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SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #20: “THAT’S THE SPIRIT!”

TIMELINE: 3235 (1 YEAR AFTER SONIC #1)

Welcome back to ArchieSonic 101, my friends! I’m splitting up today’s issue again, so we’ll only be looking at the cover story in this lesson. And what happens in this cover story, you ask? Well…

Soooo… I guess this is the final issue of Sonic the Hedgehog, huh? Pffft, as if. xD However when my fellow reviewer @robotnikholmescomicblog (go check out his video essays on YouTube, they’re really good!) covered this issue himself, he pointed out that if anything, this cover felt like it was marking the passing of Sonic SatAM, whose final episode aired right around the time this comic came out. Coincidence or conspiracy, who can say for sure? Anyway, let’s have a look at what the story behind this distressing cover is…

Fair enough to Sonic for enjoying their time together on the rope. Every week it's usually just Sally by herself on the rope.

Sally’s got a point - they got in here awfully easily, sailing past all those previous guards without being noticed. And now there’s no guards at all? That does seem suspicious.

“Oh no, it’s the consequences of my own actions again!”

I’m not sure Sonic would have been able to escape even if he hadn’t tripped. Surely Robotnik would have made sure when he was preparing this trap that the steel doors were spindash-proof?

Oh no, Sonic is totes dead for real, you guys! …but why do Tails and Rotor have red eyes in that middle panel? They hadn’t even started crying yet.

…huh. That’s a neat trick.

Huh. Maybe they actually did kill him off? That would be a twist.

I wonder what was more traumatic for Sonic - coming to the conclusion that he was a ghost or seeing that godawful statue of himself.

I kinda wish Sonic’s foot had gone right through that rock and then he would have fallen on his butt. Wait, if that happened he probably would have fallen right through the ground… hey wait, how is he not falling through the ground already if he’s intangible? Oh no, I think I strained my brain...

Okay, so I’m not an expert or anything, but my understanding is that this is not how antimatter works at all. When antimatter comes into contact with anything made of matter (which is pretty much everything), it explodes. Violently.

Antimatter doesn’t turn people invisible or intangible or anything like that. Other fictional appearances of antimatter make a bit more sense - I believe it’s used to fuel warp drives in Star Trek, and in Dan Brown’s novel Angels & Demons, scientists were studying it with the hope of turning it into a new energy source.

To be fair, its incorrect use in this comic doesn’t really matter that much. I imagine that Angelo Decesare just needed some kind of phlebotinum for the story and decided that antimatter sounded as good as anything else.

I feel like if Sonic really had died, Robotnik probably would have shown up to the funeral playing Amazing Grace on a vuvuzela or a recorder or an accordion or something like that.

I can’t tell if the Freedom Fighters are dressed as commandos or if they're just planning to take Robotnik down in a devastating rap battle.

Clearly no one told Robotnik that he needs to use salt to repel ghosts. He should have watched Supernatural!

Wait, Sonic knows how to fly a jet? I wouldn’t think it’d be very similar to flying a biplane, but then again what would I know? I’m certainly not a pilot.

Haha, I like this ending. The Elvis toupee is the icing on the cake.

This story is pretty fun. Sonic isn’t really given a lot of time to dwell on being, ‘dead,’ but considering what we’ll see later with Knuckles, that’s probably for the best. It’s touching to see the rest of the Freedom Fighters grieving for Sonic - even Antoine is upset at his passing, and he and Sonic don’t exactly get on very well at this stage in the series. Tails’ (almost) unshakable faith that Sonic is okay is very sweet, and his request for Sonic to ignore his letter if he is indeed dead is pretty funny. 

After going through multiple refinements, I used my initial idea (the staircase digitized design as seen in my previous post) I thought I should use the initial design but create something even more eye-catching and mind-boggling. Therefore, I started designing and experimenting different techniques on Adobe Photoshop, whilst designing my initial idea I had the impression of creating a design based on the poet’s face and to base around the main features of the poem in order to bring it to life. Below you will see a step by step process of the poster design and how I used my initial idea within something I created unexpectedly.

As you can see below I began to create the background using a geometric pattern in order to replicate a scrunched up/creased paper.This is because I wanted to position the poem stanzas on top of this background to express a vintage feeling. As you can see below.

