Updated: Archie Sonic Comics Very Likely Cancelled

After over 24 years in a near-continuous run, it appears there are some very strong signals that Archie’s Sonic the Comic is set to be cancelled in the near future. Following phone calls from multiple parties, including members of our own SSMB to Archie’s subscription office, we have learned that they are not taking any more subscriptions pending more information.

The rep contacted stated that there was a high likelihood that Sonic the Hedgehog issue #290 would be the last issue release for the main comic (which would correspond to Sonic Universe #94 likely being the last issue for the sister publication).

While the news we have received is yet to be confirmed via any statement through Archie itself, it is surely troubling news to the many fans who still subscribe to the comic.

As always, we will keep you up to date on all news as it comes regarding this.

Special thanks to doctorbenMD of the SSMB for detail on his conversation with Archie’s subscriptions department.

Update: Since the time of publishing, more people have been in contact with Archie. The same rep from earlier is now saying that the subscriptions are just temporarily offline. Whether this is the case or not is yet to be seen, but we will update when new information is available.

 

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132 Comments

  1. If Archie doesn’t even have the common decency to let the books get to 300 & 100 respectively before they cancel them, they are a truly deplorable publisher and will never get another single cent from me! I will give my hard earned money to BETTER comic book publishers instead.

    If this is true R.I.P. Archie Sonic 1993-2017 You gave us some great adventures over the years.

      1. Well it would be nice milestones to end on, and it would give them more room to at least give some form of conclusion to both titles, even if it would still feel a bit premature. Better than just having an extra page tacked onto 291 that says “Thanks for all the adventures, bye!”

    1. You do realise that to do that would require them to renew the license for another year right? A license which they don’t want and which obviously isn’t profitable enough for them to justify keeping it alive.
      It would be nice for the fans i guess but it makes literally zero sense from a business point of view and hardly makes them a “deplorable publisher”.

    2. It might not be Archie flat out cancelling the comic, but rather Sega revoking the license from them.

  2. Doesn’t bother me any, I never liked the comics. It was too cluttered with made up characters, over dramatic romance conflicts, and repetition. It was just a big jumbled mess. I would have liked it better if it was more based on the video games, and less like the SATAM show. This comic series was just a big fan fiction… I apologize if anyone disagrees, this is just my opinion, if you like it, that’s fine.

      1. Yes I have, and I still don’t like them. While I admit they have improved, they still focus too much on characters who aren’t from the video games. The new story arcs aren’t too great either, why is Sonic still a freaking Werehog for instance?

        1. If you *actually* read them, you’d realise they were basically doing an Unleashed adaptation, and that’s why there’s the Werehog.

          1. I’m aware of that, but it already should have ended. Chip is gone, Dark Gaia is defeated, yet Sonic is still a Werehog… Plus, they were a little too late to adapt Sonic Unleashed.

        2. First you complain about “made-up” characters (i.e. stuff not from the games)… now you’re complaining about an arc/character adapted directly from the games? What is it you’d actually want?

          1. That’s the thing, we’ve already seen the werehog story in video game form, so retelling it in comic form is a bit annoying, not to mention how it’s overstayed it’s welcome. Dark Gaia has already been defeated, yet Sonic is still a freaking werehog…

        3. I respect your opinion, SpongicX.
          I mean, if you don’t like it, you don’t like it. 😛

          Although, the Werehog arc is over.
          And the main comics are looking to focus more on the game characters, right now.
          The Universe series seems to be currently focusing on the other introduced characters.

          I think that the extra characters also help keep stories we know, fresh. Including them means you have to go about retelling a certain way.
          I think it’s either a 0 or 1 scenario. Not all the time, though.
          But sometimes, it’s like, you either get the characters you know in the situations you know, or you get new characters and new situations. And I guess you have to choose what you’d rather. ^_^

      2. ROFL @SonicBlueRanger
        That comeback.
        “You clearly haven’t read any of this book post-Penders. Also I’m sorry but all characters are made up.”

    1. Agreed. The comic was never good. It should have ended after its first issues, but the popularity of the Sonic franchise kept it going despite its abysmal quality.

