At last, a graphic novel collecting several consecutive issues of the comic! If it sells well, Archie may finally present the entire series in graphic novel format.

Now, most of these early stories don’t actually deserve such professional treatment, but Sonic is a continuing story, and in my opinion, a continuing story loses some of its power if readers can’t read the early chapters as well as the latest…

Penciled & colored by Patrick Spaziante, inked by Nelson Ribeiro.

On a background inspired by the early video games, Sonic, Tails, Rotor, Uncle Chuck, Muttski, Antoine, and three versions of Sally pose, framed by a power ring, while Robotnik looms in the background in his hover-pod. Very well done. Almost worth the $11 cover price in itself.

Some sketches of Sonic, by Scott Shaw!.

Chairman and co-publisher: Michael I. Silberkleit. President and co-publisher: Richard H. Goldwater. Vice President and Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick. Vice President and Director of Circulation: Fred Mausser. Compilation Editor: Paul Castiglia. Editor: Nelson Ribeiro. Art Director: Joe Pep. Production Manager: Robbie O’Quinn. Production: Mike Pellerito, Carlos Antunes, and Paul d’Onofrio.

Nice touch. Here’s mine:

By Michael Gallagher.

A little bit of behind-the-scenes info about the creation of the mini-series. Very interesting. It appears Mike didn’t have a heck of a lot to go on—he hadn’t even played the game(s)! The show of course, was still under construction, and it sounds like they only gave him the barest descriptions of the characters—this would explain why the characters were so out-of-character from the show early on, and why at first Ant’s accent was missing.

"Premiere Issue!!!" "This is it- Sonic™ leaps out of your SEGA video game system into his very own comic book!" …The Sega inspired saga begins! J

Penciled by Scott Shaw!.

Sonic and Robotnik, both in their original game models, race out of a TV screen, into the Green Hill Zone.

The coloring leaves something to be desired, but the art is appropriate considering that this was before the shows had came out. Still looks a bit odd retrospectively, though.

Story by Michael Gallagher; pencils by Scott Shaw!; inks by Jorge Pacheco; colors by Barry Grossman; lettering by Dan Nakrosis; edited by Daryl Edelman.

The very first Sonic story—an introduction to Sonic’s world as envisioned for an American audience, and to the style of storytelling that the comic would feature for the next two years or so.

We begin with a short introductory paragraph—yes, they did that way back when, too. You’ll notice, however, what it says is a bit different… it also leads up to Sonic’s logo; incorporating it into the story somehow was another tradition started in this issue, a tradition thankfully no longer adhered to religiously.

The first page also has mug shots of the five Freedom Fighters of the day, as well as ‘Butnik and four badnicks. Of note: "Boomer", and an orange & blonde Sally…

And so, the story begins… Sonic busts up Caterkiller, then heads back to Knothole, breaking the fourth wall while he’s at it. A clumsy introduction to the Freedom Fighters is followed by the discovery that Knothole (or rather, the caves used as FF headquarters early on) has a leaky roof. Investigating this, the FF discover that the forest near Knothole has been bulldozed, resulting in a stand of Weeping Willow trees… er… weeping. (Hey, don’t blame me! It’s Gallagher’s bad pun, not mine!)

The FF are then attacked by Robotnik, and to combat him, Sonic runs to the old well and retrieves the power ring they left there back in "Zoneward Bound" (Super Special 9: Sonic Kids 2; and yes, I know that hadn’t been published yet at this point). Sonic then uses that ring in a bizarre way never seen since, and Robotnik retreats. All in a day’s work for Sonic and the Freedom Fighters, of course.

The art in this story was adequate. Scott Shaw!’s work has a certain style to it, one that I initially didn’t appreciate. However, now… well, anyone’s better than Ron Lim! (Yes, I’m a Lim basher. Got a problem with that?)

The coloring is minimalistic, but also serves its purpose.

By Gallagher/Shaw!/Pacheco.

