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Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Book Compilation Comics (Archives)
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| Sonic Gear Main Page * Archie Sonic Mini Series * Main Archie Sonic Page |
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Collecting comics on an individual basis can be difficult. With Sonic comics over the 200 mark, Archie decided to do something about it. While you can still round up the original books, you've also got another option to collect.
Like the Mangas or Graphic Novels you can find in nearly any book store, these too are a collection of comics. They're smaller format, and much thicker, but they contain exact (but smaller) versions of the regular comic stories.
It's likely that Archie will keep producing these as long as their Sonic comic lasts, producing a new smaller format book as soon as they make enough issues to compose it. These are available for sale in book stores, and also through mail-forms in the current (regular comic) issues. Comic Book retailers should also be able to find these for you.
**New Collectors Alert!**
Do you want to get into collecting Archie Sonic? These are your best bet. If you were to get all the regular books, they'll take up 1 whole "Modern Age" standard comic book box. And weigh over 20lbs. |
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Here are volumes 1 through 6, with 1 being in the bottom right going through 6 in the top left.
Patric Spaziante (Spaz) has done all the covers for these, but in a new style which isn't his own. As you can also see, they've re-colored Tails for the covers (as Archie always insisted he was brown and cream in the early years) All the covers are originals, some taken from ideas of scenes in some of the stories they contain. (ie, the multiple Sonics, and the 'moe bius' versions/badguys from another reality) |
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As you can see here, Spaz is DIRECTLY cribbing the artist who did the original Sonic Japanese Screen Saver. (Pic to the right) The ScreenSaver was originaly a JP only release, possibly some sort of bonus item. It came on floppy disks, and would bascially do a slide-show of a large series of pictures that Sega commissioned from an artist. The themes included parties, seasons, daily life and holidays. |
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| The style is quite recognizable, and many of the images commonly float around the internet even to this day. Take a look at "Laughing Knuckles" to the right, and then at the book cover on the upper right side of the set of 6. |
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He's almost precicely the same, right down to the angle of his arms. The only difference being that his pupil is shut in the original. Further looks at the screen-saver only provide more extreme similiarities.
Is it right to so closely bite the style of someone else for sale-able publications? You decide! |
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Book Stats:
Each book is 112 pages long.
The "Sonic Beginnings" one has the earliest comics, featuring many of the characters' first appearances.
The "Sonic Select" collections 1 and 2 house the "Super Specials"
The "Archives Volume #" ones contain the regular issues over a span of time.
Each Book is about 7.5 inches high and 5 inches wide.
There are usually 4 issues archived within each book.
The original cover art appears before each issue, but splash-pages are NOT included
There are no fan letters/fan art sections included, but the 'arts & crafts' type sections remain from the early books.
All compilation info & photos provided by Siara.
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"Sonic Super Specials" are making a return! And this time, they're actually pretty special. Any long time Archie collector will recognize the name because they used |
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| Photo & owned by RaeLogan |
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to run "Super Specials" as 48 page thicker regular comics in the early years. These new books are different. They're somewhat larger in size than a regular comic, and thick, with about 127 or so pages. They retail at 9.99 each. You can buy in book stores where they sell comics, comic shops, or via the mail-in slip you may find in regular Archie Sonic comics.
What will you find inside?
