The song NOW AND THEN has stuck with me ever since its release, representing the official end of The Beatles song catalog. Very few acts ever get a chance to close the book on the sum total of their work.
I think one of the reasons the song persists in my head – beyond my enjoyment of it on various levels – is that one of the items I’ve been bothered over the years is I never really got the chance to close the book on the work I did for the Archie SONIC series. Specifically, I never got to close the book properly with KNUCKLES.
Some say the story AFTERLIFE was closing the book, but it didn’t. Not really.
Recently, while looking through my art files for various pieces, including unseen layouts and script pages to add as features to the KNUCKLES OMNIBUS volumes I’m putting together for release, I came across the script and page layouts to the one story that would close the book on my tenure with the Knuckles character: KNUCKLES TWENTY YEARS LATER.
As you can see by the layout of page 1, I wasn’t pulling any punches with this one. I open with Julie-Su learning she’s pregnant with Knuckles’s baby. At the time this page was written and laid out, I had depicted Julie-Su riding on a Streaking Pasha, and I wanted to retain that element as part of her character. It also lent a feeling that not everything operated on hi-tech in the society.
The story as originally written was also much darker, a SONIC equivalent of the film THE DARK KNIGHT, if you will.
Interestingly, the version of Robotnik seen in this story was the giant robot version seen in Chapter 3 of the SONIC LIVE! SPECIAL. What surprised me even more – and I had forgotten about all of this when creating THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES – was the sequence where Knuckles is conversing with his version of Alfred as he’s trying to figure out and understand what Robotnik’s endgame is. The Alfred character, whose name is Isaac in this story, essentially replies “Some men just want to see the world burn.”
Considering this story was written in 1999 and originally slated for publication in SONIC SUPER SPECIAL issue 9 – and I have proof – I bring this up because when I read what I wrote back in the day, my immediate reaction was I’m going to hear a lot of complaints I ripped off THE DARK KNIGHT. Sorry, but no. I wrote it first and I’m leaving that conversation in.
As I read the script, I couldn’t help but notice which elements of the story I kept and those I didn’t over the years, evolving from K20YL to M25YL to finally THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES. The main reason for the changes was that Sonic Editor Justin Gabrie wanted me to use Sonic in the story in exchange for writer Karl Bollers being able to use Knuckles in the present day Sonic stories.
The important part is that KNUCKLES TWENTY YEARS LATER represents the last KNUCKLES story I created and was paid for. While it’s new in the sense it never saw publication due to the cancellation of the SONIC SUPER SPECIAL series, it’s still part of the body of work I created and submitted for publication.
As a result, the inclusion of KNUCKLES TWENTY YEARS LATER in the KNUCKLES OMNIBUS set will mark the closure of my work on the KNUCKLES series I created and developed as a vehicle for Knuckles, his friends and family, his enemies and all his adventures. I couldn’t ask for more. I hope the readers will enjoy it once it sees print sometime by 2027 by my estimation.
Keep checking back here for further updates.
Knuckles 20 Years Later is something Cluster and I have discussed with one another multiple times, wishing we got to experience it for ourselves. I’m so thrilled to hear we’ll finally get the chance to read it together when that volume of your Knuckles Omnibus releases!
I think it was a little bit ago when you first mentioned the possibility of including the story in the omnibus, so I appreciate that you took your time in considering whether or not you’d do this. I’m obviously very happy with the decision you ultimately landed on. 🙂
It’s good to see Knuckles stories that could’ve been or what will be in your omnibus.
What was cut and not used that you are using now correct?
My Beatles song favorites are “in my life”. I love that Elizabethan piano in the middle of the song. Beatles songs are relaxing and great. The songs remind me of my parents. They introduced me to some great songs. They had records and tapes they would play as a child.
I mean was that knuckles stories cut and you added it to omnibus? That’s what I’m trying to ask.
Just making sure I understood you clearly.