After six months without any release and and vast amounts of speculation of it’s fate, SEGA of America have finally announced that it is ending their partnership with Archie Comics, effectively cancelling it. The tweet sent out by the official Sonic the Hedgehog account is below;
An important update from SEGA regarding Sonic comics: pic.twitter.com/qy9BKkmIvA
— Sonic the Hedgehog (@sonic_hedgehog) July 19, 2017
As the tweet also says, this doesn’t mean that SEGA won’t foray into comics in the future. But it is the end of an era, and what a legacy it left;
- 290 regular issues of the main comic.
- Four serial spin-off comics.
- Over 500 issues combined.
- Several crossovers with other franchises.
- Dozens of beloved characters, stories and places that will always stick with the fans.
We are sure many fans, including ourselves are sad to see this chapter of Hedgehog history come to an end. We will keep on top of any future updates on what SEGA does in the comic industry next.
Source: Sonic the Hedgehog (Twitter)
Can we get a new, better Sonic comic series in return? Please, Sega?
No way thats stupid ridiculous impossible sonic would never die in front in sally
I’ve been collecting the comics since childhood. That panel with the dead sonic was actually from one of the first few comics printed. It was talking about how Sonic won’t ever die, and posted that picture as a “this won’t happen” scenario along with a few others. That didn’t actually happen in the comics.
All good things must come to an end, sadly. I’m going to miss the comic.
My first experience of Archie Sonic was in 2004 and for 13 years and many issues/back issues/spin offs later all I can say is thank you SEGA & Archie for 24 years with many great stories/characters etc and having every SEGA sonic character appear in the comic.
Now we must hold together and something will come along soon.
this is wrong, its so wrong. This was literally the best universe SEGA had and its gone now. You know the new series will just be a carbon copy of the games, you know there DO NOT list.
That just means something new is happening. We’ll get to see great NEW characters and stories as well.
This is terrible. I really liked the comics.
And with that, my dream job dies too. Sure, they’re still going to make new comics… but what’re the odds of SEGA of America hiring an autistic Australian high-school drop-out as a writer?
0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% chance
Hey…I wanna say you’re not alone. I share your pain.
In fact, just as I heard this news, i was polishing my portfolio so I can send it to Archie, in the foolish hope that they would announce a final run with the publisher.
Every comic book artist wants to be the next Jim Lee or the next Alex Ross, but for me, I wanted to be the next Patrick Spaziante, the next Jon Gray, the next Tracey Yardley or as good as Diane Skelly. To say that I was part of something the drove me to draw in the first place.
But now that will never happen. Even if SEGA did another Sonic comic under another publisher, without Sally and the others, without the legacy that established…if it’s just going to be an attempt at a MEGADRIVE ongoing (ironically, without finishing the original trilogy) – what’s the point?
Normally, i’m a dick to people on this board and right now, a part of me feels like tearing the asshole of every little faggot who is celebrating this news. But I know better.
No anger. Let us know mourn the passing of dreams.
And there goes the biggest reason I still stuck with Sonic for so long. Now a huge gaping void will be left in it’s place.
I really hope SEGA and Sonic Team manage to make up for this. Maybe even incorporating some of the comic’s elements into the games. Or it’s characters and locations. The new soft-reboot brought it so in-line with the games, it’d be crazy to just drop them completely, what with what they bring to Sonic.
With the reception Sonics game universe friends get, I doubt we’ll see these characters for a while.
A sad day for us all. 🙁
And with that,a part of my childhood drifts away. What really upsets me the most is that we’ll likely loose the comic book Freedom Fighters. Although I hope in the new series they’ll bring back Sally and the others,I highly doubt they will. This is a very sad day.
I doubt it as well, as Sega will basically leave them to rot in their vault and tell whoever gets the rights (like IDW) that they are forbidden, only use game characters and any characters they make.
If they DO use IDW as a publisher, they could always cross it over with My Little Pony to give Fluttershy a reason to FlutterRage on Dr. Eggman for using her critters as power for his Badniks.
But I doubt that it would be any better. Maybe SEGA should just do what Nintendo does for the Legend of Zelda; let a japanese publisher create new Manga Adaptations of Legacy Sonic Games like Sonic Adventure 1, 2, Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog, and have Viz publish the English versions. I mean, The Legend of Zelda proved to us that it’s not too late for a manga adaptation of a game. Sonic should follow suit.
