Sure, why not!

Issue 2: 12th June, 1993
Main story: Robofox (Written by Mark Millar)

Plot:

We start with Sonic zipping around what looks like the Green Hill Zone, looking for Tails, but he can't find anybody. When he eventually does find a rabbit, the poor lagomorph is petrified of our bonny blue hero.

After Sonic calms him down, the rabbit explains that Robotnik (that bad, bad man) has come along and taken everyone away! Sonic of course, simply says, not to worry, and with his new power-grip sneakers (??) he'll sort everything out. And Bang! He's gone.

Tearing open a load of classic badniks, Sonic streams through the zone, being his usual hero self. An eggscellent time to cut to our favourite evil fatboy, Robotnik, floating in his ship, and chatting to... *le gasp!* A semi-robot tails, who it seems is quite confident of thrashing the blue blur.

And it seems, with good reason, for when Sonic finds the dastardly duo, Tails knocks him right on his back with a single, powerful spin attack! Leaving Sonic wide open to a face full of gloating, lasers, and that giant disco ball from our Ivo.

Though like any villain, his gloating becomes his downfall, as the fluffy and freindly tails remembers his true nature, realising the plan is a load of old socks, and smashing the heck out of Robotnik's flying machine. Robotnik retreats, and the day is saved! Though Sonic's new shoes melted, he says he is awsome enough without them. 'cept he got his arse kicked, so that dosn't help his argument.

Ahh well.

Thoughts and opinions:

Huh, well. Despite being a little cheesy, I quite like this old story, sure the whole "Tails-gets-kiddnapped-and-made-to-fight" angle is cliche now, but this was pretty early in the game after all! And it's done pretty well really.

Sonic's absence is explained as "He was in Marble Zone" so, uh, yeah, that works, I can dig it. And it just goes to show how danged fast Robotnik can subjigate a zone without any protection, when Sonic gets back, it's entire population is Badnik'd. And I don't think this is to far from what we can expect from him. He may have trouble with Sonic, but other than that, he's devilishly good at his job.

Robofox himself, is interesting. Rather than the rest of the little fluffy things, which were turned into the usual sarcastic badniks of StC (Though their humourus comments were dissapointingly lacking in this ish), Tails was simply given a semi-full exoskeleton. By the looks of it, this seems to give him more independant thought and movement. A bit of a double edged sword.

One one hand, Robofox seems better at avboiding, manouvering and attacking then a regular 'nik. On the other, he eventually turns on his master. An interesting thing about this ish though, is that Tails dosn't seem to be under the control of Robotnik as such, more that his armour seems to be...pushing appropriate thoughts, advocating his negative feelings. It really seems that Tail's thoughts and resentment on always being left behind in the Green Hill ring true...

The rest is pretty much pure fluff, but it's fun fluff. Except the shades, and the new sneakers, they are just bleh.

Still, if Robofox could beat Sonic with special sneaks, just how powerful is he?....

Artwork:

Ugh! Woodrow Pheonix, more like WoodNO! The design for robofox is cool, but badly badly drawn. Everything is off angle and out of perspective. The whole thing is drawn in markers I think. To be frank, it looks like fan-art. I know it was 1993 but please, we can do better than this.

The explosions look cool though.

Final word: The world needs more Robofox! But less Woodrow.

Backup Story: Shinobi; The fear Pavilion, part 2. Written by Alan McKenzie

A simple tale, ages old. Boy-ninja meets girl, girl gets kidnapped by evil ninja organisation, boy-ninja goes on killing spree to get girl back. And we love it.

So, the Neo Zeed (cool name) have kidnaped Joe Murashi's (Joe?!) girl after killing his sensai, so he's busted into the penthouse of this Neo Zeed group, wich is of course, guarded by some elite ninja. After much fighting action, he finds out it's a trap! And the only way out is to go down through every level below, each with a harder ninja master than before.

So, heading downstairs, we are left with the cliffhanger of Joe Ninja finding a little old man in a green light. You KNOW this is gonna be a good fight.

Thoughts/opinions:Ahhhh, Shinobi, so very, VERY cool. Very.

Firstly Ninja Joe kicks ass. Oh yes oh my. The fight scenes are action filled, and the cliffhanger makes me want to read on. Love the story, cliche as it may be. The only thing I don't get is, "Shes not here, you have to head downstairs" "Okay, I won't go out the window and avoid all your fights."

Eh, but then we wouldn't get any ninja battles, so, I can dig it.