      1. The comics have changed a lot throughout the past 25 years. That area where it was just for advertisement is not a thing anymore

    2. Its a comic, they really had to create more characters to sustain the stories, the games history don’t have that many characters to sustain long story arcs, it would get repetitive very quick.

      I do agree that at the main cast from the games should be the focus though, most of the times it was the case in the comics but some others they went to the sidelines in favor of the satam cast, that’s an understandable issue for fans though personally I like most of the satam cast.

      1. The series has enough characters from the game to tell compelling stories. Just look at Sonic Boom for instance. That show focuses on 4 main characters from the games, 3 villains from the games, and has only one new main character on Sonic’s side. The show has managed to tell many fun and entertaining stories with a minimum of characters.

        1. The comic started in the early 90s. At the time Knuckles and Amy wasn’t even around yet. If they stuck to game characters only it’d be exclusively Sonic, Tails, and Eggman. Also I should point out I believe Amy abd Charmy originated from a short lived sonic manga. Also you’re off about Sonic Boom. There are new characters episodes focus on, the shows filled with villains and towns people and one off characters. It also is a situational comedy series so it doesn’t require what the comics would need to tell its stories. Even sonic boom made fun of itself potentially getting repetitive with a cast of 8 and limited backgrounds in its first season.

          1. Except in Sonic Boom, those other characters aren’t a focus, and are just background characters… Plus, the official version of Amy is completely different from the original manga version, which made her feel more like a fresh new character. The only thing the old Amy and official version of Amy have in common, is their name, and the fact that they’re female hedgehogs who are in love with the main character.

            I’m also not talking about how the comics were back than, I’m keeping in mind from how they’ve been over the years. I didn’t like them starting out, and I didn’t like them over the years. Just please stop talking about this, this is just my opinion, if you can’t accept someone else’s opinion, then too bad!

          2. Amy and Tails existed in the early 90s… Amy was introduced in 1993, when Sonic CD came out, and Tails was introduced in 1992, when Sonic 2 released.

          3. I just realized the comments don’t have reply so apologizes to the mods If that was do purposely or not I didn’t pick up on it.

        2. The point is something unofficial became official with Amy abd that Sonic Boom do want exist in a vaccume and still has entire episodes with new characters as costars. And again the comic started before 93 so at the time they hadn’t made Amy or knuckles they were added later and by then people already tool a liking to the Archie characters so they weren’t just going to ditch them for no reason. And I’m not attacking or insulting you, you posted this in a public place where people have discussions and people are disagreeing with you that’s all.

    3. If you actually read it through, you’d see Sonic was not still a Werehog after it was all over. Even if he was, so what? It helps him in his battles. Quit complaining. Also, you say you wish it was more like the games, but when they take on Sonic Unleashed, a main series game, you don’t like it. What? Because it’s old? News flash! It’s still a game in the main series. Not to mention a good fitting game to start off with, seeing as the world was in crisis. They’re not gonna just jump into whatever new game is out without context. I’d imagine from then on they would’ve made their way to Sonic Colors after some build up. That’s just the way it’d work. It’s not going to try and please the people who can’t make up their minds about what they want. They’re just gonna do they’re best with what they have.

    4. Lol he stopped being a werehog st the end of the arc.

      “I would have liked it better if it was more based on the video games, and less like the SATAM show. ”

      Got it, let’s do a game adaption!

      “That’s the thing, we’ve already seen the werehog story in video game form, so retelling it in comic form is a bit annoying”

      OK so no game adaption? ??

    5. I started reading the comics about a year or 2 ago….. I read 3 and said screw this. The comics are absolutly terrible everything you have said is true. Yeah you will find that ine comic that is kinda cool but there is just too much that suck.

    6. Same here. Been in the Sonic fandom for 10+ years but I never liked Archie for the exact same reasons you point out. If they’d been based more on the games, perhaps I’d been able to relate to the stories more.

  3. OH MY GAWSH! That’s surprising! I mean, i know it’s been going on FOREVER but the comics have been keeping Sonic alive and giving him real story. Which can’t be said for some of Sonic’s other media outlets.

  4. While this situation saddens me greatly as one who has read the comic for over 20 years, the article image made me laugh.

