#module1

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #1

TIMELINE: 3234 (0 YEARS BEFORE SONIC #1 …BECAUSE IT IS SONIC #1)

Greetings, class! It’s time to start our next module: More Early Installment Weirdness! We’ve seen some snippets of what happened decades prior to the beginning of the series, as well as gotten a glimpse of Sonic and the Freedom Fighters as kids and their earliest missions as contemporary teens. And some of those stories will even sneak past the retcons! So now is the time when we have reached the timeline’s starting point - as a comparison, it’s like how Star Wars Episode IV is set 0 years BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) for their official timeline. Let’s finally have a look at issue #1 of the ongoing ArchieSonic series!

This is a pretty cool cover, with the Freedom Fighters completely surrounded by Robotnik’s forces and the big man himself! But I’m not sure what it says about the durability of Robotnik’s Swatbots if Boomer thinks he can take one down with nothing more than a hammer. I’ve seen this particular issue at various pop culture conventions numerous times with outrageously high sales prices - I’m talking multiple hundreds of dollars here. It’s a collector’s item, for sure. So, shall we see what silly shenanigans the gang are getting up to in this issue?

JAY-SUS! o_O

Oh phew. I thought for a minute there that the Comics Code Authority was going to come down from on high and start smiting.

Just as a reminder, this is one of the “NO FUN ALLOWED,” variants of Robotnik. Although maybe he has the right idea about his ban on dancing, all things considered.

…yeaaaaaah.

I believe this is the first example we see of Robotnik trashing his robots at the drop of a hat without a second thought. One has to wonder just how many Crabmeats he’s gone through so far, considering they were his prime henchman in these early, pre-Snively days.

Oh right, Antoine had a crush on Sally in this comic. He was a lot more upfront about it in the cartoon but it would come up every now and then in the comics too. In the early days, at least. I do enjoy that he’s jealous that he’s not being included in this “strategy meeting” though.

Did this Burrobot really not notice Antoine coming out of the secret entrance to Knothole? One would think he would immediately report it to Robotnik if he had. Luckily for the Freedom Fighters he doesn’t seem very observant.

As someone who frequently gets tongue-tied, I can totally sympathise with Sonic. Words are hard.

Poor Antoine, always the buttmonkey in these stories. Well, at least he’s been rescued now and is out of danger…

…oh.

Did anyone else hear that classic Antoine scream, as voiced by Rob Paulsen?

Antoine is going to need ALL the therapy after this. And this is only issue 1!

Tails would have his watering can privileges revoked after this. For about a year or so, anyway.

He may look more sinister, but this Robotnik really isn’t all that far removed from the more comical one in AoStH.

But I thought electricity was super effective against water, not the other way around! Has Pokemon been lying to me for the last 30 years?

And you guys thought I was lying to you last week when I mentioned that Sonic would suggest using a giant garden hose to defeat Robotnik.

Sonic has a point. We’re over halfway through the first issue, and the only thing he’s done so far is save Antoine from the Krudzu.

In these early days Sonic would regularly interrupt his own comic to remind the reader that he’s a video game character and you should put this comic down and go play his game instead. Also, since when is the Casino Night zone “scary”? We’re talking about the place with the bright flashing neon lights and Robotnik driving around lit up like a Christmas tree, right?

…maybe it’s not the same place. This doesn’t look anything like the game.

So let me get this straight - Robotnik’s secret weapon is a badnik from Sonic 1 that moves slowly, throws its projectiles slowly, and can easily be unless you’re in an enclosed space? Granted, it does seem to throw its maceballs much faster here in the comic than in the game.

You also may notice that Sonic is immediately hit with instant karma for refusing to tip the Swatbot host. Let that be a lesson to you, class - always tip your waiters. Just not too far, or they might fall over. Bada-bum!

My reaction every time I play Sonic 3 & Knuckles when I accidentally go to the slot machine bonus stage.

Geeze Sonic, you’re never going to survive through Spinball if you don’t learn to take those hits.