A bad pun results in a surprisingly emotional scene.

By Gallagher/Shaw!/Pacheco.

Now pay attention, class! There’ll be a test on this.

By Gallagher/Shaw!/Pacheco.

Caterkiller! Ball Hog! Jaws [piranha bot]! Burrobot! Moto Bug! Orbinaut! Splats! Bat Brain! Crabmeat! And the ever-present Swatbots! Together, they form the evil army known as… "The BADNIKS!"

Written by Michael Gallagher, penciled by Scott Shaw!, inked by Bill White, lettered by Dan Nakrosis, colored by Barry Grossman.

The setting: Mobotropolis, 10 years ago (not that you can tell by the art).

Sonic, the super-fast delivery-boy for "Chuck’s Chili Dogs", returns from giving his new sneakers a test run (pun intended).

Uncle Chuck gets an order, and Sonic runs off to deliver it. But meanwhile, unnoticed by them, a Buzzbomber is nailing a sign to a wall, listing some new laws put into effect by the city’s new head of state, Dr. Robotnik…

Soon after, Chuck is arrested for smiling. Meanwhile, the chilidog order turns out to be a trap (or perhaps a prank) as a Mobian sized Cluck drops a checker-ball upon Sonic. Luckily, Sonic is not easily swatted.

Sonic returns to the chilidog stand, to find the place being demolished by some Swatbots. Sonic quickly trashes the bots, and head’s for Robotnik’s factory to rescue his Uncle. He is joined in this by Princess Sally, whom he does not recognize (perhaps because she’s orange and blonde…).

They’re too late, though—Uncle Chuck and many others have already been roboticized (you can tell because their eyes are all swirly).

Sonic creates a tornado to deal with another batch of Swatbots, and he and Sally retreat, with Sally directing him into the Great Forest, where her rebel group awaits in Knothole Village…

And so, a legend is born. Never mind that this is almost completely inconsistent with all later versions of Sonic’s origin… Or that some parts of the story simply don’t make sense. (Why did Robotnik order two hundred chilidogs? And why did Cluck waste them all to squash Sonic, who was just a speedy delivery-boy at this point?)

Oh, this story also reveals Sonic’s middle name, Maurice.

By Gallagher/Shaw!/Pacheco.

Diagram of a well-designed running shoe.

When I first received this issue, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I knew the early issues had been humorous, and that they had colored Sally pink with black hair, but I wasn’t prepared for this! An orange and blonde Sally drawn in a completely different style?! Stories not only humorous, but absurd?! A back-story completely inconsistent with SatAM, upon which I had assumed the series was based?! What the heck?!…!!!

As I read the issue, I began to wonder if the money I had spent on this and the other back-issues I had bought this day was worth it. Individually, they didn’t cost all that much, but put together, it was a good 10-15 bucks, which wasn’t insignificant for a kid without a steady allowance…

Now, however, I find these early issues hold a certain charm. They weren’t very spectacular, but as they never tried anything too ambitious, they usually managed to pull the stories off well enough. Of course they didn’t even manage that much in this issue, but, well, it was a start!

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Fast First Issue!!!

Sonic carrying Sally away from a menacing Robotnik. By Scott Shaw!.

Written by Michael Gallagher, penciled by Scott Shaw!, inked by Bill White, lettered by Dan Nakrosis, colored by Barry Grossman, edited by Daryl Edelman; Editor-in-Chief: Richard Goldwater.

We start with another introductory blurb. It’s different from the one used in issue 0, but doesn’t seem to be tailor-made for this story, as it starts out "This is the city—Mobotropolis!", but the story starts in the Great Forest.

The forest is looking a bit odd—there’s a paved path, and several trees have gold rings around them…

Sonic runs across Sally, who now has black hair and pink fur. They get into an argument and Sonic heads back to Knothole to take out his frustrations on Antoine. However, at Knothole, Antoine shows Sonic a letter from Sally telling them she’s going to Robotropolis for a meeting with Robotnik, and they are not to interfere. Sonic and Antoine won’t hear of it, and head out to rescue her, accompanied by Tails.

