Re: A few things: (Actually, a lot!)

From: <KenP7672_at_aol.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 20:14:05 -0400

Dan,

I would compare working on SONIC to be almost as complex as working on STAR
TREK, which I have done for both DC Comics and Malibu. When working on any
TREK-related series, the primary guideline was anything filmed was considered
"official" TREK history. It's only now that some novels or certain projects
contain "official" information considered part of TREK lore. Even so, nothing
printed in comics is deemed official. In fact, Roddenberry supposedly
disavowed the animation series he spearheaded back in the early '70's, even
though it features stories by such TREK luminaries as D.C. Fontana, David
Gerrold and Walter Koenig. Not to mention the voices of the ORIGINAL CAST!!!
As far as I'm aware, even though Gene's ashes are scattered out in space,
Paramount still doesn't acknowledge the animated series.

So if you operate on the premise that the source material is the official
history, it's hit or miss when transferring the characters, stories or series
to other media. By this thinking, whatever material SEGA puts out is
official. Anything else put out by other media, such as the comics or TV
series is official only as long as SEGA deems it so. If there are
discrepancies, and there are many too numerous to go into here, it's not
because anyone wants to deliberately confuse anyone. It's due more to a lack
of any dedicated resources co-ordinating details concerning the world of
SONIC.

Even Mike and I get it wrong ourselves. For instance, in A SENSE OF HISTORY
Part One, we showed a hedgehog pounding a sign into the ground with his
family standing nearby. We originally had on the sign "Future Site of
Knothole Village", as we thought it would be a neat bit to state that
Knothole Village stands where the Floating Island once existed. However, when
we wrote that, Mike Gallagher was only beginning to write the TAILS
mini-series. After he established the world of Downunda and Knuckles'
grandfather Athair, it was decided it made more sense since echidnas come
from Austrailia to have the Floating Island originate from Downunda. Due to a
rush of deadlines at this time, I wasn't even made aware of this until I saw
the printed story.

The only bible I ever worked with in regards to the SONIC comic series was
the one for the ABC Saturday morning series and character model sheets from
SEGA, and that was it. I had to depend on my 8-year-old son Stephen to keep
me in line regarding SONIC as he is a HUGE fan. (A side note here: I got
involved with SONIC because he is my son's FAVORITE character.)

When Mike and I started working on the series, we were submitting stories
based on what Mike Gallagher was doing, as he was the primary writer at the
time. With each passing story, we started getting subversive and began
emphasizing more of the adventure aspects and less of the bad puns, using
humor when called for, and not doing a gag at the expense of the story. If
you go back and reread those early issues, you'll see how we gradually began
to steer the book in the direction we wanted rather than maintaining the
status quo. However, we could not have done this had the folks at SEGA not
been receptive to what we were trying to do.

Of all the ideas we submitted, the original story proposal for the PRINCESS
SALLY mini-series is the one I'm sorry didn't get off the ground, but I think
we more than made up for it with the KNUCKLES mini-series.

"Battle-hardened" describes an attitude, not tactics. If Sonic and Sally and
company had been fighting for over ten years with Robotnik, they'd have the
attitude and look reminiscent of soldiers fighting in the trenches during
World War II. And we'd love to do that, but we can't because of our young
audience. As it is, in order to get anything with an edge through, we use
Disney as our guideline, as in: If Disney can do it in their cartoons, why
can't we in our comics.

As for Sonic's history, Mike and I have a rough timeline and what stories
we'd like to document about that timeline. For instance, if you read SONIC
#36, we mention Robotnik's mentor Kodos, who is going to feature very
prominently in the series after issue #50. In #17, we showed Robotnik taking
over Mobotropolis, and portray Julayla getting Sonic and Sally to safety.
Although we didn't have the room, Rosie was there as well, making sure that
Tails was escorted safely out of the war zone. Antoine and Rotor were at the
front lines, and beat a retreat to fight another day. Tails' parents were
among those roboticized, and we have yet to decide how or if we'll
incorporate them into the series. Y'see, we can answer your questions
regarding continuity, but this is the Archie version APPROVED by SEGA.

I apologize for rambling, but I tried to answer your letter the best way I
could to explain why things are the way they are. This is not meant to
detract from the fan-fic, which for reasons I'm sure you understand, I don't
read and can't comment on. If the fans want to fill in the blanks, that's
what TREK fans have been doing the past 30 years, and there's been no end to
any of the debate regardless.
 

Received on Tue Apr 30 1996 - 21:52:04 PDT