 I used a picture of Maya Angelou and made her upper head area into a landing-style this was to show what she was picturing in her mind whilst writing the poem and how she feels about herself.  

Below you can see the initial idea of the stairs and Maya Angelou back towards the audience at the top of the stairs. I positioned this in the center of the landing alongside a fist having the crown wrapped around it. I designed the fist and the crown using the poly effect just to make the image sharper and to give a broken effect because it symbolizes no matter how many people try to break her down she will still hold the crown and the fist to show she will always fight no matter what.

Here I have turned the poets face into a poly design because this will attract the audience’s attention as the goal is to make it appealing yet promoting the poet. I recolored Angelou's earrings and made them gold because I wanted to contrast with the crown as it shows she is a true queen wearing the golden jewels.

Furthermore, as you can see below I created the typeface ‘RISE’ in a style that it represents as barb wire and then I rendered the font into a 3D form in order to make it stand out. I positioned this in the center near the stairs and fist. This can form a title for the poster and to grab attention.

I then used calligraphy style font for the ‘With me’ as I wanted this to be stood out like a red lipstick marking as you can see below. The reason I placed it in this way because a lipstick mark shows the value of a woman, shows the feminine power and the elegance of a woman.

Below is the Final design 

Final outcome for my week’s brief for Arkitekt Magazine

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #19TIMELINE: 3235 (1 YEAR AFTER SONIC #1)

Welcome back to ArchieSonic 101, where the blue rats are plentiful - like, really plentiful. In fact, I don’t think any other issue of Sonic the Hedgehog better illustrates that point than this one…

Wow, there’s a lot to take in here. We’ve got pirate Sonic, devil Sonic, Terminator/cyborg Sonic, astronaut, viking, footballer, guitarist, mummy… and is that an Australian Sonic in the bottom right corner? I dunno, maybe he's just supposed to be Clint Eastwood. There is another Sonic in the issue later wearing a similar hat with a poncho. Well, I guess we’d better take a look at this issue and find out what this is all about.

I like to think that this cyborg Sonic speaks with a Schwarzenegger accent. Yes, even when he says, “Click! Wrrr…”

This page is mostly just a recap for people who hadn’t read Sonic #11 (like me at the time). 

I will be forever annoyed that we were robbed of getting a spinoff series about an entire team of cyborg Freedom Fighters, all with identical Schwarzenegger accents. Yes, even Sally and Bunnie. …actually, let’s give Bunnie Schwarzeneggar’s really bad American accent from the deleted scenes in Terminator 3.

Stop booing me, you know I’m right!

I bet Dave Manak (and later Art Mawhinney) had A LOT of fun drawing this issue.

Not gonna lie, I do like the shadow swatbot designs. The black looks a lot more intimidating.

It’s a bit weird that Robotnik has live surveillance footage of the Meeting of the Hedgehogs. You’d think the Freedom Fighters would have gathered everyone where Robotnik couldn’t keep tabs on them, but maybe they were so focused on Robo-Robotnik that they didn’t even consider the local Robotnik being a problem. And for once, he actually isn’t.

“Destroy your comic book and act out the action yourselves, because we don’t have enough page space to show this fight scene!”

Robotnik and Robo-Robotnik’s forces are equally matched, so of course Robotnik wins outright and apparently with no casualties! How did that happen? I dunno, you’re the one with the paper cut-outs. You figure it out!

Also, this may just be the earliest instance across all Sonic media of Sonic and Robotnik forming a temporary alliance. It goes about how you’d expect, honestly.

USE YOUR HARPOONS AND TOW CABLES

Robotnik: I despise these filthy Neutrals, Snively. With enemies you know where they stand, but with Neutrals, who knows? Snively: (weary sigh)

So yeah, two pages into their little alliance and Robotnik is already planning a betrayal. Can I get a show of hands - is anyone surprised? Anyone at all? Put your hand down, you know you’re lying.

Considering that Evil Sonic dresses like the Terminator, it seems fitting that he’s summoned in an effect that looks like Skynet’s time travel ball technology. Even though it should have incinerated all his clothing.

This is the second time in this issue that the editor’s asked us to vandalise this comic book. Maybe the colourist, Barry Grossman, just got too tired to finish this chapter? Unlike the pencillers, he did the entire issue.