  5. Not sure how I feel about this. I haven’t been reading since… well, the reboot. So, it’s been a few years. But at one point I collected the comics like a fiend… had about 400 of them. Some of my favourite characters came from the comic. Scourge, Zonic, Holo-Lynx Nicole. At the same time, it was a hot mess. Even the characters and ideas I liked were poorly executed. Still, 24 years… the longest running video game comic currently in existence. Even if I don’t read/subscribe any more, I do feel quite sad about this, I think.

  6. No…now that I changed my mind about the comics, and I started to like em after the whole Penders shit…

  7. I grew up reading these comics. post-50 (just after killing robotnick). It was some of the most creative storytelling Sonic will ever get. Knuckles’ story was amazing, even the 25 years later stuff. It all went hey wire after the damn Penders lawsuit, and all for a mediocre game. I’ll never forgive him, because the comic has been trying to re-reboot itself a bunch since then. The brand new “Mega Drive/The Next Level” and even the new “Genesis of a hero” series’ have been fantastic though, and it’s a shame to think that just as they’re getting back on their feet, they might have to stop.

  8. On the plus side, if it is canceled, someone like IDW will likely scoop it up. Even if it’s likely to start from issue 1, it is better than not having it at all.

  9. It’d be really weird if they were cancelling the comics after THIS month’s issue, considering they’re still releasing solicitations for comics all the way up to 293.

  10. I really hope this ain’t true, I like the comics quite a lot and while the story arcs haven’t been all that great lately I really like the characterization quite a lot, moreso compared to the current state of the games.

    At least I hope Sega can release a new Sonic comic if the Archie Sonic comics get cancelled, that would probably mean the satam cast will have to go as well, and while I like most of those characters at the very least this could be an opportunity to focus on the game characters a little more.

    1. They actually did, recently – sure a “core” team from SatAM is still there, but after the reboot (due to all the legal trouble they’ve had) you can see game characters got a little more attention, and I like that direction.

      1. Yeah, I like that directiob too but it could always be better, some characters only appear in Sonic Universe for example and seldom interact with Sonic and the main plot, also characters like Blaze and Silver appear very rarely when they’re supposed to be part of the 10 – 15 main game characters.

        1. That’s because blaze and silver come from completely different worlds. Silver is even harder to logically add to a story. Blaze has to stay in her own world because she has a duty which she handles with much more care than others could ever do. She would only be allowed to stay with Sonic temporarily

  11. How come #290 would be the last one? I have it in my hands, my local comic shop placed orders for #294. Should we thank Mr Fulop for this?

  12. I think this just sucks. I love the comics. And as far as i see, you need to have other characters to make a whole universe of story. In SatAm season 2 they did have other freedom fighters revealed cause they were in other parts of the world. What makes the comics different from that? Hell they even have gone so far as to touch on a multiverse of characters with crossovers and other sega characters. Something youd never see in a sega game cause sega wont get the licensing for a game that big. ill be sad to see the comic leave if it does. Specially since i never got a chance to subscribe to the comic since the only comic shop in town closed recently.

  13. No! Sonic and Sonic Universe are the only comics I read, and they do a GREAT job of keeping the spirit of the games. I’d be sad to see them go.

  14. Wait. But #291 has already been solicited. Are they cancelling after the solicitation? I hope this rumor is untrue.

  15. Wow. Well. I was prepared for this mentally, ever since the Fullop case was unveiled, but the reason for cancellation might as well be Archie’s focus on their on characters what with the Riverdale TV series launching and all.
    Still, Archie owes the Sonic comic a great deal from back when they couldn’t get their own IP’s off the ground for a while. I also think the comic took a turn for the better ever since after they rebooted the whole thing (which I admittedly was quite apprehensive about, it was great to be proven wrong). Ian should get some credit for the amazing work he’s done – not to mention the artists, great things have certainly happened there.

    I’ll be sad to see the comic go, been a subscriber through a comic shop for almost 18 years now (although I complained a LOT through the end of Penders’ run, only started to enjoy the comic again after Ian took the reins). All things considered… Geez, it’s really the end of an era.

  16. Well, IDW could get everything from Archie. And being a larger and more internally stable publisher, we could have up to six main Sonic titles running at once, and even a crossover with the (2012) TMNT.