Anyone else feel like Robotnik may have had a past as a mob enforcer who specialised in breaking kneecaps?

Okay, I call foul! Sonic can’t deflect Orbonaut’s projectiles in the games! 0/10 comic, would not recommend.

Where did Sonic get a bomb? Did he win it in the casino? …actually yeah, I can buy that explanation.

Don’t you get high and mighty with us, Tails. We all know you have a secret gambling addiction.

So that was the first issue of the ongoing ArchieSonic series, and it was… okay. Sonic honestly didn’t get to do much in the first story, and the second story wasn’t a great adaptation of the Casino Night Zone. This casino feels dingy and dirty, which fits for this version of Robotnik. But still - where’s the glitz? Where’s the glamour? Where are the neon lights and Robotnik’s christmas decorations for his Eggomatic hovercraft!?

And why is Sonic here during the day?!

I understand a faithful adaptation is probably not what they were going for, but I feel like Sonic should have at least gone through a slot machine or something. Unless… could Orbonaut’s spiky maceballs actually have been a reference to what happens when you get three Robotnik symbols in the Casino Night slots?

…nah, probably not. That’s way too deep a cut to be an easter egg this early in the series. There were also a couple of other one-page gag strips in this issue, but I don’t think they’re worth talking about.

EDS 100 MODULE 1.0: Nature of Human development

There were a lot of times that I asked myself why I am who I am today. During my early years in school, I never really understood why. I would always relate myself to my parents, siblings, or relatives. As I grew older, I slowly began to understand the true meaning of my character and my freedom to be who I want. This week’s topic really enlightened me and allowed me to understand myself more. I was able to know different aspects of myself that I never knew before. I was really immersed and interested about diving deeper about the nature of human development.

an old photo of mine during my screening for arts and design track

Here we go! 

Europas Parkas -  LNK Infotree

The worlds largest sculpture made from TV sets, by Lithuanian artist Gintaras Karosas,  is made of about 3000 TV sets and spans an area of 3,135 square metres. This sculpture reflects the absurdity of Soviet propaganda and communism via their television sets; whilst reflecting the power and stronghold of technology over the people of Lithuania (who donated their broken, vintage and unused TV’s for this 150 ton piece).

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #5

TIMELINE: 3234 (0 YEARS AFTER SONIC #1)

Welcome back to ArchieSonic 101, my friends! We’ve got… well, an issue to look at today. Shall we just jump in?

What’s the deal with these early covers having nothing to do with the actual stories in the issue? The only thing we get that ties into the issue’s content is the title, “Olympic Trial and Error.” A little strange to have an Olympics story over a year after the Barcelona ‘92 games, but let’s see where this goes.

Ah, I see we have a new writer in this issue, Angelo Decesare! He’ll give us some banger stories in the future, but as you can see, his style is pretty similar to Mike Gallagher’s in this issue. Yet again, Sonic is showing off instead of letting his friends play ball with him.

Wow, that really small stadium came out of nowhere. Seriously, you’d be lucky to fit 50 people in the stands in there.

Just like in issue 2, we go from an obviously angry Sonic instantly changing to being calm enough in the next panel to restrain Tails. I still think it’s odd. But I do enjoy the Gilligan Cut to Sally saying… probably not exactly what Sonic thought she would say.

Z for… Zantoine?

“Robotnik Belly Vision," is a great pun. :D

…oh. Oh no. This is a painfully similar plot to the godawful Game Gear game Sonic Labyrinth, where Sonic’s shoes were replaced with ones that made him slow (and yet still allowed him to spindash, go figure). It’s a good thing that the game didn’t come out until 2 years after this comic, otherwise this probably would have been an adaptation of the game rather than this coincidental Olympics story.

There was an equally distressing episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog that also had a story based around Sonic’s shoes being stolen - distressing because of the amount of Sonic bare feet content that was shown. No, I’m not going to provide a screenshot, look it up yourself. :P

This page also raises two very important questions: how did a measly Swatbot manage to follow Sonic the Freaking Hedgehog? And WHY DIDN’T HE FOLLOW HIM LONG ENOUGH TO DISCOVER THE SECRET LOCATION OF KNOTHOLE!?

