.

my main problem with it is that sonic's head feels like they pushed it back too far.

lel

LEL