Insider Treading, the S158 back story written and illustrated by the team of Mike Gallagher and Dave Manak, managed to live up to my low expectations for it. In sum: a back alley rendezvous between Sonic and Mike Pellerito is interrupted by a Mysterious Figure who calls himself Blackstage. He identifies himself as an industry insider with access to top-secret behind-the-scenes Sonic footage....
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp OK, maybe youre wondering as I was how the word footage applies to a comic book. Seems Blackstage is bent on stripping away this titles respectability {Its a little late for THAT, buckaroo) by showing the readers a blooper reel exposing years of manipulation and deception.
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp The results are less of a blooper reel and more like a series of disjointed one-panel gags with the premise that if this comic were a TV show the audience would become disillusioned and abandon it should the curtain be pulled away. Unfortunately for Blackstage, Sonic and Mike see that the audience is attuned to what Mike calls reality-based entertainment ... survival shows, cameras in houses 24/7, goofy home videos, debunked magicians, intrusive media. Which is nowhere near the reason why this wretched comic continues to sell. Sonic, however, does come closer to the truth: (The fans) still love us.
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Ive long believed that fan love of the characters, not the quality of the finished product, has kept the comic in business in spite of some of the very stories Blackstage threatens with exposure. Unfortunately, he reveals the WRONG information about some of those stories. Cmon, Gallagher, wheres your backbone? Wheres the courage of your convictions? Why didnt you document the REAL reality behind this comic?
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp The Blackstage reel purports to show Sonic being blue-screened to demonstrate him freeing himself from the Ultimate Annihilator in S50's installment of Endgame. Left unsaid was the communication breakdown that led Ken Penders to write a 40-page finale for Endgame on the assumption that the 50th issue would rate a 48-page special, only to have management decide that it would be a 32-pager after all, necessitating cutting the script down to size. The resulting editing process yielded a script that was nothing short of abysmal, an embarrassment that could not be covered by the fig leaf of changing artists every other page or so. The Ultimate Annihilator sequence (and much of the rest of the story, from the Robotnik flashback/dream sequence forward) was so incoherent, and Archie Comics was so inundated by a tsunami of WTF letters, that they ended up re-releasing the Endgame finale as a 48-page special anyway as an exercise in damage control. Too bad THAT story couldnt have made the Blackstage expose.
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Same with the legendary stinker Naugus Games in Special #15. Blackstage purports to shows that they used stunt doubles in the comic book ... Ill wait a minute for the absurdity of that point to sink in. OK. Too bad he didnt reveal the REAL double-dealing behind that story: that it was drawn not by some hack calling himself Many Hands but by the then-editor of the book, Justin Gabrie, who produced artwork that was so atrocious he should have remembered why he was editing the book instead of illustrating it. It wouldnt surprise me if Gabrie had written the story as well; its certainly no surprise that he then hung this badly-drawn and badly-written albatross around the neck of Ken Penders, who has disavowed any connection with the story. Justin also hung the adaptation of Cry of the Wolf in S113 on Karl Bollers, who likewise wanted no credit/blame for it. Maybe that was one of the tactics he used as Editor to keep the writers in line: holding a gun to their resumes.
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp There are so many more REAL reality bits that deserve telling. He could have discussed how Jonathan Grays rewrite of Love and Loss had to undergo a last minute rewrite of the ending because the package containing his page art had been left sitting out in the rain for three days literally on the doorstep of Archie Comics (Jon actually tells that story himself on his Web site). Or how Ken Penders and Karl Bollers got so wrapped up in battles over who was going to be the King of Continuity for the comic that the quality of the writing deteriorated while they were busy with their little off-panel pissing contest. Or the REAL reason Justin Gabrie is no longer editing the comic.
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp But you get the idea. If theres anything Gallagher got right, it was Sonics throwaway observation that despite the quality of the comic ranging from the merely mediocre to the totally crappy, they still love us.
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp I got my lesson in fan love when I opened the Princess Sally Memorial Cybershrine during the aforementioned Endgame. If Ken Penders was really going to go ahead and kill off Sally (as he admitted he wanted to do when the project was in development), I felt that she was deserving of a better send-off than the comic could have provided. Still, I was surprised by the response, both in numbers and in intensity. Thats when I realized that the fans would forever be out in front of the comic in their commitment to it and to the characters. Especially to the characters: the fans have embraced their quirks and feelings and (here comes the R-word) even their relationships with each other. The comic creators and management have never gotten it.
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Insider Treading is another stupid Off-Panel story that still made me think about the comic itself. My thoughts may not be to the liking of the real insiders, but thats just me.

(The preceding represents my own opinion and not those of anyone currently or formerly connected with the comic, so if you gotta flame someone you know where to find me)