Also, holy alternate art style, BatSonic! The second half of this story was drawn by Art Mawhinney rather than Dave Manak. Probably because this story took up the entire issue, rather than what the series usually does with two stories per issue. I've had to skip a few pages myself to squeeze this entire story into a single Tumblr post.

Okay, yeah. So this thing is basically just the Infinity Gauntlet.

Evil Sonic is just as big a chump as last time. He’s all attitude and no actual talent. Just in case you forgot, he was ambushed by the harmless animal buddies last time he showed up.

Weird - the giant's hand changed from being small enough to hold to something large enough for Robo-Robotnik to stand in. Neat trick. This giant’s hand may not be able to erase half the universe from existence, but transforming into a giant battle mech is still pretty cool.

The story is interrupted for yet another colouring page. This is a tribute to a famous comic cover featuring Batman and Robin, but I feel like this reference would have gone over the heads of most of the people who were picking up their coloured pencils for this page. 

I’m thinking Sally is not great at maths. It was a cute joke, but there should be ten times as many fingers to point as people to point them at. Also, I want to hear what Sonic Claus' idea for saving the day is.

Yada yada yada, the super power of teamwork, it's a staple of the Sonic mythos at this stage. Also, there’s an art error on this page - BatSonic’s eyes are visible under his mask, which hasn’t been the case in previous pages of this comic.

This is the perfect moment to attack, for sure. I feel like there’s a number of video game bosses like this, where you get an attack of opportunity when they’re in mid-stomp. But for the life of me I can’t think of any specific examples right now.

Man, they really wanted this issue to be interactive for the kids, huh? First we had the swatbot cut-outs, then multiple colouring pages, and now a Where’s Wally-esque page. It’s not the first time Sonic would try something like this though. I remember owning a book called Where's Sonic Now? back in the 90's.

And so Robo-Robotnik was defeated by the power of 10,000 spindashes! This won’t be the last time we see this character though. Or possibly an alternate version of him? It’s not 100% clear, but we’ll get back to that.

This plot point with the giant borg will come back later too. With a couple of unexpected guest appearances too!

This was one of those rare issues where the story took up the entire issue, rather than the issue having a cover story and a backup. And it feels like they needed that, because there’s a LOT in this one. Overall I mostly like this story, but even with it having the entire issue to tell the story it still feels a little rushed at times. We go from one Sonic variant showing up to a gazillion of them suddenly being there. The battle between the two Swatbot armies wasn’t even shown. The battle against Evil Sonic for the giant’s hand is over incredibly quickly, although that may be intentional just to point out once again what a chump Evil Sonic is. But the battle against Giant Borg ends almost as quickly, after Robotnik hyped up what a big threat it would be if it fell into Robo-Robotnik’s hands. The story may have been a bit better if it had been spread out across two issues instead of one, as that could have given a bit more page space to some of those things. They could have had issue 19 end on the cliffhanger of Robo-Robotnik getting the Giant Borg, and then spent more time showcasing the final battle in issue 20. What we got is fine, I guess. It’s no Into the Spider-verse though. :P 

1-on-1 Tutorial with Tony with Regards to InDesign Dilemmas

Pictures of Adobe InDesign on iMac are sourced from my iPhone from the meeting with Tony.

I arrived to my time slot early, eager to creatively solve my problem with the text alignment on my ‘Editorial Essay’ double page spread. It was quickly that Tony showed me how to create random rectangle boxes and hide them, wrapping the box to have filler text try and follow the path I wanted it to. By manipulating my double spread in this way I was able to get a clean cut way of making the text follow a certain direction and credit goes to Mr. Davis for helping me come to such a solution. Without his help, I would still be lost. I then learned the methods he taught me and applied it to my own work and executed my plan pretty much perfectly. I must say it looks much better than compared to the three columned, boring look the double spread had previously. Fellow peers also liked how the directional flow of both the text and image complimented each other and its consistency in following these lines.

Process of creating my first double page spread

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #22

TIMELINE: 3235 (1 YEAR AFTER SONIC #1)

Welcome back to ArchieSonic 101, where we are apparently in need of a new antagonist! As you may recall, in the last issue we saw Robotnik try to play God and create the ultimate, unkillable robot that would learn from each encounter with Sonic until it was able to kill him. 

…you might say that backfired on him. So where will the series go with Robotnik absolutely and completely gone?

…oh.