    1. Yes, IDW would be a great choice. You could have the normal comic, Universe, and Mega Drive, all running without any baggage. If I had to choose anyone to publish a Sonic coming it would be them.

    2. If IDW got everything, continued the reboot + keeps the FFs active then I’ll be happy and bury my current anger.

    3. If that’s the case I would definitely like to see Blaze the Cat spin-off as well as Shadow the Hedgehog. One goes into the middle Eastern adventures of an alternate world while the other one goes into militant action. Maybe a Chaotix on top of that for a comedy that parodies noir and mystery stories

  17. The comics had much more depth of characters and interesting situations opposed to the copy/paste game stories. I can only hope that they go with another publisher. This is awful.

  18. It’s kinda sad since the comic has really improved the last couple of years, with better art, better written characters, the redesign of the freedom fighters, better story, no more furryromance and melodrama, no more Sonic or Knuckles recolors, the reboot was a sort of blessing in disguise and it was really wonderful to see characters like Big being taken seriously and interacting with Nicole and Sally , it was nice to see Knuckles not being the bottom of the barrel Joke, and being taken serious, Was also nice to see how much more attention and good moments they gave to Amy Rose finally more attention. With the current state of the Sonic franchise, the current tone of the games just doesnt do it for me and Sonic Boom while cute in its design it’s tone, humor and character writing is too juvenile for me to enjoy. The Archie comics were the only thing that linked me to the Sonic franchise, but it was good run and if Ian Flyn is going to switch over to IDW instead with the current staff that be wonderful if they get to continue the Sonic stories just over there, Its ironic that despite all these years of bad furryromance, Bad art, SallyslapsSonic, Green Anti-Sonic, Many Hands, Ken Penders, never made Sega pull the plus but just when they got it, it ends lol.

    1. I’m with u! Let’s start a trend on twitter and all over social media #SaveSonicComics and make a petition! I can’t let the comics go like tht!

  19. Honestly, what kind of idiot would want to cancel a long-running video game based comic book series? Dinkleberg?!

  20. Commenting again* Sorry my last comment was a mess of grammar mistakes and repetitive- nes! I hope it didnt got approved, my apology.
    I should never try to type on my tablet again. Anyway I find it sad to know the comics will canceled, I really hope they wont, and that Ian Flyn will just switch to IDW. The reboot comics are my only enjoyment-Sonic-related for the past couple of years and they have really improved upon being the ”furrymelodramaromance” that people joked about back in 2000-2006. Really going to miss characters like Sally and Cove.

  21. this is soo unfair!!! The comics must continue who wants to do a petition!! I’m not giving up on Sonic comic!!!

  22. unpopular opinion but, i still prefered penders run. i find ian’s writing too boring and safe and the art aside from ABT was meh to me. spaz ,butler, mawhinney, and axer are still my gods.

  23. Not to mention that Ian Flynn, Tracey Yardley and Aleah Baker we’re the best at these comics inlcuding Matt Herms

  24. I’m not too sad about this. I mean, the whole thing was stumbling along since the lawsuit, so this is the only nice thing they could do. It’s like taking a suffering pet out back with a loaded VP-9 – horrible, but it’s the best you can do.

    …I probably sound like a horrible person for that.

  25. They shouldn’t end the comic on 290 though. The Genesis of a Hero storyline is supposed to finish in 291, and they’ve already given previews of 292 and 293.

  26. And since I can’t edit or alter my first post above, I checked Comixology and they still have 291 listed to come out next Wednesday, as well as still taking digital subscriptions. If 291 disappears then that would confirm it.

  27. Ah man that’s too bad. I guess the Freedom Fighters finally die off. Thanks a lot, Sega/Penders.

  28. If this is true this absolutely breaks my heart. I LOVE this series and the many wonderful people that work on it. I haven’t been a fan for nearly as long as some others but when I truly got into the comics, it was awesome. The comics gave people the kind of stories that SEGA or Sonic Team never could have and the art for these books (recent art at least) has been superb. I hope if anything they at least give the series to another company but still keep the people who work on the comic (i.e. Flynn, Yardley, etc.). Ugggggh. I just don’t want it to end!!

