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Archie Sonic Issue #3

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This cover has always made me laugh, but not for the reason that it wants, what with that lame "no smoking" gag up in the corner there. No, it's the insistence from these 2 goofballs that their comic is the absolute best on the rack that I find extremely funny. I just love to imagine some guy walking down the comic aisle when this issue was out, seeing it right next to stuff like The Killing Joke, or Watchmen, or any other of the big crazy comic events that were relatively new at the time, and he's like, "no, THIS is definitely the best comic here, no question". But then again, I'm the dork who's writing an entire blog about this series, so I guess I'm in no position to judge. I wish I had even HALF the confidence in myself that the people marketing Sonic in the 90s had in their mascot to make jabs like this. The sheer audacity is truly something to behold. To be fair, I suppose you could argue this issue is pretty important, given that we're...

Archie Sonic Issue #2

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Yeah so, I've read this issue front to back, and there is not a mention of "Robotnik's Rats" anywhere in sight. This is blatantly false advertisement, and I demand my $1.25 back, Archie. Aside from that, this cover is... fine, I guess. Sonic running from the corner box into the wanted poster is a cute detail, and it's decently well-drawn overall, even if it has nothing to do with the stories inside. Before I jump into this first story, some background information is in order. As I said back in my first review, the early days of Archie Sonic are an incredibly bizarre mix of elements from all the different branches of the franchise that were being produced at the same time. So far, the main result of this has been some major dissonance between the setting and tone of this universe, where we have the much more serious SatAM setup, but the much goofier writing style you would find in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. However, this issue marks a major turning point: no...

Archie Sonic Issue #1

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As we transition over to the main Archie Sonic series, we settle into a pretty familiar rhythm for about the first year or so of the new comic's run. Mike Gallagher officially settles in as the de facto head writer (although we will start to see other writers emerge before too long), and Dave Manak takes over not just as the main penciler inside the book, but also as the sole cover artist all the way until Issue 20, after which a certain "Spaz" shows up and becomes one of the all-time Archie Sonic greats. But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's just focus on this issue for now. While I'm not too big of a fan of most of Dave Manak's covers down the road, I have to admit this one is some really solid stuff. It's chaotic and dynamic, without being overwhelming. It shows off Sonic and Robotnik's nemesis dynamic perfectly, and makes Robotnik's Badniks seem genuinely imposing and threatening, something that, as we'll soon be reminded in a minut...