Comic

Comic is a form of Western literature. Like Manga, it is a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. "Comics" originated in the late 19th century and followed a separate evolution of the media from their manga counterparts.

Due to the lasting-legacy, ease of promotion and expansion for upcoming games, and the historical events with Archie Comics, Sega is still creating Comics for the Sonic the Hedgehog series for a variety of purposes to this day.

History

Overview

Comics, as well as manga, were used as a medium in the early video industry to create more room to tell stories for their upcoming video games while the video game medium was limited to 2D sprites.

Without access to Sonic's behind-the-scenes Japanese material, the circumstances forced, and in some cases encouraged, comic and manga creators alike to go above and beyond the very limited visuals of the classic games to create different settings and circumstances for Sonic the Hedgehog and Doctor Eggman to fight in. Some comics attempted to do so as faithfully to the games as they could, while others were originally tasked to promote another story while incorporating the games.

With Sega of America's permission, Comic authors and artists from the United States (and the United Kingdom) began writing stories for the Sonic the Hedgehog series to advertise and expand the ambitious franchise. However, creating stories in the comic book medium is a lot quicker than making video games, giving the fastest thing alive entire worlds, history, relationships, abilities and eventful sagas before Sonic Adventure was released in 1998.

After the long run of the Archie Comics had ended in 2017, Sega of Japan and Sonic Team immediately looked to starting a new comic run with IDW Publishing in 2018, concluding after 26 years, Comics as a medium have become part of the Sonic the Hedgehog IP.

Publication dates

• Comic issues published in the 1990s
• Comic issues published in the 2000s
• Comic issues published in the 2010s
• Comic issues published in the 2020s

Comics

List of single comics

Single issue comics in the Sonic the Hedgehog series include:

Sega

• Sonic the Hedgehog (promotional comic) - a single comic released in 1991 to promote the release of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Mega Drive. Given permission from Sega of Japan at the time, it is based on Sega of America's origin for Sonic the Hedgehog and Doctor Eggman, renamed Dr. Robotnik, for the Western world as the American branch's higher ups were insistent for there to be an origin. However, the only Sonic medias to use the origin would be; the Stay Sonic guidebook, the french comic Sonic Adventures, and United Kingdom's Sonic the Comic, whom were focused on writing material in the world of the games.
• Sonic Frontiers Prologue: Convergence - an one-shot digital comic released in 2022 to promote Sonic Frontiers. This one-shot is a short, self-contained story that serves as a prequel to the Sonic Frontiers' storyline. It features Sonic, Tails, and Amy, battling D3-COY and the earliest presence of Dr. Eggman's daughter, Sage.
• Sonic Superstars: Fang's Big Break - a digital comic released in 2023 that serves as a prequel/promotion, alongside an animation and a manga, to Sonic Superstars. The digital comic is a short adventure centered around Fang the Hunter entering the Northstar Islands.

Sirène

• Sonic Adventures -

Paramount Pictures

• Sonic the Hedgehog: The Adventures of Sonic & Donut Lord - a promotional mini-comic book based on the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog film by Paramount Pictures. It uses 16-bit sprites for its characters similar to the film's mid-credits sequence.

IDW Publishing

• Sonic the Hedgehog 2: The Official Movie Pre-Quill - a one-shot comic book by IDW Publishing that serves as a prequel to the 2022 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 film.

List of short run comics

Four issue comics in the Sonic the Hedgehog series include:

Sega

• Sonic Forces digital comic - a four-part digital comic series published by Sega that is based on the at-the-time upcoming 2017 Sonic Forces, its purpose being to promote the aforementioned game.

List of comic series

Long-running comics in the Sonic the Hedgehog series include:

Archie Comics

Sonic the Hedgehog - various comics published by Archie Comics made for the then in-production Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series); 1992, 1993 - 2017:

• Sonic the Hedgehog (miniseries); 1992 - 1993
• Off Panel; July 1994 - February 2017
• Sonic Specials; January 1995 - March 1997
• Princess Sally (miniseries); first published February 1995
• Tails (miniseries); October 1995
• Knuckles (miniseries); April 1996 - June 1996
• Sonic Quest; December 1996 - 1997
• Knuckles the Echidna (comic series); first published February 1997 - November 1999
• Sonic Super Special; first published May 1997 - November 2000

Fleetway Editions

• Sonic the Comic -

IDW Publishing

• Sonic the Hedgehog -

External links

• List of Sonic the Hedgehog printed media at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia