Not so much an ode as it is a written tribute. Ode just made for a cooler title.
Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back once again! July 19th, late into the evening, Sega of America announced that it ended its partnership with Archie Comics, the then publisher of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic, thus resulting in the cancellation of the comic. As this post is being written, The official Sonic Twitter has already announced that a new partnership has been made with IDW. Even so, I still wanted to give my own send off to the Archie comic in a short post.
Now I'll be completely honest: I've only started really dabbling into the Archie comic series a year and half ago, before then I had only bought one comic from a few years ago (Issue 241 to be exact) only because it was Sonic the Hedgehog. Some reading this may be thinking why am I writing about this issue then. The main reason is because I am a fan of Sonic and the Archie Comic had been going on for nearly as long as the character's existed. Almost a quarter of a century, 290 issues, and various spin offs. It's a part of the character's legacy, just like all the games and cartoons are; and to see it end with a whimper, to see it not hit issue 300, and worst of for the people who worked on it be out of a job is heartbreaking.
For those who may not know, I was a fan of the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon better known as Satam. At the time of its creation, there wasn't a lot of backstory to Sonic, so the show's creators made their own mythos, and created their own characters, with a darker tone that still had the sense of fun the Sonic games had, and when the show was cancelled after its second season when there was more story to tell was upsetting. So seeing the characters of Satam living on in the Archie comics years after the show's cancellation made me happy. And now with it gone and this new IDW comic coming in 2018, there's a good possibility that the Knothole Freedom Fighters will be cast aside in favor of having the comics be closer to the games. Sally Acorn and the rest of the Freedom Fighters helped make the world of Sonic (in the comics) feel larger. that there was this long history that made the dynamic between Sonic and Eggman feel more personal, and made Eggman that much more evil in my eyes. The chances of those characters showing up in the actual Sonic games were already slim to none, but the idea that this new IDW comic might give the Freedom Fighters the ax and add them to long list of forgotten Sonic characters is really disheartening.
For a comic based on a video game character, to maintain itself for 24 years, is an impressive feat. The Sonic Archie comics, much like the games they're based on, is a series that has many ups and downs. And as the door closes on it, I think readers of the series (long-time or newer) can look back on it, throughout all the good and the bad, with a smile. Sayonara Archie Sonic.
And til next time folks, I'm the Shaman of Animation. Take care...
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