20 Years of Sonic The Comic: A Tribute
Britain’s
fortnightly Sonic The Comic turns twenty this year. Published by Egmont Fleetway, the series, which ran from
1993 to 2002, was originally conceived as more of a Sega comic. The book
featuring a lead strip featuring Sonic but also backup strips featuring other
Sega titles like Golden Axe, Shinobi, Wonder Boy and Streets of Rage. Over
time, the focus shifted further in the direction of Sonic eventually dropping
all other strips entirely (with the notable exception of Decap Attack, a strip
initially used to advertise a now little known game but which evolved into
something of a pet project for writer and artist Nigel Kitching).
STC was my first introduction to comics, I first picked it
up at issue 101, just missing out on the issue widely considered to be the best
in the series….*sigh*. Nonetheless, I was hooked and bought every issue from
then on up until the series’ cancellation. I have many fond memories of the
series, of taking my copies to school and reading them on my lunch break,
re-enacting scenes with m friends and of my first tastes of freedom as a child
when I was allowed to go into town by myself to buy it from the newsagent. The
series has been with me my whole life and means a lot to me. But my love of STC
is not only nostalgia talking, it was a genuinely great comic.