Artwork: Mmmmm.... Jon Harward. Yes, the art on Shinobi is more than satisfactory. The colours used are fantastic, the anatomy is great, the action is dynamic, it's all gravy. Only downside is that some of the angles are a bit dull...

Finally: Oh SHinobi, I miss you so.

Backup Story: Golden Axe; The Citedel of Dead Souls, Part 2 (Mark Eyles)

"To bring back to life the evil emperor Dark-Guld, the sourcerer Blackspell plans to sacrifice Tyris-Flare and Gilius-Thunderhead. For the moment they are prisoner in the citidel of dead souls..."

And so we join the tale, with our dwarf and our amazon trapped, and chained in a rather nasty looking dungeon. Gilius not touching the floor is a nice touch.

Meanwhile, the barbarian with the sword, Ax-Battler I think, has ben left, thought for dead, but wakes up in the hands of a very creepy decomposition obbsessed old man. He's a nice old coot though, and fixes the naked dude up with directions, and a bizzarian (Dragon thing).

This however, gets eaten upon arrival by a tentical monster, which Ax cuts up a bit, then feeds some guards to. Breaking into a hatchery, he is discovered, and the sourcer is alerted. Ax of course displays typical barbarian intelligence by attacking the illusion.

Blackspell hands a lizard girl (lizard, with mammaries? Za?) a potion. Obviously a bad potion, it's got a skull on it.

Then we get out cliffhanger as Ax is attacked ohnoes!

Thoughts/opinions: Well, Its standard Conan fodder, so, yay.

This is a good set-up for a good quest, I like it all so far, the only thing I not to hot on is the whole invasion of the hatchery. I know Ax is a bararian, and I know the Reptiles are always evil, but he just walks into a nursary and cuts down the egg-nurse =(

Other than that, its all in good old Conan dungeoncrawling stab anything that moves style!

Artwork: Mark White draws very very well for a story of this style. Though occasionally, his expressions seem a little out of place. "You'll not get me!" *grins like he's being tickled*

The whole washed out paints look. Very Golden Axe.

(again, just saving Nn)

I would contribute but my collection didn't kick in until much later. I don't think I started collecting until the #60s and the collection that I can find seems to start at mid #80s, so I assume I've lost the rest.

If you're able to keep going all the way until then, then I'd be willing to contribute.

Decided not to do the Wonder Boy in Monster World story because... well, I hate it o.o

So...

Issue 3, 26th June, 1993

Main Story: Mayhem in the Marble Zone (Mark Millar)

Plot:

Our story begins deep in the Marble Zone, which you just know has to be trouble. A group of S1 badniks are gathered around a large hole in the ground threatening one Tuftee Acorn (Love those flying goggles) with death by Disco Ball of Doom, and being lovely and sadistic about it.

Meanwhile, back in the Green Hill Zone, our illustrious blue hero is chilling out listening to a tape player, or at least he is until he gets a boot up the backside from a panicing Tails. To which Sonic responds with a light hearted threat, this is StC after all . Tails is accompainied by a distraught Sally Acorn, who is definatly not as hot as her Archie counterpart. It seems that Tuftee wanted to be like Sonic, so nabbed a pair of his old shoes and ran off to fight the good fight.

Not even saying goodbye, Sonic zips off, sensibly grabbing some rings before taking a big-ring shortcut to Marble, via the Special Zone. Back in Marble, the badniks are still playing their cruel game with Tuftee, threatening him with bodily harm, incineration in lava, that sort of thing, untill they reveal his true fate. Badnikdom! Ohnoes!

Of course, before they can get him, Sonic bursts through the wall (Ooooh Yeeeaaaah!) and saves the day, popping open all but one of his titanium targets. The single remaining Motobug makes a suicide run for the lava rather than face Sonic. Outrun Sonic? Pffft. Of course, Sonic takes the time to gloat, and realises to late he is under a spikeymasher.

Luckily for him, Tuftee pushes him out the way, saving his life. Sonic is ungratful, naturally, and uses his death to machines touch to break open the last Badnik with an offhand punch.

The day saved, Sonic zips off back to the Green Hill, Tuftee in tow, and reunites him with his overly emotional sister. Then steals his shoes back. o.o

Thoughts:

Man, I'd forgotten what a jerk StC Sonic could be! This whole story is riddled with Sonic-Jerkery. After he ignores Tail's calls for help, having to be kicked to pay attention, he threatens Tails off-hand. But Tail's reaction is the clincher, he is petrified! Obviously, this Hedgehog makes good on his threats! After having his life saved, Sonic is merely annoyed at the kid's feelings of becoming heroic, and then when they get home, he tears the squirrel away from a much needed hug from his sister, holds him upside down by his ankle, and tells him he'll never be as good as him! Man. Sonic's a Jerkface.