As Sonic and Ant suspected, Robotnik double-crosses Sally, and prepares to throw her in the roboticizer. Just then, Sonic, Ant, and Tails show up, fight off Robotnik and his bots, and rescue Sally.

Sally isn’t too pleased to be rescued, though. She had expected to be thrown in the roboticizer-- it was part of her plan. She and Rotor had built special boots for her that would analyze the machine, giving them the info they needed to construct a de-roboticizer.

…A fine little tale, with a neat surprise ending. (I do wonder, though, whether the boots were going to prevent roboticization, as well. If so, why did they never use this technology again? If not, how were they going to get the boots from "Mecha Sally"?)

By Gallagher, Shaw!, and White

Sonic complains that his speed makes it too easy for him to play baseball.

By Gallagher, Shaw!, and White.

The Freedom Fighters versus Robotnik and his Badniks, with Muttski in the middle. Of far more interest, though, is the first appearance of Bunnie. As is turns out, she went through an even more dramatic change than Sally from the early designs to the final version. Here, she’s pale yellow, only her right arm and head are still flesh-and-blood, and her mechanical parts are colored yellow, pink, and maroon!

Written by Michael Gallagher, penciled by Scott Shaw!, inked by Bill White, lettered by Dan Nakrosis, and colored by Barry Grossman.

Sonic is out fishing, when he catches a big one—Jaws the Piranha Bot! Sonic chases the bot into an underwater cave, but it’s a trap. He’s captured, and about to be roboticized, when Tails and Rotor (worried by Sonic’s absence), show up in Rotor’s bathysphere, and together they trash the bot and the roboticizer.

By Gallagher, Shaw!, and White.

Rotor shows us some of the slower Mobians…

By Gallagher, Shaw!, and White.

Sonic plays tennis with himself.

By Gallagher, Shaw!, and White.

Sonic’s childhood photo-album.

A picture of the next issue's cover, at almost pin-up size.

A nice improvement on issue zero—although still humor based, the stories actually make sense. Other than that, there’s really not all that much to say.

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Cover

By Scott Shaw!.

Sonic racing away from a missile. Some nice shading effects—wonder who did the colors…?

Written by Michael Gallagher, penciled by Scott Shaw!, inked by Bill White, lettered by Dan Nakrosis, colored by Barry Grossman & Nanci Tsetsekas, edited by Daryl Edelman. Editor in chief: Richard Goldwater (as always).

We start with another introductory passage, once again different from previous issues.

Sonic races into the "throne room" (not that it looks like one) to chat with Princess Sally about why she changed her hair from blonde to brunette between issues 0 and 1… But Sally would rather talk about her father’s crown, upon which rest the four Freedom Emeralds (must be Chaos Emeralds) which keep Robotnik at bay.

Unfortunately, the crown has been stolen! They quickly discover there’s a traitor in their midst—an android pig posing as a royal guardsman (must be an early version of the Auto-Automaton…). Sonic short-circuits the bad-guy, then heads out with Antoine to recover the Freedom Emeralds. (They’ll have to worry about the fact that the android revealed Knothole’s location to Robotnik later.)

Sonic destroys Robotnik’s aerial forces, retrieving the first emerald and giving it to Ant to return.

Then, we cut away to…

No credits, but the penciling must be Shaw!’s.

Let us examine the reasons one by one, shall we?

"#10. The Sonic Comic requires no batteries!"

Er, haven’t heard of any comics that do, but still that is an advantage of comics…

"#9. The Sonic comic addresses the environment!"

True, true.

"#8. Sonic the Hedgehog is blue, so he matches most of your wardrobe!"

I love blue.

"#7. The Sonic comic has no villains who are mutants! … ‘Don’t be too sure!’ Snikt! Snikt! "

lol. I love that one.

