Think you know Sonic? THINK AGAIN!

my core pitch for the zine was a comic focusing on shadow's uncertain identity and the power of suggestion.

"If he says he knows the truth about who I am...then like it or not, I have to believe him."

with this comic i wanted to explore how the semi-dark route feels like a storyline where shadow gets manipulated by black doom (of course, the pure dark route also carries this feeling, but semi-dark feels a bit heavier to me personally). he's fed just enough information to keep him following along and open up his mind to black doom's ideals, but he still retains the ability to question things... until he doesn't.

"That's right. This will remind you what the humans did to you. Never forget that horrifying image!"

in the end, shadow's story ends the way black doom wants it to.

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the majority of the dialogue in my comic is comprised of quotes from the game (cutscenes & level dialogue) either directly or altered. it's been a few months so i wasn't able to track down all of them again (most are general sentiments across multiple routes anyway), but here are a few i could find in order of appearance in the comic. used or altered lines are in bold:

Page 1

SHADOW: Who are you? BLACK DOOM: You don't remember anything, do you? But you will... In time. But now, there's no time to waste here.

Page 2

SHADOW: ("Shadow the Hedgehog"... Why does that name haunt me? It's the only thing I can remember. And that gruesome image...)

Page 3

BLACK DOOM: Those vile soldiers are still defiling our precious home.

BLACK DOOM: What a pathetic sight. Shadow, follow them. Make sure they understand their situation.

MARIA: Don't worry, Grandfather. Shadow and I will protect this planet. Right, Shadow?

Page 4

SHADOW: ("Shadow the Hedgehog"... Why does that name haunt me? It's the only thing I can remember. And that gruesome image...)

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posting pieces from collaborative zines is always something i struggle with because i look back and think of how i would do things differently now, but i learned a lot working on this comic and even developed some style techniques that i still use!

Fun Fact 1: the panel where shadow Fucking Disintegrates That Guy is technically traditionally drawn! i couldn't get it right in clip studio so i just started frantically scribbling in a notebook and got it eventually lol

highly highly recommend scribbling stuff out in a notebook, scanning it on your phone, and then dropping it into a canvas to edit later if you ever have trouble sketching something.

Fun Fact 2: a lot of the overlay/background effects were made in Kid Pix Deluxe 3D. i created a whole collection of various textures/abstract effects for this comic that i've been using in my art since last year. you can even find them scattered through my team dark zine lol. here's a few of them:

similarly, the background at the bottom of page 2 is actually a warped photo i took of a bunch of headphone wires. this is the original:

Fun Fact 3: i made this comic during a very busy and wild period of time last year so this is what the final panel looked like for a while before i fully finished it LMAO