Whether Good or Bad, Your Comments Are Appreciated

I know there are some people who feel I post things just to piss them off specifically or troll them in general, but that’s really not the case. I post either to inform or seek out commentary to guide in my decision-making process where my projects are concerned. I mean, if I’m going to invest time and money in a project I’m working on, I want to have some idea the effort will be worth it at the end of the day.

Case in point is the KEN PENDERS’ KNUCKLES OMNIBUS VOLUME 1 project that’s one of three projects I’m moving forward on at this time.

I recently posted two of the pages my colorist Ethan had finished to gauge what the general reaction was. Before I say anything more, I want to make it clear I was originally inclined to go with the original coloring used on the story THIS ISLAND HEDGEHOG, but after the release of THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS, I was receiving a lot of requests about future reprint plans of previously published material.

The people contacting me stated for the most part that the coloring and editorial changes made to the stories for the SONIC and KNUCKLES ARCHIVES and other reprint collections didn’t exactly float their boat, and were pushing for something better.

When Ethan submitted his samples while expressing an interest in taking on the task of recoloring the stories, I was impressed with his approach, making the coloring match as close to the original games as possible. I was also intrigued, because on the one hand, people were contacting me to be absolutely faithful to the original color version, whereas on the other hand, some people were making out the final printed version in SONIC issue 13 to be the work of art it never really was.

A bit of back story is necessary here. Prior to the writing of the story THIS ISLAND HEDGEHOG, my then-partner Mike Kanterovich and I had already submitted a number of story pitches to Paul Castiglia, who was the Archie Editor designated at the time to deal with the writers of the SONIC stories. Paul gave us the go-ahead to turn in complete scripts for 3 stories, all of which represented the complete contents for SONIC issue 11. Once the scripts for those stories were faxed to Paul, he requested we do an adaptation of the new SONIC 3 game featuring a new character named Knuckles.

As we were writing the story, Paul was replaced by Scott Fulop, who was charged with being the new editor of the SONIC series. While Paul handled the writers, Archie Comics Editor-In-Chief Victor Gorelick dealt with the artists. Victor was never comfortable editing SONIC, so with Scott’s hiring, Paul became the odd man out while Scott was figuring out the direction he wanted to take the book in.

Since there were no inventory stories to help ease the deadline crush, Scott had to run with what he had, which meant THIS ISLAND HEDGEHOG didn’t receive the care and attention later stories would receive. As the story progressed from writing to penciling to lettering to inking and finally to coloring, it wasn’t until the story was set up on the printing press that SEGA decided the story needed to be pulled.

At that point, Scott informed SEGA he would have to pull both the cover and the story off the printing press, thereby incurring a cancellation charge as well as late fees. On top of that, release of the issue would be delayed by two to three works as Scott would’ve had to commission a new story to replace the one on the presses.

Realizing the cost of pulling the story outweighed simply letting it run, SEGA capitulated and the story was published.

From my perspective, there were numerous flaws with the story, chief among them the coloring as well as artist Dave Manak not correcting my mistakes in the layouts, to say nothing of inker Jon D’Agostino’s approach to the inks. But you get what you paid for. Colorist Barry Grossman was as professional as they come, but he was only getting $20 a page for coloring, and Archie was more interested in volume, not quality. Barry was never supplied with the proper reference to go by for coloring the SONIC stories. Likewise, Jon D’Agostino was content receiving $55 a page inking Dan DeCarlo’s Archie pages, but balked when asked to take on SONIC for the same page rate. Even with the extra $20 per page he received, Jon was a journeyman who simply cranked out to meet a page count for the bottom line on his paycheck.

When reviewing the pages with Ethan, he pointed out the corrections he felt needed to be made, and as you can see in the corrected page 11 displayed above, I approved Ethan removing the foliage in the background in the panels where it was clear our heroes were inside Robotnik’s ship instead of outside in the jungle.

Ethan’s samples also were rendered to establish further continuity with the games, including making Tails appear more like his game self. While I had no issue with the change, my app programmer Patrick pointed out as much as he liked Ethan’s coloring and some of the changes he made for the sake of consistency with the games, including Tails design, he hated the idea of losing Dave Manak’s approach and asked me to at least restore Dave’s interpretation of Tails.

After Patrick expressed his sentiments, I knew a much broader reaction was called for, and so I posted two of the pages featuring Ethan’s recoloring to gauge the general reaction. What I came away with was the following:

• Overall, the reaction to Ethan’s work was overwhelmingly positive. If I was surprised by anything, it was the greater appreciation of artist Dave Manak’s work that resulted from the recoloring. Going forward, as Ethan was already 2/3rds of the way recoloring PANIC IN THE SKY, I told him to continue doing what he had been doing, especially with regards to Tails, but commencing with all the stories following, he was not to make any changes to any penciler & inker’s work unless he had my prior approval.
• With regards to those who want to see the stories with their original coloring, THIS ISLAND HEDGEHOG will feature its original coloring with no changes when it sees print eventually in SONIC OMNIBUS VOLUME 1. (And no, I’m not saying anything more about this because that book is at least two to four years away from seeing print.)
• The main changes going forward will be evident with the cover art, featuring the removal of all Archie-related trade dress. The KNUCKLES covers especially will only feature the KNUCKLES LOGO when printed individually. That said, as a special feature, I’m looking to see the covers of KNUCKLES THE DARK LEGION 1, 2 & 3 collected as one image and printed as a foldout with the logos. The same applies to the covers of KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA issues 4, 5 & 6.

Lest anyone expect everything in the KNUCKLES OMNIBUS to be recolored to the extent displayed in the current samples, based on the timeline set for this project, that’s simply not possible.

Right now, I’m working on the book layout, figuring out how many pages I need for the additional material that will be included in the book so I can provide a page count to the printer so we can begin to work on the specifics including shipping and pricing. I anticipate if all goes well that pre-orders for the book will begin sometime mid-to-late September.

The book itself has 20 weeks starting now to get into shape to ship for the printer, as we’re looking to turn over the final digital files to the printer by mid-January with an eye to having copies on hand available for Wonder Con 2025 in late March and throughout the convention season.

While everyone who orders a copy of KNUCKLES OMNIBUS will have the ability to select which version they wish to order, I will be reminding people of one condition required to be in the running for a copy of this cover version:

As there will only be 100 copies featuring the above-displayed cover, it will be sold on a 1st come-1st served basis only to those who previously purchased a copy of THE LARA-SU CHRONICLES: BEGINNINGS. If someone orders this and is not on the list of previous buyers, their money will be refunded.

I feel this is the fairest way to handle the limited availability situation considering the amount of people who have already purchased BEGINNINGS.

Also, anyone wanting a signed copy can purchase a signed bookplate they can then place inside their book once they receive their copy. The only other way to obtain a signed copy will be by purchasing the book at one of my convention appearances.

This book will be the first time I supply a Certificate of Authenticity with a Mobian Line publication.

In addition, I am also working to get THE LARA-SU APP ready for release sometime later this year, which will include additional pages from SHATTERED TOMORROWS as well as at least 2 or 3 new Data files.

Once the app and KNUCKLES OMNIBUS are released, my focus will be solely on completing SHATTERED TOMORROWS for release sometime late 2025 or early 2026 at the latest.

As usual, if anyone has questions regarding something I didn’t address in this post, feel free to email me. Thanks for all your support and take care in the meantime.