They seem to be mostly using them as a real 'extra' item. It re-compiles an arc-part of issues that were available normally (Ex. the first one had the "Eggman goes crazy to Iron Dominion" arc inside as the main body of content. Also included are things like interviews with the comic artists/writers/etc, time lines, profiles (seen above), extra fan letters, descriptions of their other books/compilations & similar items/write ups. So while you ARE re-buying, you're also getting a dose of new Archie-centric content. The covers are all foil-like (light shimmer effect) though it's very hard to photograph. Likely all will be this way. |
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Here is the latest addition in summer 2012, to Archies' batch of compilation style books. It is Sonic Legacy Series Book 1. As you can see here, with the front & back cover, it's a thick compilation book, at a pretty large size. (See it to the right, next to the 'super special' , and regular comic issue. It has an all-new cover. |
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As you can see here, the whole thing is in black & white only, including the covers. It contains issues mini series 0-3 and regular series 1-16 for a 20 issue total. At left, you can see the 'extra' little odd pages like 'coloring page' & "Robotnik Birthday Card" are retained...not just the regular story pages. (In this case exposing all their inconsistences like the machine is the "Veg o Robo" or something where it should have been the robotosizer. |
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Here are the black & white covers & splash page. The pages are all lightweight newsprint for cost savings. The page seen here was the one with the puns such as the "Urkle Bot" and the "Spawn-Mower" because they loved making fun of other comics at the time of publishing. Below, you can see some of the extras, like cover sketches (they're awful!) and style sheets/turn arounds. |
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Book photos & owned by Rae Logan for all of Legacy 1. |
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Inspect the covers that 'didnt make it' its like there were NO model sheets & everything is a bizzare caricature. Their Bunnie drawing has her whole torso as mechanical, too, though it never was supposed to be. The Sally features 'pony tail / hair on top only Sally' as well as Tails based on the degraded USA stock art....though everyone's very expressive. They're quite relevent to the times of the early book.
The Spaz forward is nice, telling about how he got to draw for the book, and exposing that they'd originally had Knuckles with Rastafarian words & accent, but had to have it pulled at the last second at behest of Sega. It also tells you about how BAD Sega was with communication with the comic & how they didn't tell Archie anything, so that's why it was so different for a lot of the start. There's more added art than this too, to help make it a worth while buy.
This retails for 14.95, putting it at something like 0.75 cent an issue. Which is great, considering the extra content. The early books (especially the 1s, the 0, and 13) are costly. This should appear in regular book stores, specialty book places/comic shops, as well as on Amazon.com & hopefully the SonicGear store. |
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Here is Sonic Legacy issue 2. It's another compilation just like the original, with just as much content. It only looks thinner in the comparison shot because they used a denser/thinner paper. Here you can see the checkered splash page, some Sonic reference type art, cover progress (few details were changed) for this book's prototype cover plus the concepts for it. |
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This time, the Forword is by Art Mawhinny. He explains how he worked on both shows of the time storyboarding and how that was his inroad to Archie. He modeled off Dave Manak (fans didnt like Manak too much...so bit of a shame there) & his faves to draw include Sally Bunnie & Rotor. (Well with Archie Sally is pretty much their main character anyway, everyone liked her better than Sonic so no big shocker there) He also says how he left because he had too much other work. The 2nd page advises people who want to get into comics to go do lifedrawing classes anywhere. |
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This issue has lots of Patric Spaz Spaziante work in it, which, because of his good line work looks good in black/white despite the high level of detail/nearly klutter he's known for. |
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| The off-panels you see above show artists? vs. editor. In the first, a freelancer shuts the door on angry workers when the editor tells him to. The 2nd shows the artists return, but this time they're stopped by an off-model Sonic punching them away as he somehow comes out of the floor. I guess it's some kind of inside joke. The other art here is from "Go Ahead Mecha My Day" which is issue 25 (all done by Spaz) Remember, the original with its silver ink is expensive. This book is a good way to collect the issue if you never got it. You can also see a Knuckles splash page, frontispiece & 2 cover drafts (Sonic vs Uncle Chuck) all by Spaz. What all else is covered here?
*Ken Penders' initial run of things, including the start of what would eventually be the Knuckles the Echidnia comics.
* The introduction of Fiona Fox (albeit, the robot version)
* The first time Sally went Mecha
* Introduction of the Artic Mobians
* Several solo story adventures of Tails, Sally, Knuckles... even Rotor.
* The return of Anti-Sonic (pre-Scourge) and the intro of the other Moebians.
* Dulcy, Uncle Chuck, Muttski, Geofrey St. John, Rotor's family, and the Chaotix (eh... more like a couple pages)
are introduced at this point, as is Amy Rose (Sonic CD design)
Basically, everything that happens in issues #17-36. That's 19 issues, and for about $14.99 at retail in this format.
Book photos & info by RaeLogan
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