{"id":1728,"date":"2022-11-17T09:27:51","date_gmt":"2022-11-17T15:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reviewordie.wordpress.com\/?p=1728"},"modified":"2024-02-09T21:27:20","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T21:27:20","slug":"no-need-for-sonic-a-happy-commission-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cmykavenger.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/17\/no-need-for-sonic-a-happy-commission-story\/","title":{"rendered":"No Need For Sonic! – A happy commission story."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I had the good fortune to get a commission from Rik Mack, who has been in the Sonic fandom for a long while and is currently an inker for the IDW Sonic series (check out the Tails’ 30th Anniversary Special<\/em>, on sale now, and I get nothing for plugging it!) You may recognize him from his restoration of Sonic Universe #95<\/a>, which went unpublished due to Archie making a series of absolutely crazy decisions and losing the license. Sort of a Fallout Van Buren<\/em> situation, but without Fallout New Vegas<\/em> to make up for it on IDW’s part. (Seriously, I get why it’s not happening, but that is a bummer.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll be honest: I’m writing this article as a part two to my Ken Penders commission article<\/a>, because this was a great experience with a professional and a great final piece. The chance to break down the piece’s individual components are a lot of fun, and I doubt I’ll ever have the chance to do something like this in the bonus features of a Fantagraphics collection. Here’s the commission: No Need For Sonic!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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No Need for Sonic! – Rik Mack, 2022<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I’ve always liked Ultimate Spider-Man’s <\/em>love triangles, and Sonic’s were no different. The idea of all four characters coming to confess their affections to Sonic at once was intriguing to me, so I wrote a script (which we altered throughout the course of the commission) for a half-page splash of a comic that didn’t exist. It’s a glimpse into what I might have done a few issues after #144, where the figurative romantic board had been shuffled, with a story I called No Need for Sonic<\/em>! in honor of Tenchi Muyo!<\/em>. A few issues gave time for some hot tempers to cool off, for the characters to become comfortably single, and investigate the chemistry that seemed to be present with these characters… and having some fun with the love triangles for once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took me halfway through the process to realize exactly what I was doing: rejecting the ethos of this cover.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Rouge isn’t even in this comic! God I hate this.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

I’m not going to go on for too long about how bad this story is, but it’s meanspirited, nasty, and just gross to read. Even Jon Gray’s art stops about halfway through, being replaced by Al Bigley and taking away the only good thing in that entire issue in the process. Even the inking is bad, with Al Milgrom looking like a drunken baboon. Go to this link to see the good version of that story’s<\/a> <\/a>art.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cover itself is frustrating too. Watching women tear each other down over a dude is completely uninteresting, and unappealing to girls in particular. But the cover was actually made more <\/em>competitive than its preview. Not only that, Sonic loves that they’re fighting over him. It’s both stupid and boring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s what is interesting: watching them compete for a dude’s affections while he tries to figure out what to do, or remains oblivious to the whole thing. There’s actually an entire genre of anime for that. And, as it so happens, a company that became famous for silly shenanigans involving love triangles.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I wonder why that never bled in to the Sonic comics.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

To fit what I had in mind, there were four basic tenets in putting this piece together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1: The picture should be tonally appropriate for a kid, and not something to feel uncomfortable hanging up around them if you bought it from a convention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2: The picture should not be cheesecake in disguise.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Steven Butler – 2019. And somebody in this process made it weird. [Original here<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

3: The characters should not be trying to tear each other down when showing their affection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4: This should be fun and funny!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally, I think he succeeded on all counts. The absolute closest we got to breaking any of these was Bunnie being on the hood of the racecar bed, which was something of a joke about girls on cars: but it was mostly a blocking issue. We still spent a lot of time fine-tuning her position to keep it from seeming risque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally this was meant to just be a character piece with enough background items to give it a sense of place. But as it so happens, the two of us are Don Rosa and Jon Gray fans – the chance to do a reference heavy trophy room got the better of us, and we bounced off each other through conversation and his drafts to add more and more stuff. I’m going to walk through the room for where each of these pieces came from, starting with the stuff that’s not <\/em>from Archie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chili dogs: The favorite food of the American version of Sonic the Hedgehog. The poster was all him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonic SatAM<\/em> Backpack: The backpack on the floor is based off of Sonic’s in that cartoon, which was shown most heavily in the pilot episode \u201cHeads or Tails.\u201d You can also see it in the theme song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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