21 replies to this topic

[FUS News Robot]

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #240

"(W) Ian Flynn (A) Terry Austin & Various (CA) Greg Horn

'Heroes,' Part 2. Dr. Eggman lays siege to New Mobotropolis once again, but this time with no Sonic around! It's up to the brand new Team Freedom to prove their mettle against Dr. Eggman's Metal Series! Plus, what evil lays in wait, and just what in the world is 'Operation: Deadly Cuddles?!' Featuring a stunning, all-new painted cover by Greg Horn!"

SONIC UNIVERSE #43
"(W) Ian Flynn (A) Jim Amash & Various (CA) Stephen Downer & Various

'Unsung Heroes,' Part 3. It's a race against time as Silver's squad must recover in time to rescue Elias and his squad! With Ixis Naugus's master plan nearing completion, will the Secret Freedom Fighters be able to stop him in time?"

KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA ARCHIVES VOL. 3
"(CA) Patrick Spaz Spaziante

The epic adventure of Sonic's original 'friendly nemesis' continues in the next exciting installment of the Knuckles Archives series! Knuckles and the Chaotix find themselves divided across the world! Knuckles is summoned by the mysterious Athair to help the weary Lost Tribe finish their age-old exodus. But when the Days of Fury threaten to tear Mobius apart, can Knuckles save them all? Collecting Knuckles the Echidna #10-15!"

SONIC SAGA TP VOL 01 DARKEST STORM
"(W) Ian Flynn (A) Patrick Spaz Spaziante & Various (CA) Patrick Spaz Spaziante

Sonic's epic adventures aren't just stories - they're sagas! Blast into the action at Sonic speed with the debut of the all-new Sonic Saga series! Sonic and his friends are put to the ultimate test as evil forces converge! The immortal tyrant Mammoth Mogul is released from his Chaos Emerald prison and the wicked wizard Ixis Naugus returns from his exile! As the armies gather, it's all-out war in 'The Darkest Storm!' Sonic Saga Volume 1 collects selected stories from Sonic the Hedgehog #162-167."

[LaserX5]

Wow, Archie's sure getting lazy with their official comic's covers now.

Is there a reason why the last two have been just paintings of Sonic and Amy?

Meh... go figure.

[MoonPrincess07]

Not a fan of either 240 cover. Just kind of....meh. This is why we have that "don't judge a book by its cover" cliche. And I'm not sure why they're releasing "saga" volumes now; it's kind of like recording artists rereleasing albums two or three times when the first time was enough. Whatevs.

[Strike011]

and somewhere in the world... Penders sheds a tear... poor bastard.

when it comes to cover art, I never liked it when the cover was drawn in the in comic style, it kinda always iffed me, like... wheres Spaz? isn't this what cover artists are for? (Hell, I'll do it, just don't put in-comic art on the cover anymore.)
Don't get me wrong, Tracy Yardly does good, but it's a cover! it's supposed to not only kinda summarize what might happen, but leave you with an impression of some sort. (which Spaz has yet to fail to do) and if not a summation, then just an awesome pic (like on an anniversary cover or something)
the Amy painting is nice actually, and everything around her reminds me Sonic Generations designs, just that one next to it has me confused, worried, and pixelated.

I have been behind in the comics for a while, and no store around me actually keeps up-to-date... I should subscribe so I have something else to complain about every month.

[RedAuthar]

Wait a second....

Sonic's epic adventures aren't just stories - they're sagas! Blast into the action at Sonic speed with the debut of the all-new Sonic Saga series! Sonic and his friends are put to the ultimate test as evil forces converge! The immortal tyrant Mammoth Mogul is released from his Chaos Emerald prison and the wicked wizard Ixis Naugus returns from his exile! As the armies gather, it's all-out war in 'The Darkest Storm!' Sonic Saga Volume 1 collects selected stories from Sonic the Hedgehog #162-167."

....So not only do we have selects....and archives....we got Saga's now!?

[PuffinGrandeur]

Notice that the Sagas are doing story arcs the archives won't be getting to for probably another seven years at least. Not necessarily ideal, but considering it's the start of Ian's run it's not too hard to see why they're doing it.
As for the current covers, they got Greg Horn, a big name in comics to do them. Unfortunately, he's a realistic painter, not a cartoonist, so he pretty much dropped the ball. I'm not entirely sure how those two names even got connected in the first place...

[Ralph Bromley]

Wake me up after Ian unleashes a nuke that kills all the SatAM and archie based characters and leaves only the Sega ones intact...

