Sunday, July 30, 2017

Sonic Comics USA Gets New Home? IDW! Archie Gone

After having a break...
The Gear updates are back on schedule and back to the usual with this week. It's a fairly standard crop of items, lots of which are provided by Spencers Gifts and their new summer crop of stuff. It is still typical though because the "Boom Ban" is clearly still in effect: Merch is limited to classic & Boom only.  (Skip to Section 2 to pass Comic Drama)

More will continue with this same theme next week. But, it's the big news that really needs to get said:

ARCHIE LOSES SONIC
The Archie Sonic Comic is OVER.
It lasted about 25 years or so there, and broke a lot of records along the way. The record-breaking was due to the loyalty of Sonic fans above fans of other varieties. They supported the comic even when it got weird and didn't make much sense. It kept on getting supported until good people could get in the 'captain area' and fix it (as it had been done with Universe & etc) right up till it ended.

As a merchandise site & blog: What does this mean?

GET THE MISSED ISSUES AND TRADES NOW
Archie's not making them, and they're not going to want anything to do with the Sonic brand going forward, so if you're missing anything any issue BUY IT NOW or pay the high price later, or maybe never even get it. It seems trivial now "oh its 4 dollars" but you know the way of the Sonic collectible: that price is going to go up.
If there's anything you want out of it, now is your hour of buying power. That's physical stuff though, digital is kind of whatever from a collecting standpoint because you're looking for objects not unlocking some crumbly pay-file.

As a fan: What does this mean?
IDW is getting Sonic comics & they are rallying for 2018 comic release. IDW has a generally good reputation for 'fan satisfaction' by applying good and creative people to properties they get. They don't appear to abuse brands or run them into the ground for a quick buck.

Opinion Zone 1: Seems trustworthy enough. Not afraid.

As a plot: What could happen?
There are several choices IDW has with the comic & it'll depend on WHAT Sonic they got the license for. Was it everything? Was it JUST modern & Classic? Was it Boom? Was it everything Archie had and Archie is just signing everything over? It depends on what variety of Sonic they got, what they'll be able to do with it. They probably are not going to go full comedy/nonsense like AOSTH, they will probably want adventure stories because that's what Archie succeeded with, on their Sonic. (Remember, they started off as comedy 1-shots)

Scenarios:
Sega only gave them Boom because they want to push it down everyone's throats = Boom Comic
Sega gives them Modern & Classic = Plausible good variety comic
Archie gives them the FF's = It's Archie again.......continued comic

Speculation:
NOTHING SatAm or Archie based moves on. Sally & the freedom fighters are done. They have nothing to do with the games, shows, or anything anybody's been trying to push EXCEPT Archie for countless years now. Archie had hot water over the Penders issue and no one will want that "infection" to continue even with characters he didn't make. It'll be deemed "Safer" by corporate to leave everything Non-Sega & Non-New behind.

Opinion Zone 2: It could be ok unless Sega only gives Boom. Then it will flop. Boom as a show is funny, but doesn't work on paper because whoever writes the show is funnier than whoever else writing a comic.

Conflict Ability:
Sure, Archie chars have 'nothing to do with anything' EXCEPT Archie! They were successful where they were and WHO they had become. It was their niche. So the argument "they're no-where" isn't 100% real, but will that stop anything?

Mostly it just remains to be seen as details will be forthcoming.

Cook & Becker Sonic Book- Arrives!
Book is good: a big review will be posted here next update. If you ordered it/preordered it should be there already/very soon. It's VERY heavy and quite large. Yes, there are special pages, and a video will appear next week as well.