Back by popular demand, it’s Sonic Kids!

Editor-in-chief: Richard Goldwater, Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick, Editor/Art Director: J.F. Gabrie, lettered by Vickie Williams, color separations by Joshua D and Aimee R Ray.

Group shot of the young FF, plus Knuckles. By the usual team-- Spaz, Harvo, & JD Ray.

Not bad. Those huge blue eyes make Sal look really cute.

A pic of young Sonic, colored crayon style, as with the Tails pic in the first Sonic Kids.

Is it still called that when it isn’t on the first page? Anyways…

Sonic looking at a photo album. By Spaz and Harvo; quite well done.

Written by Michael Gallagher, penciled by Sam Maxwell, inked by Harvey Mercadoocasio, colored by Joshua D. and Aimee R. Ray.

Sonic and the other kids are playing in the snow, when they discover a golden ring—the first Magic/Power Ring they’ve encountered. It sends them all into different zones.

Sally rides a roller coaster, then has a premonition about her father. (Very dramatic, that.)

Tails, Ant, and Boomer (who wants to be called Rotor, but won’t get his wish until they’re a bit older), trade body-parts like Mr. Potato Head or a Lego-man, while being observed by the disembodied masks of the Ancient Walkers. (That’s a good look for them.)

And Sonic finds himself in a game-style zone, under construction, which reminds him of his adventure with Mighty and Ray. He races through it, and fights Robotnik. Unfortunately, this introduces a major continuity glitch. Sonic seemed quite familiar with Robotnik in "Stop… Sonic Time" (SSS5), in which Tails received his shoes, which he wears in this issue. Furthermore, Sonic also battled ‘Butnik in the "Arcade Game" story referred to here (the Mighty trilogy, in Knux 26-28)… And yet, when Sonic first meets ‘Butnik in this story, Sonic recognizes him as Julian, not Robotnik!

Sonic beats the "big round guy" easily, the FF all arrive back in the Great Forest, and Sonic tosses the ring in the well, for easy access in "Don’t Cry for Me, Mobius" (issue 0).

Other than that continuity glitch (which WOULD have made a good first meeting with ‘Butnik), the story was pretty well written. The characters acted like the kids they were, and the story was interesting enough.

The art was amazingly good. The kids’ proportions are suitably "chibi"—though this unfortunately contrasts with the nearly teen look they had in "Stop… Sonic Time". The snow has an amazingly real look to it, and everything has a nice level of detail. What a ways Sam Maxwell has came since "Battle Royal" and Sonic 49-51!

Off panel by Gallagher and Manak: J.F. walks in on a showering Pam Eklund, and gets beat up for it. Sound like something from an anime! Of course, if it had been in an anime, in the non-edited version we’d have actually SEEN Pam… but then, Archie is the sort of company that would edit anime…

Pro-Art by Sam Maxwell. This picture could definitely use a bit of color. It took forever to decipher the picture. Of course, it’s one of those things that once you get it, it seems obvious, and now I can appreciate the picture for its fine art.

Written by Michael Gallagher, penciled by Manny Galan, inked by Jim Amash, and colored by Joshua D and Aimee R Ray.

The story alluded to time after time in earlier issues…

Sally and her father head for the Floating Island for some R & R, and Sally befriends Knux.

Some of Sal and Knux’ dialog sounds a bit mature for their age, but otherwise well written. Lots of nice references to other relevant stories…

The art is a wonder to behold. Manny’s art is as good as ever, and unlike some of his work, the characters are perfectly on model (although Dan Drazen would point out that Galan still isn’t drawing Julayla the way she originally looked). The coloring is also exceptional.

Written by Michael Gallagher, penciled by Art Mawhinney, inked by Rich Koslowski, colored by Barry Grossman.

Amadeus Prower gives his wife Rosemary a recap of "recent" events before heading off to work. He discovers that Warlord Julian and his assistant Snively have begun decommissioning Sir Charles’ lab without him, and are in the process of testing out the roboticizer on an unwilling subject, while talking about their plans of world domination.

Amadeus tries to arrest the traitors, but doesn’t count on the intervention of a Swatbot.

Meanwhile, Rosemary goes into labor, and Sonic and his friends help get her to the hospital.

The King soon arrives to congratulate her, while Sonic notices Miles’ …er… deformity…

Julian, Snively, and an oddly quiet Amadeus arrive, take a quick look at the baby, then head out, thoughts of conquest in their minds… well, actually, the only thing on Amadeus’s mind is how to best serve Robotnik, but that amounts to about the same thing…

The story is well written, and quite consistent with the current continuity. The art is adequate, but pales in comparison to the art of the first two stories…

In my opinion, this issue is even better than the first Sonic Kids. Too bad they didn’t do any more.