I mean, well of course they’re not going to kill off the main villain of the entire series! Not yet, anyway. Maybe later, as a treat. But for now let’s have a look at this issue and see what convoluted way they come up with to un-kill Robotnik.

We’ve got the same team from last issue to finish this story arc - Penders and Spaziante. And we seem to be starting off with the potential future again - a few pages later we’ll find out this is definitely an alternate timeline though, not the future of the characters we’ve been following. 

The scaling on this page is a little weird. Robotnik first appears at his usual size, but then in the next panel he’s a giant head (or possibly a Big Giant Head, for any 3rd Rock from the Sun fans reading this) looming over Sonic. Weird.

I would very much like to hear more about this final battle that resulted in "Kaput!", wouldn’t you?

Okay, so while we already met Robo-Robotnik back in Sonic #19, this seems to be another variant of that character from an alternate timeline. There’s some debate among the fanbase about this, not to mention the various writers of the series. While Ken Penders says this is the same Robo-Robotnik, I’m inclined to agree with future writer Ian Flynn, whose position is that the Robo-Robotniks in issues 19 and 22 are different characters. The Robo-Robotnik of issue 19 turned the Freedom Fighters of his universe into cyborgs and then later wiped them all out with the exception of Cyborg Sonic. However this universe that we're seeing has a Sonic and Sally that are alive and well, not cyborgs, and who were both present for the defeat of this Robo-Robotnik.

Is it just me, or is Robotnik giving a pep talk to… himself… almost heartwarming?

Oh look, it’s yet another story involving the entire Freedom Fighter team except for Bunnie! Why? Because ArchieSonic hates you, that’s why. Yes, you specifically. No, not you - a little to the right. Yes, that one. You, ArchieSonic hates you.

Last issue Snively seemed genuinely upset at his boss and mentor’s (would we call Robotnik a mentor to him?) supposed death. Now with some time to get over the shock, it looks like he’s mostly just upset that he is struggling to keep things running due to Robotnik’s lack of trust in him. 

This is just so incredibly petty. Robotnik is the very definition of a sore loser.

Why can’t a duck be a princess too? That’s just blatant discrimination.

For some reason, this reminds me of a SatAM episode. Specifically, Warp Sonic: “You didn’t mean right, right?” “Right!” “You meant left, right?” “Er, right!”

Oh look, Robotnik left something to Snively in his will: a laser blast to the face! I guess it’d be cheaper than your standard nosejob…

It must have been quite a shock for Robotnik to see one of his own Swatbots turn on him. On the other hand, E.V.E’s betrayal must still be pretty fresh in his memory. Maybe that’s why he was able to react so quickly.

Considering how Snively will turn against him later in the series, Robotnik’s distrust in Snively feels justified. But then you have to wonder, if Robotnik had trusted in Snively and they’d had a better relationship, would Snively have betrayed him?

I feel like after today Sally would have drilled a new evacuation plan into the team for the next time they were in Robotropolis.

I can’t fault this strategy. “I only spared you because it suits my purposes right now, but I can finish you whenever and wherever I want, LOL.”

I feel like Robotnik saying there has been no loss isn’t entirely accurate. His rampaging army probably did a lot of damage to Robotropolis, and presumably he would need to take the time to upload a patch to all of them to prevent them going back into Operation Wasteland mode when he powered them back up. In all honesty this probably would have been a great time for the Freedom Fighters to go on the offensive, but alas, that didn’t happen. Maybe they decided to go home to fetch Bunnie first, who knows?

Our secondary story for this issue boldly lies to us! The title says, “Sonic the Hedgehog in:” but Sonic technically doesn't appear in this story!

 See? Sonic isn’t actually in this story, we just get an expy called Sir Runalot. Am I being pedantic? Yes, yes I am. Am I going to stop? No, no I’m not.

Also, front-facing Sally scares me.

Hehe, I always giggle at that turkey joke. But seriously, Mortail. Boundaries and personal space. Learn ‘em. I’m sure Sir Runalot doesn’t need your assistance in “romancing the fair maiden.” …at least, I certainly hope he doesn’t.

Apparently cosplay was a thing even all the way back in medieval times.

Haha, okay, okay. Angelo Decasare has written a lot of good jokes in this story, but Robotnik on a stick pony takes the cake. Well done to both him and Dave Manak for this beautiful image!

This is a weird adaptation of Sonic and the Black Knight.