Anyway, enough ranting on that!

The story is plain, but fun. Don't think the trip to the special zone was needed though, guess it was filler-space. This story does show though, that the creatures of mobius seem to have more fear of Badnikdom than of death, and quite rightly so one would imagine. From short and fuzzy to shiny and sadistic, always watching what your forced to do to others? Ick.

Other than that, it's just Sonic rescuing people, so yeah. It happens I guess.

Art:

Cassanovas. Hmmm... Yes, what are my thoughts on this. Actions good, expressions are good, bodies are good for the most part, and the colouring is quite nice too. In fact, I'd say for the early couple of issues, it's swell art. I have a problem with his backgrounds though, while nicely rendered, they are very... flat. It's like mobius is built on one big flat plate.

Oh, and he should not be allowed near the special zone.

In closing: Man the Acorns of StC got the bad end of the cool scale. But hey, heroes need rescue fodder! Note to self: Never, ever steal Sonic's shoes.

Backup Story:
Shinobi; The fear Pavilion, part 2. (Alan McKenzie)

Plot:

When we last left our hero, Ninja Joe (That's Joe Murashi, AKA Shinobi) he had descended to the second level of his multi-tiered ninja fight to recue his lady-love, to be met by a little old man in green light.

Offering Joe the chance to turn back, the geezer puts out all the candles in the circle around him with a swipe of his hand, plunging the room in to darkness. He again offer's Joe the chance to turn back, for Ninja Joe cannot win.

Yeah, right. After a short bout in which Joe can't lay a hand on our Miyagi, Joe manages to finally employ the "Gene Starwind" Ninja fighting technique. That is, he grabs hold of the sash from the old man's robe! Though rather than leaving his opponant's clothes to fall off, he more sensibly ties him up in it, leaving the guy lieing on the floor and swearing in japanese as Ninja Joe proceeds.

Thoughts:

More Shinobi, yay! One again, we see the cool headedness of our Joe, as he faces off against an opponent that proves himself to be techinquely superior. Thanks to Joe's cool and swift thinking though, the day (Well, night, these are ninja) is his!

The banter between Shinobi and the Old Man is wonderful stuff, all very very polite, but you can feel the tension in the air revealing the hidden threats. Though the Old Man soon dispenses with politeness after his defeat.

Art:

More Jon Howard, another yay! This entire strip is pretty much using three colours, Green for the introduction and show of speed and control the Old Guy has with the candles. Blue is for peaceful speech in the darkness, and Red is for the action. A tripech that is reinforced by the decorative stained glass windows filling twixt-panel space on some pages, in of course, red, green and blue.

Jon's faces and bodies are as good as last time, but this time, there isn't even a dull angle to bring it down.

In Closing: Not even a glimpse of his next opponent this time, but a good first fight. The initial ninja don't count, natch.

Backup Story:

Golden Axe; The Citedel of Dead Souls, Part 2 (Mark Eyles)

Plot:

Well, when we left off, our brave but sweaty hero, Ax-Battler was storming the dungeon of the Sourcer Blackspell to save his friends, but had been jumped by a lizard on a lizard-chicken-thing.

Now it seems, Ax has the upper hand, knocking the lizard from his mount, Ax is only stopped from the kill by a knockout gas vial. His unconcious form is dragged uncerimouniously to the dungeon and chained with his buds. Not for long though, as Tyris-Flare is soon dragged off to be sacrificed by the very wall she was chained to (cool touch, Blackspells got style. Not a lot, but it's there.)

Managing to free themselves by diverting a guard's sword into the chains holding Ax, he and Gilius (the short hairy one) escape with great haste to the exit, where they are met by Wizard Proffit the trader (!?!) Wiz shows them the near-fate of Tyris in his scrying pool, and sells them two bizzarians to make the journey quicker.

They soon reach the sacrifical grounds, but are barred their passage by a necromancer and her cadre of skeletons. This is where Ax utters the greatest explitive ever, "Guld's Armpit!" Awsome.

Thoughts:

Gilius has some good one liners in this, but one in particular worries me. After knocking out the Lizard-lady guard they hang her upside down, her crotch flap beginning to fall. And Gilius says she looks fine. Cute lil' perv =3

Anway, what in Guld's Armpit is up with the names in Golden Axe? I mean really, Wizard Proffit, a wizard-trader? Jeezum Crow, and the rest are no better oO

The whole "Demons of ___" think for summoning minions is sweet though. Gotta get me some Demons of Custard to smite mine enemies.

