#ben bates

One of the most infamous prejudices about Archie Sonic, it’s about his art. I pretty sure that anyone who read this has listened to some of the typical deceptive comments about the art in these comics at least one time, saying that ‘it’s looks horrible’ ‘it don’t look like Sonic in all’ and of course, the classical misunderstanding where the people think that Ken Penders was a big contributor to the art style and for that, he was the only responsible for the terrible art style in some issues because he has always been a terrible artist, etc..

To be honest, this is a very extent topic, as well one that is more complex that it’s look like at first, between the extremely hectic schedules, the low salaries and the complited situation that the comic industry (not only Archie Comics) had been passed since the 90', and probably I would talk detaily about it some day but for now, I decided to make a new version of my old posts about the different Artist in Archie Sonic, where I show that from the very beginning these comics had a lot of talent artists, reviewing the ones who I considered the best of the best and some of the most underrated from my perspective. 

Scott Shaw 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog Miniseries #0 

Last Work: Sonic Super Special #6 

Overall contributions: 7 

This guy don’t only has the honor to being the first artist of the comic, but also being a classic artist extremely renowned in the american comic industry in general, have been working in series from other well-known IP like The Simpsons, Looney Toons, Shrek, Teen Titans, Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, etc. 

Dave Manak 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog Miniseries #3

Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #167

Overall Contributions: 95 

The second oldest artist in the series whose art style, cartoonist and reckless, actually worked pretty well for the first issues, mainly focusing on the childish comedy, and the off-panels strips.

Art Mawhinney 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #10

Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #156 

Overall Contributions: 74 

Originally, Art worked as a storyboarding artist for the original Sonic The Hedgehog Animation series/Sonic SATAM, so it’s not surprising that his art style was identical from the original cartoon series. Very good for the first age of the comics when they were still being pretty related to the series.

Patrick Spaziante

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #21 

Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #293 (CANCELLED)

Overall Contributions: 320 

The legend, the greatest, the well-known Archie Artist who made possible the comic adaptation of Sonic Adventure and has the merit of being the artist with more contributions in Archie Sonic and in the franchise in general, who also worked in other series like Archie Nights, Archie Megaman, Transformers, TMNT and ATLA comics . Nowadays, he is still working in the saga but with less consistency. 

Manny Galan 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #38 

Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #81 

Overall Contributions: 48 

Manny primarily worked in the Knuckles stories and If I had to define his art style in less words, probably would be ‘Similar to Art Mawhinney but with the most serious and action touch that unfortunately Art never could achievement’

Frank Strom & Nelson Ortega 

Nelson's First Work:

Sonic The Hedgehog #46 

Nelson's Last Work:

Sonic Super Special #6

Overall Contributions: 5

Frank's First Work:

Sonic The Hedgehog #55

Frank's Last Work:

Sonic The Hedgehog #87 

Overall Contributions: 5 

I decide to put them together since they debuted almost in the same period and had the exact number of contributions.

John Herber

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #54

Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #56

Overall Contributions: 2

Steve Butler 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #61 

Last Work: Sonic Boom #5 

Overall Contributions: 92

James Fry 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #76 

Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #272 

Overall Contributions: 31 

Ron Lim

First Work: Sonic Super Special #13

Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #159

Overall Contributions: 39

Dawn Best 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #101 

Last Work: Sonic Universe #57 

Overall Contributions: 18 

As a fun fact, she contributed to the Sonic The Comic Online project with a panel for their summary section ‘New in Sonic The Comic?’

And she also commented on my original post to thank me for mentioning her.

Jeff “Jay” Axer

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #108

Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #167

Overall Contributions: 37 

Jonathan Gray 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #134 

Last Work: Sonic Universe #75 

Overall Contributions: 56 

Just like Dawn, he contributed to the STC Fan continuity with a panel to NtSTC?. A very funny coincide since in his debut issue had several cameos of Sonic The comic's characters, like Tekno the Canary or Ebony.

Tracy Yardley 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #160

Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #294 (CANCELLED)

Overall Contributions: 134 

This guy has the honor of being the third artist with more contributions in a single Sonic comic, being surpassed by Patrick Spaziante and Richard Elson from Sonic The Comic, with 150 adds. And coincidentally, Tracy add a panel to the NtSTC? section too.

Matt Herms 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #185 

Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #291 (CANCELLED)

Overall Contributions: 6

Renae De Liz 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #198 

Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #207

Overall Contributions: 2

Jamal Peppers 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #202 

Last Work: Sonic Universe #97 (CANCELLED)

Overall Contributions: 43

Ben Bates 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #213

Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #275

Overall Contributions: 39 

Evan Stanley 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #231

Last Work: Sonic Universe #96 (CANCELLED)

Overall Contributions: 30

For the last, I would like to make a special mention to other minor artists that, despite not being very outstanding like the previous ones, they still has a interesting and very good art style in my opinion or at least, a decent one.

Honorable Mentions: 

Sam Maxwell

First Work: Sonic Super Special #1 

Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #87

Overall Contributions: 12 

Tania Del Rio 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #151

Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #172

Overall Contributions: 4

- Diamond Rose Studies (group of student interns)

First and Only Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #85 

- David Hutchison (artist exclusive from Archie Sonic X series)

First Work: Sonic X #7

Last Work: Sonic X #40

Overall contributions: 8

- Greg Horn (cover artist) 

First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #239

Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #241

Overall contributions: 3

Ken Penders (Classic Era)

Overall Contributions: 19

Was inspired a little while back when Mr Ben Bates posted a potential Sally design on the twitters. Was distracted by the fankid showdown, and then with Sonally week prep tho.

I like Sally's usual fluffy cheeks, but also like the round chipmunk cheeks too. This design kinda has the best of both worlds. I don't mind the idea of her being one solid colour, but gotta say, I like the red hair and orange fur colour scheme the most. The stripe they added for reboot Sally was honestly fire. (Too bad you could barely see it coz of her clothes tho...)

When picking her fur colours I leaned into Autumnal colours: the orange and reddish-brown tones. They just feel more Sally-like, plus they match the blue of her outfit the best. If I had to pick a single colour for her fur then I think I'd probably go with the orange over the red, mostly coz there are already a few red Sonic characters, like Knuckles and Mighty, and we want her to stand out!

One thing I really didn't like about reboot Sally's design was they way her clothes covered up active elements of her design. You can't go covering up the heart shape on her front any more than you could the circle on Sonic or the crescent of Knuckles. It completely changes their designs!

Just adding a pair of shorts and some gloves to her usual vest and boots combo is more than enough! She doesn't even really need the shorts tbh. That's more like a fun addition if anything!

Anyways, I like One the most, the blue and against the red and orange just really pops, y'know? Two and Three look really good on their own too, and I could get used to it. But yeah, to love the two-toned colour scheme the most! ^^

Also, here's the Ben Bates Sally:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Villains Micro-Series #7: "Bebop & Rocksteady"

Cover Credits

Retailer Incentive Variant Cover Art: Ben Bates

Story Credits

Story: Ben Bates & Dustin Weaver

Script: Dustin Weaver

Art: Ben Bates