See, this is why you shouldn’t let kids drink soda right before bed time.

I liked this issue! Robotnik being petty enough to have a secret doomsday contingency feels very authentic - it’s the whole, “If I’m going down, I’m taking you with me,” mentality. And the Tails and Sally story was fun and had a lot of good jokes. No complaints here!

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #21

TIMELINE: 3235 (1 YEAR AFTER SONIC #1)

Welcome back to ArchieSonic 101, friendos! Today we’re going to look at one of the earliest Sonic works from a legend of the industry!

Patrick Spaziante is one of, if not the most prolific cover artist of ArchieSonic, credited for the covers of over 130 issues of Sonic the Hedgehog, 25 issues of Knuckles the Echidna, 6 forty-eight page specials, all 15 Sonic Super Specials, 3 sets of 3-issue mini series, and many, many others. While he is best known for his cover art he also did interior art for the series, some of which we already saw in the In Your Face! Special. Aside from Mecha Madness, this two issue arc is probably the most famous story he drew. Shall we give it a look?

We’re off to a strong start here with this fight scene between Sonic and the Swatbots. Spaziante always makes these fight scenes look so cool. Though not credited here for some reason, Ken Penders is the writer for this issue. This is his first time working on Sonic without his writing partner Mike Kanterovich, so let’s see how that goes.

Fair enough, sacrificing a few Swatbots for a test isn’t much of a loss when you have about a zillion of the things lying around.

You know, I never would have picked Robotnik as the type to outsource his work to an AI… (snorts) Nah, I can’t keep a straight face. I can totally picture him asking Grok to figure out the perfect way to eliminate his enemies. He’d probably also use Grok to create deepfakes of said enemies too, the creep. Come to think of it, maybe that’s where all that fanart of Sonic with bare feet comes from. :P 

Nice ambush, Sonic didn’t even see E.V.E. coming!

While this is generally good life advice, most of the time the consequences of wishing for something without really thinking it through doesn’t involve homicidal robots trying to blast you. …unless you’re Sonic.

Maybe it was the Wicked Wobot of the West?

Did… did Robotnik just make a joke at his own expense? That’s really not his style, but I don’t know how else to interpret that graphic on his monitor showing him with a peanut for a brain.

Ew, that looks like T-1000 goo, only yuckier and more viscous. Hmmm… would turning into a giant wasp have made the T-1000 more intimidating or just seem silly?

Err… what? Looks I need to break out this again:

“This bumblebee isn’t serving tuna.” What in God’s name is that even supposed to mean? Even by Penders’ usual standards, this sentence makes no sense at all.

What plan? “Attack first and ask questions never”? Still, credit to Sonic for putting all the pieces together. He’s not as dumb as he looks.

I think Robotnik really needs to update his security system. This isn’t the first time Sonic has just waltzed in here like the King of England.

…do you think Ken Penders watched Aladdin right before he wrote this script?

This is the fourth time Robotnik has explained that E.V.E. is pretty much unstoppable, and it’s starting to wear thin. We get it already!

So I guess this issue's title is a lie - it's called "3 Phases of E.V.E." and yet this is the fourth phase. Checkmate, idiots. :P

I quite like the way that Robotnik’s little science experiment went wrong. Having Sonic’s goodness win out over Robotnik’s evil is a pretty fun plot twist. I just don’t see how Robotnik is going to get out of this one!

…oh. I guess that’s how - he doesn’t get out of this one!

Do you think Sonic, Tails and Snively rehearsed syncronising that line?

Wait, what about Sonic’s goodness overpowering Robotnik’s evil in E.V.E? Why does she still want to murderise him? But once again Sonic proves that he can be pretty smart when he wants to be. Using nothing but reason, he manages to talk E.V.E. out of zapping him into the great beyond right alongside Robotnik.

Snively is having a day.

Snively’s feelings towards Robotnik were very different back in the old days. It’s going to be interesting watching that change over time. Because of course Robotnik isn’t gone for good.

Wow, what a debut for Patrick Spaziante! While not his first work on the series, this was his first time doing both cover art and a full interior story. Not only did he get to draw a bunch of cool fight scenes, but he even got to draw Robotnik being vaporised! This issue obviously isn't his best work, as he would improve significantly over the years, but it's still a really strong beginning for his work on the series. I like the story too, with Robotnik falling to mostly his own hubris.