"#6. Nor does this title rely on guest stars to help boost sales!"

Give it time, my friends, give it time.

"#5. The Sonic comic has a foxy female lead character who wears an unusual two-piece outfit… boots!"

Gotta love it! J

"#4. The Sonic comic isn’t’ pre-bagged with a die-cut gold foil cover and hologram trading card!"

No comment.

"#3. The Sonic comic contains absolutely no cholesterol!"

Unless you count Robotnik…

"#2. Sonic’s adventures are soon to be a major motion picture starring Michael J Fox!"

Uh, I don’t think they were serious about that one…

"#1. Sonic the Hedgehog won’t be ‘dying’ anytime soon! (But you should still buy multiple copies!)"

Yeah, he didn’t "die" until issue 20!

…Well then, getting back to our regularly scheduled story…

Sonic heads underwater, accompanied by Tails, in search of the second emerald. They are attacked by Jaws, but make it into the cave the roboticizer was hidden in last issue. This time, one of the emeralds is there.

Leaving the cave, they’re attacked by Jaws again… but Jaws crashes into a cliff, where Tails has drawn pictures of Sonic and himself. Jaws comments, "I should’ve noticed they only had four fingers…" …But really, that’s an honest mistake, considering that this is the first issue where they have five fingers!

Sonic gives Tails the emerald, and grabs an another one from a Swatbot pretending to be malfunctioning. But it’s a trap—Sonic is dumped into a cave where he faces a Burrobot, who has the last emerald.

Sonic trashes the bot, grabs the emerald, and heads back to Knothole, where they have recovered the crown and reattached the first two emeralds. They attach the second two emeralds, and crown Sally Queen of Mobius!

Meanwhile, Robotnik rants and raves about how little we saw him in this story…

Whew! Our first issue-length story, and it’s a doozy! Too bad it’s non-continuity, considering that Robotnik found the location of Knothole, and we never saw this particular crown again...

By Gallagher, Shaw!, and White.

Sonic expounds on the many uses of his spines.

By Gallagher, Shaw!, and White.

The FF take a photo of themselves.

That’s right, folks—the letters page has been known as "Sonic-Grams" from the beginning!

Just under and to the right of the title, an x-ray machine shows us that Sonic has eaten a letter… odd.

There’s also a picture of Daryl, the editor, lying in a hammock between two palm trees. He welcomes us to the comic, mentions the "upcoming" TV show, and encourages us to subscribe...

Then it’s on to the letters. All praise issue 0 and the games.

A noble attempt, which is largely successful, if you can enjoy it as a humorous story rather than an adventure.

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Editor in Chief: Richard Goldwater, Editor: Daryl Edelman.

By Scott Shaw!. Sonic runs through one of the loops from the games.

Written by Michael Gallagher, penciled by Dave Manak, inked by Bill White, lettered by Bill Yoshida, colored by Lyrad Namlede.

Sonic is chased off a cliff by a herd of crabmeats, and is knocked unconscious. He then dreams that he and Robotnik grew up together…

Uncle chuck has just finished designing his Power Rings, when Sonic comes in complaining that Robotnik was being mean to him. Uncle Chuck tells him to give the bald little boy some leeway, as he comes from a broken home. But then, when Chuck goes to put the tractor away, it goes out of control thanks to "Robby" having stolen some parts from it to build robotic toys… The tractor hits Robby, then crashes into the barn, injuring Chuck as well.

Sonic hears the commotion, and comes out to see the disaster. Desperate to get them to the hospital, Sonic uses the first Power Ring to give him the extra juice to pull the job off.

When they’re healed, and back at the farm, Robby builds a giant robot from household appliances, to get revenge on Chuck. But Sonic trashes it, forcing Robby to flee…

Back on the real Mobius, Sonic wakes up, just in time to avoid a blast from Robotnik’s hover-pod, and the fight continues…

…Another pointless, yet amusing tale. Dave Manak’s art is adequate, but lacks any special style… or perhaps I simply consider him the standard, by which to judge all other early Sonic artists…

Written by Michael Gallagher, penciled by Dave Manak, inked by Bill White, lettered by Bill Yoshida, colored by Lyrad Namlede.