Art:

More of the same by Mark White. Again though some expressions seem out of place, Blackspell looks like he's in mourning, even when he's angry.

In Closing:Guld's Armpit, what a cliffhanger!

To be honest, Sonic The Comic as a series didn't start with the awesome until Ch-wait, sorry, manga influce geting to me.

Anyway, STC didn't get awesome untill ep 8 an' the events theren took place.

I guess you had to give it time (as with all things) to get settled in and whatnot. Issues 1-8 are what these are.

Yeah, the first few issues, untill the one where Sonic gets booted out are really just silly and feet-finding.

Speaking of which:

Issue 4: 10th July 1993

Main story: Day of the Badniks (Nigel Kitching)

Plot:

We start with two miscellanious furries of the cutsey varity wandering around the common backdrop of Green Hill, apparently looking for Sonic, seemingly just for the fun of fan-worship. When they find what appears to be him though, he's tearing a starpost out of the ground! As they panic and flee, it's revealed not to be Sonic at all, but rather a badnik in his image. Shock horror.

Moving on we find Sonic in his usual state, running around aimlessly for a laugh, with Tails trying to catch up so he can explain something. Relating the stories of Stripes and Ruff, our fuzzies du jour to Sonic, Tails is simply told: "Don't hassle me kid. I'll take care of it!" Cutting back to our mere mortals, we find the two have come across two particularly nasty looking badniks whilst discussing the evil actions of Sonic, and are promptly taken prisoner.

Back to our dynamic duo, Sonic and Tails are checking out the scene of the crime, when the robot duplicate bursts in on them, and makes with the fighting. It's design is to tough for even Sonic's death to machines touch to overcome though, so Tails jumps in to lend a helping paw, only to accidently knock his idol on his tail, leading to Sonic's capture and installation within the badnik.

Enter Robotnik and his army of mechanised minions, wearing some ridonkulous armour, to crush Tail's hopes completly. It seems after the Robofox incident, Eggy made a few adjustments to the armour designs, and is now once again trying to enslave his foils, whilst using them to destroy all star-posts, so that nobody but him can enter his new base of operations in the special zone. This of course is given in dialogue complete with Snidely Whiplash moustasche twirling, going well with his utterly silly top hat.

It seems that Robotnik's improvements are not good enough though, as our blue boy overides his armour, forcing Ivo to release his friends, or suffer loss of moustache by super spin. Robotnik does this, but is not without resources, using jet boots to fly away, and live to terrorise another day...

Thoughts:

Okay, let it be said here and now, I really, really, dislike this story. I just plain don't like it.

That aside, it does give some important information on Robotnik's machinations and his base in the special zone, as well as demonstrating that although Sonic is a jerk, he is a jerk with a very strong will to do the right thing. And Tails in this is very much in character for his early appearences, well meaning, but pretty useless. He tries so hard to be like his idol, but at the moment, he can't quite get it...

Art:

Ed Hillyer. Hmmm. For the most part, the work on this story is really good, the backgrounds have depth and feeling, the action is well composed, the expressions of the main characters are good, and even details like steam coming from Sonic's feet when he stops in a river all add in for a good show.

But all this good work is let down horribly when it comes to badniks, and that utterly daft suit/cape/hat combo. All the badniks in this ish just look ultra blocky and out of perspective, and very, very goofy. Except for the first appearence of the Cerberoid and the Badgerbot, they actually seemed a little sinister.

A touch I liked was that while everything was going Ivo's way, the sky itself was shaded darker. Unrealistic, but atmospheric.

In closing: Good forshadowing for later I guess, but all in all, not worth it, not even for that top hat of Robotnik's.

Backup Story: Shinobi; The fear Pavilion, part 4. (Alan McKenzie)

Plot:

More of the same from Ninja Joe. Kicking arse and not even bothering with names, he must fight through his second martial master opponent to progress and reclaim his lady fair.

This time around though, he must face a Neo Zeed assasin trained in Monkey Style kung fu, dressed as the Chinese theatre character, the Monkey King. Obviously he kicks his butt and moves onward. But while he does so, there is no dialogue between them, all the dialogue in this issue is expository, describing what makes the Zeed tick...

At the end, we are left with Joe moving on, thinking to himself "Let them send their biggest warrior" So, natch, we see towering over him... a barbarian looking dude.