ZZUNK!

I don’t think this is the first instance we’ve had of Sally’s infamous point, but it’s certainly one of the earliest. The Sally pointing meme was a thing for a while early in Ian Flynn’s run. 

Is this our first appearance of a Sonic 2 badnik, other than Grounder and Coconuts? I think it might be! It’s weird seeing Octus swimming in water though, as I generally associate that badnik with the Oil Ocean Zone. I mean, it makes sense that it would be able to swim… but why not use another badnik associated with underwater Sonic levels, like Jaws or Chop Chop?

We also get to see Splats, a badnik that was cut from the original version of Sonic 1! Poor Splats wouldn’t appear in a game until the 2013 mobile remaster of Sonic 1, followed by Sonic Mania in 2017.

It feels weird to have a running race against a badnik with no legs.

It’s reassuring to see a Freedom Fighter who’s in even worse shape than I am. :P 

I would not want to be that Buzzbomber right now. I predict there will be a recycling in its future.

It’s nice to see there’s at least one Freedom Fighter who still has some respect for Antoine.

Sally’s bad cooking is a minor trait that would occasionally get a mention in the comics.

It even survived all the way through to the reboot! ...or it would have, if the series' cancellation hadn't occured before that comic came out. :(

I mean, we all knew this was a trap, right? Robotnik rules the entire world - including the media outlets, surely - so who did Boomer expect to be getting this mail-order delivery from?

“Termite-nator,” eh? Where is its leather jacket and shades? Where’s its Austrian accent and catchphrase of, “I’ll be bug!”?

This once again raises the question of why Robotnik doesn’t just burn down the Great Forest to find the Freedom Fighters. But whatever, this actually isn’t a bad plan.

Can you smell what the ‘Hog is cooking?

Sally is SO done with Sonic’s BS. :P 

Wait, so did Boomer’s bug encyclopedia have an entry on a robotic termite, or did Robotnik for some reason build a robot with the exact specifications of a real termite-nator? Why not send a real termite-nator in, rather than building one? And if you’re going to go to the trouble of creating a robot anyway, why not give it missile launchers or something?

After all the instances we’ve seen of Sonic being a speedy little show-off, it’s nice to see it bite him in the butt for a change.

Sonic #5 is fine, but nothing special. It’s more of the same kind of thing we’ve been getting, with nothing that really stands out here. Never mind, we’ll get to better stuff soon enough.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG ARCHIVES #5, “EVERYTHING OLD IS NEWT AGAIN.”

TIMELINE: 3235 (1 YEAR AFTER SONIC #1)

Welcome back to ArchieSonic 101! Today will be our final class in module 1, and we’re going to be doing something a little different!

Yep, we’re not moving on to Sonic #16 just yet. Before we do that we need to have a look at Sonic Archives. Starting in 2006 - 13 years after Sonic #1 came out - Archie began publishing the Sonic Archives, a series of reprint collections that were a good way for newer fans of the series to read earlier issues that they may not have seen before. For the most part the Archives just collected the previous issues with no notable additional content (mostly just character backgrounds and stuff like that), but Sonic Archives #5 actually did something different and also gave us a story that had been written back in the 90’s and never actually published. Why? Well, we can get into that soon. For now let’s have a look at this rare, lost story!

Whooooa, what happened to the artwork here? Even though this was drawn by one of the two main artists from the early days of the ongoing series, this looks very different to how we’re used to seeing Dave Manak’s work. Compare this Robotnik to the one on the cover of the last issue we covered and the difference is pretty blatant.

I can't exactly put my finger on why the Robotnik from the story we're focusing on today looks different from the one on #15's cover or why I feel the quality isn't as good, but I definitely prefer Manak's art from the earlier issues.