Rotor—er, I mean, Boomer—whips up a pair of red, swirly contact lenses, and a clip-on metal jaw, which at this point in the series, is more than enough to impersonate a robot. In fact, as Uncle Chuck still only has the red, swirly eyes, it could even be considered overkill…

Sonic puts on the costume, and heads to Robotropolis, where he tells Robotnik he fell in a hidden roboticizer, and is now Robotnik’s slave. Robotnik buys the story, and sends him to deal with a problem at a nearby factory. It was the Freedom Fighters who tripped the alarm, and Sonic tells them to head back to Knothole while he blows up the factory. But there’s a problem—this is where Uncle Chuck and Muttski work…

Unwilling to sacrifice his loved ones, Sonic heads back to Robotnik’s lab, and tells him he dealt with the problem. Pleased, Robotnik tells Sonic to enter the coordinates of Knothole into the computer, so Robotnik can fire his missiles at the village. But, Sonic enters in the coordinates for a Buzzbomber factory instead, resulting in said factory’s destruction.

His cover blown, Sonic ditches the costume and heads back to Knothole.

Another amusing little tale… It made good use of the artistic conventions of the time (imagine trying to do this story with the later, mechanical looking Robians!).

It’s interesting that Sonic couldn’t destroy the factory with Uncle Chuck in it, but had no qualms about destroying Robotnik’s largest factory—sure to have many more robotic slaves in it than the "Crab Compound"… This inadvertently touches on a moral issue neither the show nor the comic really addressed—how can the Freedom Fighters cause effective damage to Robotnik’s empire without inflicting "collateral damage" upon his Robian slaves? And when they do destroy a Robian (which they must do on occasion, if only by accident), how do they deal with the guilt of killing an innocent?

In the comic, it would seem that, although killing Robians is undesirable, if it does happen, it’s not that big of a deal. I say this not only because of this issue, but also issue 42, where Sonic demolished Fly Fly Freddy without a second thought. Although Sonic indicated they would try to repair Freddy, and return his free-will, he was never seen again. On a similar note, Sonic had no problem killing Heavy and Bomb in issue 102, even though they were once free-willed robots that chose the side of good…

On the other hand, in issue 91, Sonic refused to fight the Robians Robotnik sent against him… But then, Uncle Chuck was among them, so this could still be a matter of using one’s own judgement…

"Announcing an historical milestone for world civilization!"

Well said! ;)

…A full page ad for Sonic the Hedgehog issue #1 (regular series).

Not bad, but nothing special, either. Perhaps they should have numbered issue zero "#1", and made it a 3 issue mini-series. Then, the full issue "A Crowning Achievement" could have been the climax of the mini-series. This would have also allowed the 3 issues drawn by Shaw! to stand on their own, without an issue of Manak.

This issue would even make a slightly better "#1" than the actual first issue of the regular series, as this has "Sonic Flashback", which is sort of an origin story, even if it’s now known not to have happened…

But, it isn’t that big of a deal, as there wasn’t really any pause between the mini and regular series…

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Even though they didn’t give Sally her natural colors this time, they still messed around with the colors a little. Some of the background colors seem softer, and in issue zero, they colored Sally brown instead of the original orange. In the rest of the issues, they colored her pink, as she was in the originals, but they used the wrong shade… Also, Rotor is called by his true name, even though in the original he was called "Boomer" at this point…

It was also a little disappointing they left out the pin-up pages. Some of them were pretty funny.

More sketches of Sonic by Shaw!.

Same background as on front, with introductory text instead of a group portrait.

What can I say? I’ve been waiting for them to do this for a long time. Now here’s hoping they keep it up!

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