Ok so you may need to bare with me here on this one. In the October edition of ToyWorld Magazine, they have a few preview pages of the ‘Brand Licensing Europe’ event. This isn’t a gaming event, it’s a licensing event. Companies attend with the hope of selling licenses to their properties to other companies in order to make products.
And Sega is down to attend with ‘a much larger booth than last year.’ Now this isn’t that unusual since Sega have attended the event for the last few years. Along with Total War and some retro titles, the Sonic license is up for grabs.
However, the more interesting tidbit comes near the end of the article in which they confirm that Sega have signed a licensing deal with publisher Egmont.
Recent licensing deals to have been signed include leading publishers Egmont and Hachette
So who are they? Hachette is a French publisher who are making activity books based on Sonic. And Egmont? Well… long term fans might know them very well. Egmont is the company who purchased Fleetway, the people who made Sonic the Comic here in the UK.
Thats right my friends. Sega have signed a new publishing deal with the people who used to make Sonic the Comic.
Now before we get too excited, they don’t mention specifically that it is for Sonic… however, what does support it being Sonic is that when you look at Egmont’s current lineup of magazines and books, Sonic is the only active franchise Sega have which would fit in with their range of products.
There is also another reason not to get too excited, and thats down to the simple fact that the comic selection in the newsagent has changed since STC ended. Egmont do not make comics anymore, it’s more towards fortnightly actvity books. They do however make one off books.
And to continue the unlikely news, even if it was Sonic the Comic, it’s never going to continue from where it left off, far too long a time has passed.
So whilst it might not be a UK revival of Sonic the Comic, it might suggest a one off book, or could we see pigs fly and get a trade collection of Sonic the Comic published by Egmont?
We’ll be watching this one very closely.
Source: ToyWorldMag
I get the feeling you may be on the money with an activity book, however, it will probably tie into the new cartoon series more than the game series I imagine.
That sounds about right. At the risk of getting chased by a Frankenstein-style mob, I have to say that I wasn’t really that big of a fan of the Fleetway Sonic Comics. They just seemed way to dark and antagonizing to me. That doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s a bad thing, and it’s pretty clear that a lot of people (especially over in the UK) felt near and dear to this comic series. I respect the legacy it has, but I don’t think I could follow it unless it lightened up a bit, but I think that’s up to the fans in charge of the online continuation. Maybe it’s just a cultural difference. UK fans felt more attached to it because it was published in the UK, and USA fans felt more attached to the Archie comics because they were published over here. I doubt that’s it though, since there must of been some sort of mixing between fan bases. Whatever the reason, I respect Sonic the Comic, but I don’t like it too much. Please don’t kill me!
Fair enough. Congrats on having a respectable, justified, balanced opinion. Personally I wasn’t a huge fan of the comic either, though the writing was, for my money, some of the best Sonic has had in any media. Just being tied to the company again can only mean good things for the hedgehog.
Interesting… VERY interesting… 😐
VERY interested to see where this turns out. Whether it’s the return of Sonic the Comic or not, I’m still excited to see what’s in store this time around.
Interesting. If it’s a new licence with Hachette, that’s also interesting, as they were the publisher who was supposed to be producing the Sonic Chess set magazine.
If I had to guess, I’d say they’d likely dedo Archie Sonic reprints unless another company does those in the UK.
I wouldn’t want it to be Sonic the Comic anyway. I’m always up for something new. So long as the designs are kept “reasonably” in check.
Is Sega going to canceled toy World Magazine!
Worth noting that as far as the staff of the comic is concerned, even if SEGA makes deals with Egmont they can’t go reprinting StC or using its material anyway- since no-one signed contracts with Fleetway, all material belongs to the authors, not to the company.
I doubt STC will be revived, ever. I think it’s most likely that this is nothing to do with STC, and will be some other Sonic publication. Though I don’t think a reprint of the original series is too farfetched a suggestion. Archie have published over 50 Sonic books, there’s money to be had there!
The headline and thrust of this article is complete and utter trolling,
How?
Teasing STC fans extensively when there’s absolutely no basis to link this with STC at all. Egmont is a massive multinational company that does the bulk of its publishing in continental Europe. They don’t even have the rights to republish STC material or use its unique characters – ownership rests with the original creators. So, in spite of the ‘wink wink’ disclaimers, this whole article is an enormous tease for something you have zero evidence is happening.
Ok lets look at this shall we.
Are Egmont the former publishers of STC? Yes.
Have sega signed a new deal with them? Yes.
Have they confirmed if this is or isn’t reprints of STC? No.
Do I say in the article that it is a reprint of STC? No.
Do I say that it’s ‘more likely’ and offer possible explanations for what this deal is? Yes.
So… whats your problem exactly?
I consider Sonic the Comic non-canon. It’s just way too dark for me! That is not what Sonic is like. Animals wearing clothes?! When they bend down you can actually see their spine?! This just screams ‘Hardcore wanabe from the creators/writters. I even read one at Summer of Sonic and still it showed signs of being WAY too dark for me. I’m sorry guys, even though I grew up in the UK, I’lll take the archie comics anyday over this.
It’s only a problem when the male characters wear clothes then? Amy, Cream, Rouge, etc fully clothed (albeit in garish outfits for the most part) is completely different? Such a trivial point to casually dismiss a decade’s worth of comics over. Suspect if you’d grown up on STC you’d probably feel differently, anyhow…
There are many more reasons to why I dismiss this, but I’d be here all day if i were to cover them all. All i’m going to say is that i dont like the series and it’s my opinion, not anyone elses thank you very much.
Dark ?
SatAM is darker than StC, and I don’t consider Satam to be “dark”.
“animals wearing clothes”. You must hate Charmy Bee then. And there are animals that wear clothes in Archie.
Would a book collection of all the old STC strips be too much to ask? You target it to both today’s kids and the original readers too….