The Fleetway issues had a noticeable difference within the tone of the various strips, a wide demographic of more mature, serious storylines compared to a much sillier, random storyline.
The former of these types were usually noticeable in the main Sonic and Knuckles storyline, whereas the latter came in the form of Tails and Amy stories. The more mature and serious storylines, and also the ones which ran on for several parts, were mostly written by Nigel Kitching, whilst the sillier and attempted funnier storylines that were single part affairs were done so Lew Stringer.
My question is, was there a right mix? The mature storylines were no doubt aimed primarily at an older audience whilst the sillier affairs were aimed at the younger spectrum of the readership. But did this work, and were the sillier stories particularly successful?
I remember being around 8-10 when I read the issues, and I mainly captivated by the Sonic the Hedgehog storylines, and had little interest within the Tails and Amy storylines, yet the Knuckles issues, with many of the themes and types of stories that were ran were either not very well understood by myself or underappreciated. Yet still, being at a relatively young age whilst reading it, I preferred the more thought out storylines and intertwining episodes within the Sonic the Hedgehog strip, such as the Drakon and Brotherhood of Metallix storylines, that usually ended up conjoining with the Knuckles strips. The well done and higher quality art by Richard Nelson no doubt probably played a part, though.
What is your personal opinion on the variety of the more mature and sillier themes? Did they both work well, and was it a right mix to have in the Fleetway comic, or would one or the other had been more suitable? Was the gap between the two themes perhaps too wide, with one being perhaps too mature in storylines (Smokey and the Badnik) and the other theme too silly (Tails misadventures with the Teletubbies and giant chocolate pudding)? Do you believe the two themes accomplished what they had set out to do?
Honestly, I thought the majority (if not all) of the 'silly' stories to be usually either poor or just plain awful. It didn't help that they were usually accompanied by either bland or substandard artwork, either. This must have been when I was about 8-12ish as well, so I was hardly out of the target demographic.
I agree completely that the Sonic and Knuckles stories were far more interesting (the early Tails stories, like the Zonerunner or fantasy-like setting whose name escapes me were quite good on occasion too). I full well know that it's harder to write comedy than it is to write a 'serious' story, but even the main, arc long stories had humourous moments. It's not like the writers were incapable, it's just that I imagine the silly stories were seen as filler and not treated with much effort.
I never thought the main stories were too serious (see grimy post-Apocalyptic Archie Sonic) or that the writers were incapable of writing comedic one shots, but all they ever came across as were rushed filler trying to make fun of the 90's zeitgeist.
I thought, on the whole, that the serious stories were entertaining and the silly stories were poor. I'm not saying that there shouldn't have been more lighthearted strips (the comic would have been probably suffered from being 'serious' all the time), I'm just saying there should have been good lighthearted strips.
Kitching's stories were perfectly appropriate for children, they just didn't speak down to their audience. Most of the other Sonic related stories DID talk down to the audience though, and pretty much sucked. I realised that even as a 7 year old.
I'd say about the same as Lee. When I had a brief chat with Lew, he said that he just wrote what he was told to write in terms of the kiddy crap, so it's more a case of those no good people behind the curtain than anything else.
It's things like this which truly define the whole "Kids aren't as stupid as you think they are" motif. Stories like that insulted me back in the day too, I do recall being more easily amused by the poorer quality issues, but I still remember just feeling let down when they started seaping in tripe.
Got to say though, the earliest I can remember any of it really happening, besides one offs like The Mysterious Traveller would be when Amy or Sonic's World had their own series'. Tails and Knuckles both had rather fresh material until post 100, and I can tolerate De-cap Attack's odd humour, especially when you can spot Kitching's inspirations.
Really, the first 100 issues were fantastic. It's after that things got a bit patronising.
A mix is good...
But, as Craig said, they had it right all the way up to 100...
And then, suddenly, the comic realised it didnt have to be so dark and a lot of new, unwelcome changes started being made.
Yeah, the Tails and Amy/Tekno stories were all really just filler, kiddy stuff half the time. Sometimes they were kinda funny though or at least somewhat entertaining (Tails: I make a mean peanut butter sandwich 
).
The main Sonic stories were always the best and the other artists for the other stories all collaberated well enough for the crossovers, such as "The Final Victory".
The Knuckles stories never really fully grabbed me much. I like Knuckles a lot but he spent a long time wandering Mobius trying to get back to the Floating Island, being drawn by Dobbyn, I believe, I don't know for sure who was writing it, but his solo stories at that time just weren't that interesting to me- very boring at times. His encounter/s with Zachery were good, but his teaming up with Captain Plunder was not, neither really was his stop off in the desert or in that witchcraft-like town. Even when he finished travelling and finally got back home he was thrown into a pretty daft, continuity-destroying storyline concerning Porker Lewis and his past as "Oscar The Pig".
However, I used to read them all noetheless and found them all entertaining. I was glad to see the back of Decap Attack, to be honest, that became so stale it was unbelievable, so any additional Sonic-character stories were a bonus for me.
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I was glad to see the back of Decap Attack, to be honest, that became so stale it was unbelievable, so any additional Sonic-character stories were a bonus for me.
Amen to that. Why they had to whore it out all the way to the end is beyond me. Back when I was a kid reading the comics, I really didn't get the concept of Decap Attack at all, they had a few good stories, but if they were going to continue with a non- Sonic strip, something like Sparkster, Shinobi, SoR, Shining Force...Maybe they could have rotated the use of different non Sonic strips or something.
I always felt that the Knuckles stories were aimed at an older audience, which may have been how they compensated for the different stories by reaching to different demographics.
Afterall, what kid who finds Fabian Vane amusing would know what Village of the Damned was?
To be frank, I am a huge fan of the Knuckles series, there's a real atmosphere to them which can only be achieved by the loner wanderer. They managed to fuse alot of character into Knuckles and display it very well by use of either monologue (ala Graveyard) or just introspective comments. The Knux stories were just satisfying to me.
I mean, to each their own, I understand that building a moody atmosphere and focusing around a single character can dive into being boring, but I absoloutely loved it. His series is definately in my top 3, along with The Nameless Zone sword/sorcery fantasy tales and Zonerunner's post-appocolyptic resistance setting. They just drew inspiration from so many cool genres, it's a shame they ran out of ideas.
I dunno about the Zonerunner stories. I remember them being all cool and dark when I was six or so, but re-reading them now? They're just dull.
I will hastily admit the appeal of Zonerunner is all in the art. I love the art. The Flock's character designs and the backdrops. It was all just perfect for the story.
Oh yeah, the art's great/
Unfortunately, it had to be in service of Mark Eyles' writing. 
There were some decent stories by Lew, my all time favourate had to be the showdown between Brutus and Robotnik, it shows that he could write a serious strip (in fact werent all Brutus' stories Lew's?). On the whole though I didnt really pay much attention to Amy and Techno's stories, they were very kiddy, same with Tails' stories, he had so much potential yet he was relegated to the Amy/Techno style stories, why??
I thought the main strips on the whole were top notch despite it only getting really going in issue 22, the first 5-6 major sagas were absolute gold, it peaked at the S3k adaption, definatly the comics golden age.
I liked the dark on-the-side story in which Tails died, problem was I didn't get the next issue so I don't know if he really died... I just love dark stories, I dunno why.
Day of the Death Egg?
That was a virtual reality simulation of the Death Egg's destructive power.