Thoughts:

Shinobi kicks butt once again, but the butt kicking in this one is secondary to the thoughts on Zeed warriors. To them, failure, and the price of it that they must pay, is worth than death. A point driven home when Joe leaves his would-be killer winded and helpless, crying over his fate.

Also it shows insight into how Joe fights. As the Monkey King rolls and leaps about, Murashi isn't flustered at all, he watches it all calmly and fights efficiently, and then analyses how to fight against someone like this, and ends the battle in but 2 blows. Nice.

Art:

John Howard. Wham. Bam. Thankyou Man.

In closing: Shinobi kicks arse so hard he could possibly even give Dr McNinja a run...

Uh, I can't be bothered with the Golden Axe backup, maybe later if I really feel like it. By Guld's Armpit.

Edit: Guess what folks? I feel like it.

Backup story: Golden Axe; The Citedel of Dead Souls, Part 4 (Mark Eyles)

Plot:

Once again we rejoin our heroes in the midst of battle, with Ax-Battler (Tall, sweaty, probably smells like a dingy pub) and Gilius-Thunderhead (Dwarf, comic relief) fighting the hordes of scythe wielding skeleton's summomed up by the evil preistess Ul-tima. Goggling at the stupidity of names aside, the pair naturally dispatch their foes with ease and big flying rocks.

Meanwhile, Blackspell (Bald, obsessive wizard type) is attempting to revive the corpse of Dark Guld, who is sown together in a frankenstien esque way that would be so cool if it wasn't... well, Golden Axe. To do this, he naturally has to kill off Tyris-Flare (Bootilicious badass barbarian babe). Hey, look, he is using the Golden Axe. Does this show up at any other time? EVER?

Tyris of course, being badass, sets her ropes on fire and dodges at the last second, but before Blackspell can chase her down, Guld springs to action, attacking the evil wizard screaming about "The horror!" Faceless minion's union local 205 of the corpselands takes this as their cue to attack the babe. Who of course, hands them their tuckuses. There is a lot of minions though, so Ax and Gil join the party, with some swish matrix moves from Gil.

While the gang do what they do best, that is, slaughtering the wicked, Guld's tomb explodes behind them, leaving Guld holding Blackspell as he stands on what appears to be semi-molten rock. Zombie Guld? He's a badass. However the spell was incomplete, and thus Guld and Blackspell merge together, creating a big robed guy with two heads.

Yeah.

Zombie Guld is badass, this guy? Naw.

Thoughts:

Okay, this issue was going well for a good while. Stitched up corpse of your leader and trying to sacrifice one of his killers with a godly weapon? All good. Giant melee with much butt whopping? Gravy. Zombie warlord trying to destroy the priest who painfully ripped him from the afterlife? Sweet.

Two headed priest thing? Eh. After that turn, forgettabout it. Really, it's just... silly. Silly silly silly.

I'd have rather seen Guld kill Blackspell, then have to semi-live with his problems of being an awsome pain and torment fueled stitched up zombie. But that's me, and this is Eyles, he gets paid for this stuff, or did then at least, I don't claim to have the foggiest of what he does now, but I presume he still writes.

Art:

Mark White again, filling our Conanesque fix. Same problems as usuall with the misplaced looking facial expressions and some of the lines look kind of squiggly and sketchy, but the colouring is good and the anatomy is great. And the fight scenes look quite fun. But there is a small gripe with those actually, the just don't seem... epic enough.

Still, the man draws a very intimidating tomb. Screaming faces embedded in the walls? Twisted =3

In closing: Will Tyris have the sense to hold onto that axe of +6 Game's Title? Tune in next week!

Double posting for this, just because it makes some kind of sense to keep each issue seperate, and it looks neater... Mmmkay?

Issue 5: 24th July, 1993

Main Story: Lost in the Labyrinth Zone (Mark Millar)

Plot:

Our story once more begins in the Green Hill Zone, an area of Mobius that seems to be permanantly stuck on it's "Lovely Day" setting. Our blue hero and his little pal are giving Sonic a workout on a big, ludicrously purple, treadmill. Sonic is testing to see how fast he runs. About seven hundred and fifty miles an hour according to Tail's little gizmo.

Sonic is naturally dissapointed he is still under the sound barrier at that, and showers off, before breakfast of two hundred burgers. His meal is interrupted before it starts though, as tentacles shoot out the floor and drag Tails away, it seems that in a tunnel under the ground, some badniks are lurking. As they do.