  29. Oh fuck no! God damn this whole stupid Penders legal bullshit! They couldn’t even make it to 300 before a bunch of mismanagement killed them off. The Shattered World Crisis was probably the last great thing I’m ever going to see from this series.

  30. While I’m still a bit skeptical about this supposed cancellation, the fact that a video game character was able to outlast pretty much every other comic book series outside of anything from Marvel and DC for 24 years is pretty freakin impressive. And even if you don’t like the Archie-verse, you could at least appreciate it for that.

  31. Publication is an expensive business to be in these days what with print being so obsolete. To keep a book going you need to maintain high sales.
    I haven’t been reading the Sonic comics for several years, but I’m aware of all the major events that have been happening within the comics and personally, it wouldn’t surprise me if people did get tired of it. Apparently constant abuse of this “Genesis Wave” deus ex machina has given writer Ian Flynn a cheap means of reworking the status quo of the comic whenever he gets bored or whenever SEGA releases a new game to incorporate into the comic’s continuity.
    You can’t expect people to be invested in a comic that’s constantly getting the rug pulled out from under itself. And Archie’s hardly the only comic publisher out there making such mistakes.

    1. He used the Genesis wave to reboot the comics after Archie basically said “fuck it you win penders”. So it was either start a new story or risk getting sued. From a legal perspective he had to play it safe and base the upcoming replacement arc on a game and he chose wisely as Sonic Unleashed is the most developed world we have in the franchise in general.

  32. I’m not suprised. After they pulled the DC style reboot due to the Penders lawsuit, there wasn’t anything interesting LEFT, so they’d just been doing crappy game adaptations that don’t fit in the comic universe, and constant Megaman crossovers.

    I read the comic for 20 years up until the huge retcon removed everything that made the comic worth reading.

    1. We’ve only done two game adaptations, one was done for world-building and the other one was done just for a light tournament Arc. That’s pretty much it.

  33. If this is actually true, someone at the Big S MUST make an effort to at least revive the characters.

  34. You may want to check the message boards, folks. SU95 seems to be delayed (by 2 weeks), not cancelled. Seems it ain’t dead yet!

  35. I really hope it aint True , ive been reading these comics since i was a kid , it would greatly upset me if they cancelled it after all these years , such good stories , such good action , please let it stay .

  36. They’ve already revealed the cover art for issue 293, why would they have done that if they plan on ending it at 290. Geez, what fear-mongering.

  37. I’ve been wanting to quit this series for a good while now, but I can never bring myself to do it because I’ve been buying since #136. It feels sad to stop but lately I feel it’s a waste of money.

    Can’t help but feel happy if it gets cancelled. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to at least reach issue 300.

  38. Those DeviantArt folk are gonna riot…

    Hope Penders has a darn good shelter hidden. If the comics wind up cancelled that dude does NOT want to be at anymore conventions. lol

  39. At least let the series get to #300. Give it a proper ending too. No more Eggman, no more Egg Bosses. The pre-SGW never got that far, thanks to that greedy asshole, but don’t give us another abrupt ending!

    At this point, it’s the FANS who own the comic continuation. We even have an online continuation in development. We even have the Archie. My biggest regret is that Pendickhole cost us Archive Vol. 25 and beyond. The only way to collect those stories now is to either have been collecting since 2000 or pay out the ass to an eBay seller (possibly the same scumbag). And what’s the status on LHT? Since there’s no more comic, there’s no harm in bringing that to light. Give the fan continuation some material to work with.

    Even though Sonic’s current relevance is in the form of Sonic Mania and Sonic Project 2017 (despite how little we know of them), this is still just too much, and 2014 Sonic just pushed me to my limit.

  40. Having subscriptions offline sounds a lot more plausible than a cancelation cuz if it was true then we would’ve probably had known about this months ago already. Plus it doesn’t seem to make sense to cancel it when they’re still in the middle of some filler type stuff anyway.