I think it’s safe to say that this comic was not drawn in 1994. I didn’t think to actually check if the full explanation behind this lost story was in the issue itself before I went overseas, so unfortunately it is out of reach for me right now. Remind me to check and add an update when I get home. But I’m guessing that this old script from Mike Gallagher was dug up in 2007 and Dave Manak was commissioned to do the art for it. It’s also possible that this was drawn around 1997, when Manak’s art started dropping in quality (at least in my opinion) - compare it to this panel from Sonic #45, for instance.

That Robotnik looks pretty similar to the one from today's story. But while it’s possible that this was drawn in the late 90’s, the story content makes that unlikely. Let’s continue!

Well this is interesting - a rematch with the Universalamander? He was such a big threat in his last appearance that it warranted the debut of Super Sonic. I’m not sure why he was drawn to look like a live salamander here instead of a robot though.

If the differences in the art weren’t obvious enough before, it’s definitely easy to spot now. This just does not look good at all. Sonic in particular looks very... basic. It is interesting to note that Sally’s fur is brown now instead of pink like in previous issues. She's getting close to being her SatAM colours, although her hair is still black at this stage.

Thank you for stating the obvious, Rotor. I don’t suppose you guys want to do anything about it?

Oh wow, the Freedom Fighters are actually being allowed to join the fight this time (or at least Bunnie is), rather than letting Sonic do all the work. It’s just a shame the art is so… this. Universalamander looks alright, but just look at the Freedom Fighters in that last panel. It feels very rushed.

I guess it’s hard to look for the mossy side of a tree when there are no trees.

As anyone who lived through the second Bush administration knows, the phrase is actually, “Fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me - you can’t get fooled again.” Also:

Am I the only one who thinks this looks like a Sonic Racing Crossworlds emoji? Perhaps Dave Manak was ahead of his time.

Okay, I can appreciate this page. Robotnik reversing the weakness that Sonic exploited last time is pretty clever, and then adding a pharmaceutical disclaimer to it is actually pretty funny. Why does Bat Brain suddenly have a mouth though? I don't recall ever seeing it drawn with a mouth in previous issues.

I wonder how long Sonic had to run in circles to find a familiar landmark, and how dizzy he got doing that.

So here’s the reason why this story likely wasn’t drawn in 1997, and probably also why it was originally not published - it features the debut of Nicole, Sally’s helpful AI computer who was always by her side in SatAM. We haven’t seen Nicole yet in the comics but she’s coming up soon, which is why I’m doing this story here at this point in the timeline. I’ll come back to this in a minute.

You can also see Sonic doing his Sonic CD super peel out move in the bottom panel, something he wouldn't use for the first time until issue #25.

Sergeant Rotor scares me.

And once again, as soon as Universalamander starts getting small, he reverts to being a flesh and blood lizard again rather than a robot. I don’t know if that was by design or the art just not being detailed enough to show his roboticness.

…is that a word? Roboticness? Probably not. Moving on!

Fun fact: if you squint reeeeeaally hard, you can actually see the microscopic Universalamander in the Quantum Realm in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

…no, not really.

There’s a bit of debate in the ArchieSonic community about whether or not this lost story is actually canon as it seems to contradict the actual origin of Nicole, which we’ll be seeing soon in upcoming issues. That’s probably why this story wasn’t originally published - most likely the editorial staff decided to go in a different direction. For me personally, I feel that if you think of this story featuring a computer named Nicole and not the one we know and love, you can still count it as canon. It’s a Nicole, not the Nicole. They’re just two different computers, that’s all.

Oh, and I guess you'd also need to pretend not to notice Sonic using the super peel out too, if you want to count this story as canon.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #9

TIMELINE: 3234 (0 YEARS AFTER SONIC #1)

Welcome back to ArchieSonic 101! I’ve got a real treat for you today - it’s the first appearance of a robotic Sonic doppleganger!

Er, no. Not that one.

Not that one either.

Sigh. I wish. No, this is the robot we’re dealing with today.

Not quite as intimidating, is he? I do appreciate the shout-out to this famous comic book cover though.

