Over the years, we've had dozens of writers for our fave blue blur. But which one would you say is the best and worst? There's plenty to choose from. The big 3, I'd have to say, would be Mike Gallagher (thought Ken was on the book long? This guy has been around since the very beginning, and still writes a script now and then), Ken Penders (gone after 12 long years, probably has written more stories than any of the other writers in the book's history), and Karl Bollers (head writer for more than half of the book's history. Left recently, as well).
Of course, there have been many other writers over the years, from Angelo Decesare to Romy Chacon. Who are your faves and least faves? My 2 faves are probably Gallagher and Penders.
I've always had a love for Gallagher's stories. Perhaps its just nostalgia, having begun my collection with issue 6. Of course, he's more of a goofy writer than the others (the puns...oh, the puns...), but he's still spun some really great yarns in his day (Mecha Madness, anyone?).
I've always admired Ken's sharp writing, especially in the Knuckles series. However, I always thought he was a bit "mature" for the book's target audience. Hey, when you're six years old, it can reasonably be hard to understand a story such as "3 Phases of E.V.E."(#21). But now, reading his stories that went over my head way back when, I've developed a new appreciation for his writing.
Karl Bollers, unfortunately, wasn't one of my faves. I have to say I never found his stories quite as interesting as the others (the Nate Morgan and Sword of Acorns storylines boring me to tears the most), but still had some smash hits in my book (the Sonic Adventure adaptation and Return to Angel Island are two of my personal faves).
So, I've voiced my opinion. What's yours?
I always liked Gallaghers writing style best. He wrote some good light-hearted stories for Sonic Kids 2, it's just his parodies that get irksome. You know the ones, Freedom Fighters of the Future and Sonic Spin City. And the Off Panel features are just bad, period.
Kens work in both Sonic and Knuckles was good back in the day. But he reached his peak with the Knuckles series. His work since then has been much weaker, perhaps he became dispirited from having to shorten all the stories he had planned for future issues of Knuckles so they could fit as back-up stories in the main pages of Sonic. As much as I appreciate the Knuckles series, it's for the best that he was voted off the island.
The collective entity known only as "Romy Chacon" is one of the worst writers'. A few good stories, nothing I'd say was outstanding, but the Tommy Trilogy, that Tails and Muttski story, and the Nicole one were pretty lame. I didn't care much for the Chosen One story, it didn't convince me of why it had to be Tails over everyone else... but I've always hated these "chosen one" prophecies in whatever comic book, TV show or film it pops up in.
Karl Bollers had some good ideas, but they weren't executed that well. His Benny Lee stories were liek an excuse to write trash. I don't care what people say about him "experimenting", it was like he was experimenting in fluff. But even witout the Benny Lee stories to his credit, the Sword of Acorns storyline is recognised as a low point for the series.
Danny Fingeroth, he only went writing for a little while but I liked his work. "Heart of the Hedgehog" was one my favorite issues in the whole comic.
Unlike artists, I don't have any faves in terms of writers. Romy Chacon bringing back Tommy Turtle annoyed me so much that I could give Chacon the "worse" title, but that wouldn't be accurate.
I've never had much of a problem with the writers in terms of execution of things. I just don't like some storylines and I can't think of any writer that hasn't both annoyed or impressed me.
Difficult. I'd rather take the problem from "what are your fave stories ?" and deduce the writers but a "story" is a relative thing in a comic book.
I always thought Ken Penders was the best; his storylines were so complex and intricate. See my editorial on True Red's site.
Worst...Whoever wrote "eel of Fortune"
I always liked Ken and Karl's early works, which in that regard makes me consider them the best writers. I liked how Ken and co-plotters Angelo Decesare and Kent Taylor turned the comic into the go-to place for SatAM needing their fix. I also liked the run-up to issue 50. Between Mecha Madness and #50, the comic had this way of upping the ante between Robotnik and the FFs without forcing it via direct confrontations.
As for Karl, I liked the search for Naugus arc and his way of slowly bringing Robotnik back into prominence, but then things started going downhill after the adaptations of the story-heavy Sonic Adventure games turned the comic into a balancing act of satisfying both older readers and Dreamcast/GameCube-era fans, often satisfying neither. The balancing act continues to this day, as the disparity between the two grows wider. Although I have been critical of Ian Flynn, I understand that he's in an unenviable position of maintaining the balancing act.
As for the worst writers...no doubt it's Gallagher. After all the evolution the series narrative has gone through, his stories have never really adapted to the times. Having Manak as his personal penciller doesn't really help his stories out much either. I think those two work for the wrong comic. If there were an AoStH comic, they would thrive.
I would say for the best writer, that's a real hard one to say, because their has been a lot of really good writer's over the years at Archie Comics?
But as for the worst writer, I'm going to have to say Ian Flynn as of late. Don't get me wrong, but I will agree that he has done some good on STH and Sonic X. When he first started working on Archie's, STH. But now, for the last few months. Ian has been going down hill (off and on) faster then Sonic, Scourge and/or Shadow can run!
I don't really have a favorite, all of them have had their good and bad stories.