  41. Look people, get this fact right. It isn’t SEGA’s nor Ken Pender’s fault if the comic is cancelled. It’s YOURS. Archie would and will continue to produce the comic if it has the sales. If there aren’t enough sales to justify its print, then it gets cancelled. Sales are the one and only guiding factor. Archie has cancelled comics that have had higher sales than Sonic is currently getting. So why are sales off? Other comments in this thread might give you a clue: “It feels sad to stop but lately I feel it’s a waste of money,”; “I read the comic for 20 years up until the huge retcon removed everything that made the comic worth reading,”; “You can’t expect people to be invested in a comic that’s constantly getting the rug pulled out from under itself.”

    There were two major writers for the book, Karl Bollers and Ken Penders, who created stories you wanted to read giving the comic is greatest sales figures. Why? Because they concentrated on story and only created game adaptations when forced by SEGA (usually without any information about the game itself!) Once Ian started using the games as the backdrop to his story line, I knew the comic’s days were numbered, and frankly I’m surprised it lasted this long.

  42. this is a surprise. But makes sense seeing as it feels more like filler and no story arch in the comics at the moment.

  43. As much as I don’t like the comics, I’lol be sad to see them go.

    What I’m wishing for is another comic, but based off of the games. THAT I would read.

    1. That’s pretty much how the comics are right now. They follow the plot lines of the games in a manner that fits the medium. Archie Sonic currently just feels like the old Dreamcast Sonic we grew up with

  44. Even to Archie staff this came out of the blue. Everything from Diana Skelly’s comments to the solicitations strongly imply it was going to keep going.

    If I had to guess, SEGA pulled the plug due to dealing with not one, but two different lawsuits involving Archie.

  45. Relax, folks. The subscription page is only temporarily down. This a slight mixup on Archie’s end, not Sega’s. The comics haven’t been cancelled. Sega wouldn’t cancel a license that’s been advertising their mascot since 1992, and has been generating revenue since then.

    You can all breathe, now.

    1. Yes, but for how long? I mean, it’s not like it would end in the same way as Mega Man’s comic run did, with one of the major characters experiencing a flash-forward of would’ve-been covers of future adventures that would never run in the comics (adaptations of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, & Bass, 9, 10, Mega Man X, Mega Man Zero, and even the Legends series that never got a chance to shine), and a big farewell Off-Panel that ends up matching the Mega Man final Short Circuits in any way possible.

        1. Well, it’s not like it will come back when the new Man Of Action Mega Man series comes out.

  46. Ian Flynn has talked about making an issue 300 in the new universe. I can’t source it because I never thought I would be speaking about this, but Archie also just announced an issue 294 titled “Memories” and an issue 97 titled “Freedom Fighters Part three [of four]”. I know Archie has had some difficulties handling subscriptions in the past like not renewing subscriptions that use checks, but that is a separate division.

    They finally removed the Sonic subscription orders from their website.

    With all the work that goes into this, Ian Flynn has stated he wants to be the last writer for the comic. If he were to go on a hiatus after 300, that’s fine by me because he deserves a break. If this is really the end, then thank you for everything, Ian.

    I’ve been reading since 2005 and practically grew up with Ian’s style. He’s been writing for this series more than half of the comic’s lifespan. I’m glad we’ll be coming full-circle with a final issue.

  47. To my fellow Sonic fans. Its time that we rise from the depths and do something about the crisis on our hands. In order for things like this to continue, we, as fans, and lovers of our beloved hedgehog, must take action. We can no longer stand by and watch everything die. Everyone must set aside their differences, whether you love the romance, or characters or whatever you love, compared to people wop don’t love it. That wont matter in the end, when its gone. Sure, a new comic will possibly take up Sonic, but that is not for certain. We need to band together, combing our love for Sonic, and support our blue blur in any way possible. Whoever this Penders character may be, he will be sure sorry he messed with us. JOIN THE RESISTENCE.

    ~Dragon The Hedgehog

  48. Don’t even. Haters gonna Hate. We all know. And Haters should just suck it up. So do so.
    *Drops mic, and leaves*

  49. And who do you even think you are, Hogfather? and what kind of a name is Hogfather? Seriously? Is there some sort of background to that? Because I will just keep laughing back at you if not.

  50. Then why don’t you calm down, grow up, and let me use my right of freedom of speech??

  51. Finally that stupid Sonally comic series is ending! YES! Now no one has a reason why Sonic would love Sally!

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