As the fuzzy one is whisked down the passage by his oppressor, Arachno-bot, he and we are informed by some expository dialogue. These tunnels it seems, are the Labyrinth Zone, widened and adapted for monthes by Robotnik's faithful minions.

Not one to let anybody steal his favourite victim, Sonic heads down after them, with Sally Acorn, a random cow and possibly CutsieLightfoot (but to be honest, this is before any of them looked any different at all so I can't tell.) in tow. But no sooner do they start out, but they set of some traps, causing everyone to duck for cover, except the cow, who makes do with posing unfeasibly.

Arachno-bot is gloating over his now unconcious prize, and lamenting that he can't simply satisfy his blood-lust upon the fox, but it seems Ivo still hasn't got over the whole Robofox thing, and wants a pet mech-fox to play with. Sonic dashes in to the rescue though, bodding Arach's escort wide open. Dosn't seem to work on the tentacled one himself though. He's a Prime-Badnik, whatever that means, but he is pure robot and seemingly tougher than scouse nails.

Just to make matters worse, the Labyrinth floods.

Sonic uses his brains in the waste deep water though, and grabs the Robofox suit, letting the oil out, before setting it alight, roasting the Primenik to a cinder. Then goes off for breakfast, which now includes three hundred hot dogs and a hundred milkshakes o.o

Thoughts:

Ugh. I feel stupider for reading this one. A classic example of unwanted StC filler material. It has it's good points though actually.

For a start it shows that Tails may be young, but he's also bright. As he should be natch. Since it's him who is monitoring all of the training stuff (Well, it's just a handpad, but whatever) and seemingly knows the speed of sound at room temperature-pressure. About seven-seventy mph for those not in the know. Other than that, he's just in this to be damsel in distress.

Which I can dig I guess, this is early days. He isn't a powerful hero, he isn't an experienced fighter-pilot or mechanic. He's a kid with a real desire to be like his idol. In some ways at least anyway, he dosn't want to share Sonic's eating habits that's certain. Anyway, like I said, at this point, he's just a kid who the hero of Mobius sorta tolerates having around and has annoyed the man-boobs of Robotnik before, so it makes sense for him to be swiped.

Sonic himself in this can be read into a bit as well. For a start his dissapointment in a "mere" seven-fifty mph speed is followed by a little chat while tails watches him shower. He explains that he needs to be the best there is. Catch that? Needs. Sonic has a major ego problem.

But when things go sour, he does shine, he helps and saves, and in truth some of his ego is not undeserved, and with the practical fan-worship he seems to recieve it's no doubt he is so full of himself. He's trying to live up to his own ledgend, I guess. Perhaps Tails is more like Sonic then he knows, they both want to be their idol, Sonic the Hedgehog.

His reaction to Mile's kiddnapping is telling though. In an instant, everything before, his primping, his posturing, all goes out the window. He's focussed on getting the guy back, even to the point of reckless endangerment of his tag-alongs. Could there be more to our ego-hog then meets the mirror? Perhaps indeed. After all, he does use his own brains very effectivly when needed, like in this very tale. Most of the time though, why would he need to? So most of the time, he dosn't.

Huge appitite for enhanced metabolism? Nice touch. Dietary choice however, bleh XP

Art:

Oh. Oh no. No no no Woodrow Pheonix again! Ugh =(

The artwork, and I use the term loosly here, for this story is downright attrocious. Every character is ill proportioned and blobby, expressions seem kinda pointless on faces with out of perspective features, and the backgrounds are non-existant.

Yuck. It's sad when I can honistly say the only. ONLY good thing about this art is a single spikeball on the third page.

In closing: One to avoid. Ferever.

Backup Story: Shinobi; The fear Pavilion, part 5. (Alan McKenzie)

Plot:

Ah sweet Shinobi, you ease the pain. Once again Ninja Joe must fight to save his lady love, and this time, he is against the Neo Zeed's biggest assasin. AND he's on stilts. Yeah, what?

Unlike some others, this fight begins going very badly for our pyjama clad hero. Very badly indeed, because by the end of it, the fighter has proven so strong and fast, that Joe is down a good couple of ribs. However, in getting tossed around, he has learnt some valuable information. He then of course, kicks butt, and moves on out.

Thoughts:

Why is this guy on stilts? I meant come on! He's a giant hulking guy dressed like a bondage fetishist, who fights on stilts. o.o

The guy is overconfident with good reason though, he quite thoughly pummels poor Joe, and he's clever too. Looks high, aims low. When you think he's going low, BAM! goodbye face. But Joe gets the better of him in the end, because he's one tough ninja.

