Dammit, Coldman. Stop scaring people away, holy crap.
Tizoc, I hope you don't mind me editing that post. I need to reduce some of those character sizes that the links take up. I do think you should write an introduction for the comic series or tell Beef what to keep or what not to keep in the OP. This is the cleaned-up version with tinyurls added, so Beef should use this one.
"The older issues of the Archie comics are collected in the
Sonic Archives, each book collecting an average of 4 issues.
Vol. 0 collects the miniseries that predates the main comic. It should be noted that the comic continued some remaining plot threads from the Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) cartoon while maintaining some of The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog's comedy at the beginning. Otherwise, the single issues can be purchased through
Archie's website,
Comixology, Archie's own
iOS/
Android app, and from
Google Play.
Recent writer, and generally lauded, Ian Flynn's run on the series begins with Issue #160. However, neither #160 nor #161 are collected in TPB form yet. With that said, Archie has begun to compile Flynn's run of the comics under the 'Sonic Saga" branding in TPB format. The first volume can be purchased
here, with Volume 5 being expected to release next year.
Sonic Universe is the current sister series focusing on other characters and are generally written as 4-issue arcs. Although the
first arc stars Shadow the Hedgehog, it was generally a well-written arc that demonstrated the usefulness of the Sonic Universe branding, and also showcased Flynn's writing skills. Other characters that aren't generally seen as strong, such as Silver the Hedgehog, also gain a more positive outlook via the writing.
After some
legal issues surrounding former writer
Ken Penders, Archie decided to reboot the series and fortunately it has turned out for the best. With that in mind, it begs the question of where a good starting point is for reading the series. There are a few options to keep in mind:
- Begin reading from when Ian Flynn started writing for the series at #160. Though, you should bear in mind that the earlier issues involved him trying to clean up and bin elements and characters introduced to the series prior to his tenure (ex: Eggman's AI children). There are various references to certain events that occurred years ago that new readers may not get.
- Begin reading from the Sonic Genesis Arc, generally seen as a very easy way to step into the series, as it ties into the game series, while introducing the comic characters for newcomers.
- You can start with Worlds Collide, the Sonic and Mega Man crossover miniseries. It mainly involves the characters from the video games and can be enjoyed even if you've never read neither the Sonic nor Mega Man comics before. Vol. 1 is being released on December 10th, 2013, with the other volumes being released 2-3 months beyond this volume and each other.
- Afterwards/Alternatively you can either start reading from Sonic 252 onwards or wait for this TPB to be released, though there's no set date for that yet sadly.
Edited links so Beef can actually add it into the OP without running out of characters, as some of those links are 140+ characters long, and posts only allow for 24000. If anyone else has anything to add to this to clean up the prose, and I think we should add stuff for Sonic the Comic since there are Europeans in this thread, someone should take care of that accordingly.
So the To-Do List:
- Someone write a section for Sonic the Comic
- Tizoc should probably write a sentence to introduce the Sonic the Hedgehog (StH) comic in general or tell Beef what to keep or what not to keep in the OP.