[LaserX5]

Wake me up after Ian unleashes a nuke that kills all the SatAM and archie based characters and leaves only the Sega ones intact...

Ditto.

[Keen Bean]

Archie just released the official variant for 240. I thought the original was plain, but good, but I'm really liking the new one!

[LaserX5]

Archie just released the official variant for 240. I thought the original was plain, but good, but I'm really liking the new one!

Actually, I don't see that much difference really.

It's just another bland Sega styled cover with nothing that special about it.

[RedAuthar]

I can make a sprited cover like that on paint....

[Shadow]

What does Archie do when they have great top tier artists like Spaz for cover work? Do they have him whip up something good? NO! They get some new guy to shamelessly trace Sonic Channel artwork, add in some quick photoshop filters for a background and bam, out on every magazine rack in stores.

[Prime]

Gotta say I'm prefering the 16-bit variant cover to the standard one, it has nostalgia. The Amy/regular cover is just boring as all hell, much like all the other similar covers Archie have been churning out, the ones that have featured Silver, Sonic and the upcoming one of Tails, those covers are so freakin boring, not to mention lazy. Just have some guy trace some artwork.

Yeah the same can be said about the 16-bit cover, but at least this is a first for Archie to do a retro game style cover, which is kinda fitting seeing as 2012 is the 20th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

If I had the choice, I would of commissioned a cover that is related to the events in the actual comic and for the variant, I'd of gone with the 16-bit one. Seriously, those "painted" single character covers are pissing me off now.

[PuffinGrandeur]

That's not a photoshop filter, it's painted. Greg Horn was a bad idea, but it's not just an edit.
It's amusing, because the last covers to be this boring were, um, Spaz's.

[Gojira007]

If you're referring to the Magazine-style covers they ran with #118 to #124, Puffin, I'll agree they were pretty bad. But honestly? I would gladly take them over these variants; at least the magazine-style covers still used actual art instead of re-done versions of pre-existing Character clip-art.

[PuffinGrandeur]

No, I mean the ones he did during the Iron Dominion like http://archiesonic.w...gehog_Issue_205

[Keen Bean]

Starting with 241 I think the covers get back on track (as far as having something to do with the actual story). Even though 240s variant is "easy" and can probably be done in 5 minutes on paint, I still like seeing the classic Sonic.
I wonder though... on both covers the images are reversed. Amy is reversed on the comic itself, and then on the variant Sonic is chasing Robotnik the wrong way (in Sonic 2 and in Sonic & Knuckles he always chases to the right).

[RedAuthar]

I've never been for cover variants on the note that if I really wanted these "impressive" pieces of art (not just Sonic comics) I'd like them on something sturdier or nicer then a comic book cover

[Prime]

I've never been for cover variants on the note that if I really wanted these "impressive" pieces of art (not just Sonic comics) I'd like them on something sturdier or nicer then a comic book cover

I couldn't exactly call any of the Sonic variants "impressive" art. The SDCC variant of #226 and the variant of #230 were just CG renders. The New York Comic Con cover of #229 was just a sketch version of #229's actual cover. The upcoming #241 variant and Universe #42 variant are those boring "painted" covers (along side the regular covers for #239 and #240) of pre existing Sonic artwork. And then there's #240's retro cover which is different, but not impressive.

The only two I could consider impressive would be #225's variant and the SDCC variant for Universe #41, and the only things that let these two down are the fact that they are sketch versions. If they finished them up and slapped some color to them, then yeah, these would be very impressive. I've noticed that sketch variants tend to be for an actual finished cover. So say you have a title which has two equal ratio covers, Cover A and B, a sketch variant of one of these two is usually offered as a retailer incentive. I prefer this method because if I like the regular cover enough, I'm willing to track down the sketch variant of it itoo. Archie have dropped the ball because #225 and Universe #41 variants were good, and would of been better if finished. As for the sketch variant of #229? I found the regular version of that cover to be weak anyway.

I'm kinda hoping Archie stop with these variant covers because I really don't see a need for Archie to do them. They don't seem to have a set plan for them, just tossing them out randomly and the variants seem to range from "meh" to poor. I could see WHY they did the variant for #225 since it was a milestone, and I guess the convention covers, but the rest? Naaaah. The obvious reason is to sell more copies to the collectors who have to have them, but seriously, if you are gonna do them, put some effort in.

[PuffinGrandeur]

Paul Kaminski just likes 'em.