Nicely done on the art though, after getting his ribs shattered, you can see just how much Mushasi is struggling to even move.

double-posting in situations like this is acceptable by my books. ^^ i'm liking these, more!

Crim's will need to doublepost loads and loads until I start contributing

Weeeee I vanished Nn

Issue 6: 7th August 1993

Main Story: Attack on the Death Egg

Our tale begins in an underground base someplace in Green Hill zone, where Sonic is working at a computer, much to the confusion of Tails (???) It seems the remains of the Death Egg have begun to decay in orbit, and will come crashing down into Green Hill, unless something is done.

So Sonic has Tails fly him off to the Wing Fortress (why is that still there?) then ditches him as he runs off through the tricks and traps of the level. Tails catches up just as Sonic takes out the boss trap.

Then they take Robotnik's X-Wing to the death egg (lol whut?) whereupon they meet a half dead Silver Sonic (double whut?) whom Sonic trashes easily. Setting of the self destruct, Sonic then shoves Tails into the only escape pod, and rides the Egg to it's doom.

Or rather, he dosn't, since he's sat atop the pod Tails is eulogising from. Yeah.

Thoughts:

What a pig of a story this is. I mean, why? It's mind frazzlingly pointlessly bad. Really.

Though we do get to see our first glimpse of the Kintobor computer. And how much Tails cares for Sonic as a friend and idol. Other than that this is such mind-melting hogwash I can't even think about it. Ech.

Art:

I dunno who drew this 'un but the did an okayish job, I guess. Nothing really special, nothing overtly bad.

In Closing: I'm glad THAT is behind me.

Backup Story: Shinobi; The fear Pavilion, part 6 (Alan McKenzie)

In our sixth and final installment of this story arc for ninja Joe, Murashi has fought his way tooth and nail down the Neo Zeed pagoda of doom, and at last, he enters the room where his lady love Naoko awaits.

Of course, with all he has dealt with so far, it is perfectly alright for ninja Joe to be cautious. So, as such, he uses his haragei (Or ninja spider sense) to check the room, but it reveals nothing! Could his mission really be over?

Of course not! It seems this Naoko isn't the real thing, but an ultra ninja desgised as her, deceiving his radar! And as she engages, she shows her true colours as the ninja of water. And where there is a water elemental, Fire, Earth and Wind can't be far!

Murashi however, knows that discretion is the better part of valour, and high-tails it out of there, realising the whole thing was just one big elaborate trap. He runs into the night, to recuperate, and find the real Naoko...

Thoughts:

Firstly, I would like to express sadness that this means the end of reading Shinobi for a while, at this point, it was by far the best thing the comic had going for it. Ah well, heres to whenever I get round to the issues it came back in ^^;

Now, ninja spider sense is cool and all, but since it dosn't work against uber ninjas, do you know how Joe figured Water wasn't his lady love? She was showing her red under-kimono by about an inch o.o Super-Ninja modesty go!

The elemental ninja's all look fairly cool, and I'd love to see more of them, in a really big battle. But Joe was actually sensible, so we shall have to wait... Though he is looking forward to it as much as I am =3

Id love to contribute but I just dont have time unfortuantely...
I'd love to stick some of these on the site, but similarly, just don't have time. Such is a uni life, I'm sturggling to make regular updates to the enyclopedia and archive as it stands

Well, it's been a while since the last one so...

Issue 7: 21st August, 1993

Main Story: Super Sonic (Nigel Kitching)

The Oil Ocean Zone, somewhere in high north Mobius is the setting of this week's story, and it begins with Tails flying Sonic down to the zone, where the residents are struggling to combat an out of control fire under the lead of a lion named Red.

Sonic pulls one of his party tricks, and puts out the fire using a super-speed cyclone, and Red tells him the reason they called him, in order to properly clean up the zone, they need sonic to dismantle the death traps. Piece of cake, right? Wrong.

Before he can begin, they get ambushed by an Aquis, that's those floating seahorse badniks to you and me. It's a cunning little toaster as well, using suprise and the surroundings to it's advantage, it traps Sonic down in a pit of oil then sets it ablaze!

Things look grim for our pointy hero, but who should rise from the flames, but Super Sonic! Supes makes short work of the Aquis, but then turns upon the critter inside. Tails leaps to the rescue however, and manages to talk Sonic down to normal.

Crisis averted, Sonic runs off to dismantle the tricks and traps of the Zone.

Art: Richard Elson

This is a beutifully illustrated story, as is beffiting the first glimse of the psychotic alter-ego we all know and love. Everything is a suitable orange for the Oil Ocean being on fire, and the backgrounds are all in good perspective, often working in the refinery complex.