Although it’s unlikely, I’d like to see a new series byte Marvel. Sega did work Mon the some of videogame adaptations for the Mcu movies.
The one bright spot in all this for me is that that hilarious crossover could actually be a reality… Not that it’s likely, still, as it would require Hasbro and Sega to agree to it.
if they are making something different with Archie Sonic please don’t tell me someone like Ken Pontac is going to be writing them.
I’d take Pontac over Penders…
ehh true but still
I got into the Archie series with Issue 13, the adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
I dropped off around issue 100 but…alas.
Well, I guess the 20 years later mini series will have to be sufficient proof that sonic and Sally ended up together at the story’s end
As much as I respect Sega’s right to make changes with their licensed characters, I wish they would have at least let Archie comics wrap up their final stories. My daughter has followed these comics for many years, and is incredibly disappointed that she’ll never get to read the final issues that would have wrapped up current storylines. Very disappointing.
Dangit, TSS, I’m trying to be sad about the comic I’ve read for almost 25 years ending, and you make me bust out laughing with that image. XD
Seriously, though, I grew up with the comic. The comic inspired me to pursue a career as a writer. It’s made me a better person. I have amazing memories with it. I really, really hope another publisher picks it up so I can continue having the joy of getting a new Sonic comic in my mailbox every month as I did as a child.
So much for Sonic’s 25th anniversary.
F**king finally! Hey, don’t get me wrong I am upset that the comic is gone too, but at least this “in talks” crap is finally over. Our only hope now is that a new publisher will pick up the franchise and that Ian and some of the other former writers/artists will be allowed to work on it.
I don’t think Ian and co would be working on them, they were hired as Archie staff from what I remember.
I believe Ian and Co only worked for Archie under Action Comics which they are no longer making so I don’t believe they’re with Archie anymore.
It’s possible for them to write on the new comic however this would mean the new publication would have had to hire them.
Dammit why did this have to happen?…I really wanted them to continue but well if this is what they I guess it’s for the best thanks for all the fun stories
Never got or read the comics really. I saw a few pages on mega collection plus back in 2005 but didn’t really follow them otherwise. Nevertheless, this is pretty sad, longest running game comic and doesn’t get It’s last issues or permission to continue. I know they mean a lot to many fans so I feel bad for those guys not to mention the people that have worked tirelessly on the comics to give us this stories. All is not list but it It’s as they say the end of an era. Hoping for the best in terms of any future comic work.
I need a moment to laugh in triumph, I really do.
Finally, the comic that spawned Ken Penders is finished for good, YES!
The very comic that took Sonic the Hedgehog and made him either a jerkass skirt chaster or the button monkey of an abusive relationship in which he was always treated as the villain is finished, YES!
Hopefully, something new and better will rise from the ashes of this comic.
It stings more as it was just 10 issues away from being 300, this suck I am sorry bad PR all over though I blame mostly sega of america for it, all this waiting Archie could of been wrap it up already
finally the SatAM characters can die off for good
Why are you even here?
someone has to act as a shit stain to the universe.
Unfortunately, the universe has one too many shit stains.
Oh STFU!
I’m not really surprised, I’ve been following these comics for years and honestly it got to a point it was getting stale, nothing evolved, even when you thought it would it just went back to normal afterwards. The Unleashed arc was pretty boring cause we knew where it was going, besides Unleashed is 10 years old next year.
It is sad if this is the end of Sally and co. Archie had a great cast of characters and interesting world. lets hope they bring it back a new but in a more interesting approach and avoid being stale and actually take the characters forward.
I collected these issues on every Thursday it was out, so it seems like a full circle to get news about it ending on a Thursday.
Inevitable. I’m not a fan of the comics, would have been nice for the fans though if they’d been allowed 10 issues to ‘wrap up’ and finish at 300 but in all honesty I didn’t see that ever happening.
Onwards and upwards, hopefully there will be another Sonic comic in the future. Please don’t bring the Freedom Fighters into the games in the meantime though, the game cast is already bloated enough as it is.
There goes the only outlet I had for seeing my fav characters actually be used.
Doubt we’ll ever see someone like Nack, Bean or Bark in the games when they would rather let people use their own shitty fan character in the game rather than established cast, and only Sonic has been playable in years. Say goodbye to any of the SatAM freedom fighter cast too. Get ready for more “quality” writing like the minimalist borefest that has been the plot/writing for every game since colours, even the short less than an hour LEGO Dimensions Sonic pack managed to be more Sonic Generations than Sonic Generations was.