Anyway, let’s see what we’ve got here!

It’s a little hard to get invested in Pseudo Sonic when even Robotnik himself doesn’t seem that interested in him. How hard is it to remember that the robotic double you made of your super speedy enemy also has super speed?

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think doing such obvious sentry duty like this is a wise idea. You might as well put up a great big neon sign that says, “SECRET ENTRANCE TO ENEMY BASE HERE.”

…gross. :P 

See, this is exactly what I was talking about. Would Pseudo Sonic have even noticed the tree stump if Antoine hadn’t been there?

Well well well, looks like Archie finally got the memo on Rotor’s name. It’s going to be a relief to be able to call him by his real name, although I will admittedly miss the frequent opportunities I was given to “Okay, Boomer,” him. :P 

There’s been a lot of fourth wall breaks in this comic series, but this is one of the funnier ones. :) 

…oh. Well that was a little anticlimactic. I mean sure, it’s nice to see Tails get a win as he’s mostly still treated as a kid at this point in the series. But come on - this is a robot Sonic we’re talking about here. Think of the epic battles that kind of thing usually results in! Remember fighting Silver Sonic (don’t @ me on the name, he’ll always be Silver Sonic to me) in the Death Egg without any rings? Or racing Metal Sonic in Stardust Speedway? Or the bonkers fight against Mecha Sonic in Sky Sanctuary? And then you have this - the robot being killed by static electricity in 2 panels. It doesn’t really hold up to those other battles, does it?

Oof, Sonic is in rough shape. At least he’s not as swollen as he was earlier - he looked like an inflatable Sonic balloon.

…this was supposed to be a story about Pseudo Sonic, right? Seriously, why is he even here? He barely did anything and was immediately and effortlessly dispatched by Tails. The conflict has now become a badly injured Sonic coming under attack by Robotnik. If they wanted to make that the focus of the story then they should have had some other incidental thing distracting the other Freedom Fighters rather than hyping up a Pseudo Sonic that did absolutely nothing.

Aww, I can't stay mad. I’ll never complain about getting to see Bunnie kick some butt. I guess Robotnik wasn’t even aware of her before, but it’s safe to say he is now!

GOD no! Why would anyone want Pseudo Sonic to come back when he didn’t even do anything in this issue? God, even the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog version of Pseudo Sonic was more interesting, and he was just a robot shell being piloted by a guy Robotnik was threatening! But at least Sonic actually got to fight that one!

Let’s just move on to the next story.

Brrrr. No thank you!

The second story of this issue revolves around this “Mobian needle bird.” Once again I question the logic of stamping the name of the planet on everything - when was the last time you saw an “Earth wood duck,” or something like that? I also don’t think a needle bird would make a good pet - how do you cuddle something that’s part cactus? And of course Sally loves animals! Sally is animals!

The idea of a baby deer Transformer that has an alternate mode as a bomb-dropping airship is hilarious to me!

Why would you make a cake that has spiked berries in it?!

…oh. Ohhhhh, it’s that meme.

I really don’t like that meme. Some people are introverts, you know.

I’d say it’s impressive that this tiny duck can lift Sonic in its beak, but then again we’ve seen Charmy Bee carry both Vector the Crocodile and Espio the Chameleon at the same time. Yes, Charmy lifts.

Robotnik has upgraded from a dustbuster in the last issue to a freeze ray in this one. Who does he think he is, Dr. Horrible? No wait, that’s the wrong kind of freeze ray.

See, this is exactly what I was talking about. No one wants the bad, spiky cuddles.

…I need an adult.

Yeah, still weird. Why is this here?

Issue 9 is probably the most frustrating issue we’ve looked at so far, for me anyway. We get Sonic vs Pseudo Sonic on the cover to hype us up, and the story does absolutely nothing with him. A robot Sonic is supposed to be a big deal, but this one was a complete disappointment. …a sign of things to come with later Metal Sonic appearances, but we’ll get to that eventually.