Unless they manage to give this to people who actually know what to do with comics I don’t expect this to be any better than recent games. Been collecting since like the #20 issues, pretty sad news we all knew was coming, but still.
Time to start a petition to have it uncancelled
Here my petition to revive the comic: https://www.change.org/p/sega-revive-the-sonic-the-hedgehog-comic-book-series
even though i have little faith, i love you for this.
This won’t help much I am afraid without money =(
I’m pretty saddened by this, as I was an avid collector. I have every single issue of the main series including all variants, all mini series, specials, spin-off series, graphic novels, and even the more obscure things like the 1/4th issue and the complete run of the Comic shop news issues that had the Turnabout Heroes story.
I will miss the comic. The stuff Ian did from around #175 all the way up to the reboot was amazing. It sucked when they were forced to get rid of 20+ years of characters thanks to the douchebag Ken Penders. I think that dumb lawsuit was ultimately what led to the cancellation. Hopefully some company like IDW will get the license, even if it won’t be the same.
IDW has been announced as the new publisher of the Sonic comics coming in 2018. Man, you were right on the nose there.
https://twitter.com/IDWPublishing/status/888536084472352770
Somewhere, Ken Penders is laughing his ass off.
As long as the satAM Characters are carried over I’ll be happy.
This is pretty sad news.. but maybe now I’ll be able to stand a chance at managing some time to catch up completely with all of the series (really hard to find the time to sit down and try and keep up with it), including reading Sonic the Comic! Also, what a great run – longest ever running comic based on a video game franchise. I really liked the art style of Spaz and in those Super Special issues but I don’t care for a lot of the art styles in the more recent years (Penders, I think). Sorry to see it end but “All good things…”
Also, that last page is hilariously fitting.
Argh. Sad news.
Thank goodness, these comics were cluttered with nonsense and to be perfectly honest nothing was worth reading unironically (except maybe Megadrive, and the Sonic/MegaMan cross overs if you really really liked those two franchises.). I would love to see a Sonic Comic Series created by another group of people, but to be perfectly honest I don’t know which group to pick : / Marvel would be an awful choice as of right now, and I don’t know how DC would handle the plot as I don’t follow it as closely. Overall I just want to see SEGA focus more on fixing the lore of the current Sonic Games which as of right now pretty much doesn’t exist, the only thing set in stone is that Sonic fights Eggman and they make funny references because they can’t think of anything original!
What’s going to happen to the sonic comic app. It’s no longer being supported and it says it won’t work with future iPad updates. Does this mean soon we will no longer be able read our downloaded sonic comics that we spent our hard earned money on?
You should be able to access your sonic comics through the (New) Archie comics app
Aw man. It looks like we’ll never see the SatAm characters or their story lines ever again. But I’m not that upset tho. Like the fact that Sonic survived 24 years as a comic book character is impressive unto itself.
So, what will happen to Megadrive ?
Alright look, I’m not the biggest fan of the Archie comics nor their characters but they REALLY couldn’t give them a final issue? They HAD to end on a regular issue? Once again, I’m no fan of the characters but they really do mean a lot to people and for them just to….vanish like that is somewhat disrespectful. I wont miss them but an entire generation of kids growing up on them who are now adults still following it as well as the young kids who are just now getting to know them just seeing them go like that? It’s kinda messed up.
Nevertheless, I await the announcement of the new publishers. If it’s IDW, well…be prepared for the inevitable MLP crossover, cause you know damn well that’s gonna be a thing.
And it’ll sell lots of copies, too.
I don’t have much experience with the comics. The first issues I ever read were sold for free on the Sonic Comic app. Before they removed it. My first and only physical comic copy is number 25 in the main comic series. I wish I had more comics…
Obviously, at some point we all knew it would end, the sad part is that is didn’t get the ending it needed. I think fans at least deserved a closure with this Universe and the last issue of the MegaDrive series. Just dropping like this is bad. Back in the day, when they realized they were at the end of the line, the STC cast managed to go down with a bang! Now I’ll always wonder what would have happened in that new beginning of sort that was supposed to be issue n. 292 and how epic Overdrive might have been 🙁
That’s not Sonic! His arm is blue!!
I’ll miss the Archie Sonic Comic series, too….???