It's also the first look of the more human furries that seem to walk the planet, as opposed to the previous issue's cutsy cuddlebunny schemes.

Thoughts:

Wooo-Ee! Looks like things are finally getting good =3 The fist appearence of Super Sonic setting the bar for everthing he does to come. It's a brutal display of corrupting power, as he simply disregards obsicles in his path, cutting through them like butter.

Tails' role in this is pretty good too, not only is he there to explain things, Sonic's party trick, Super-Sonic's appearence, whathaveyou, But having him successfully talk the bloodlust out of his hero displays just how good friends the two are.

Also, Red is awesome, he should have been around more =P

In Closing: Super Sonic! The problems Chronic!

Backup Story: Kid Chameleon, Part 1 (Dunno the writer)

We start with our hero, garbed in "Oh-so-cool" shades and leather jacket, running and dodging through the wheat field from hell. Robot dogs, evil scarcrows, A giant Bertie Basset made of hay, all are out to get him. Because this is Wild Side, a total immersion video game. There is no way out, and it feels very, very real.

Flashback to the start of this mess. Casey (our hero) is sat playing Sega games in his bedroom, his mum however says no dice, forcing him to go out on his skateboard (Yes, leather jacket, slicked back hair, sunglasses welded to his face, Casey is one Rad Dude man!) he starts Heading over to the arcade to meet his girlfriend/girl-next-door Suzi.

But he crashes and makes an idiot of himself, so Suzi goes off to play Wild-Side with the coolest kid in school, Brad. Three hours later, Suzi and Brad still havn't emerged and Casey is getting ansty. So of course he hops into the Wild-Side booth. The doors close, and a voice speaks, welcoming his worthy foe. Chameleon.

Which leaves us where we started. Casey ducking and dodging, telling himself it's not real, its just colours and light. Running through illusions to call it, he says Chameleon. And changes into a Samurai.

Yessssss.

Art:

Dunno who drew this one, but they rawk. Really really rawk. And there are all sorts of little random details like a guy in a Smeg Head t-shirt, and Aliens next to Predator on Casey's shelf which make this really cool.

Thoughts:

A cool start to a cool story. The whole game was always just a big "Holo-Deck-Malfunctions" episode of Star-trek, but it's a fun story. And StC pull it of well! Sure we can look back on Casey's Rad attitude and attire and have a small giggle fit, but other than that, it's swish.

Also after three hours in the machine: "I reckon ol' Braddy and Suzi must have hit a high score, know what I mean?"

I giggled muchly.

In closing: Kid Chameleon passed act 1! 100000 points and a continue please.

There was also the continuation of the Wonder Boy series, and the worst Streets of Rage adaptation it would be possible to make. Srsly.

Here we go, enough fluff, we have now hit what is, in my opinion THE most important StC issue out there. Issue 8. Lets delve in shall we?

Issue 8: 4th October, 1993

Main Story: The Origen of Sonic (Nigel Kitching)

Night on planet Mobius, and Johnny Lightfoot, Porker Lewis and Miles "Tails" Prower are stood in what appears to be a storm, waiting for something. Johnny being imapatient and Porker of course being a nervous wreck. But why are they waiting?

Well zoom out a bit and you see it's not in fact a hurricane, but Sonic running up some speed around a star-post to the special zone. Once he gets up enough speed, Fa-Zoom! Off he goes to the Special Zone, Tails, Johnny and Porker in tow.

Once in the Zone, they land on the giant half-pipes we all know and love from Sonic two, and Sonic orders them to get a move on. And watch the bombs. At the end of the half pipe they take a flying leap into... well, space. No chaos emeralds though, Sonic keeps them someplace safe apparently.

While floating through the trippy background, they come to a halt before the very angry, imposing looking Omni-viewer. Who turns out to be a friend of Sonic's and talks like he should totally be voiced by Danny John-Jules. Sonic asks the Omni-viewer to show the truth about Robotnik, and himself, natch.

So the flashback begins, and we see a younger, brown sonic with far more spines pop his head into a mysterious laboratory, owned and worked in by non other than the benevolent Dr Ovi Kintobor. Idendifying him by his genus, Kintorbor is formaly introduced to both Sonic and his attidude, proceeding to then go on and explain about his (curently unstable) ROCC, a machine to suck all the evil out of mobius and into the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic dosn't seem to care.

But he likes the Doc (and who wouldn't, he's like Doc Brown!) and stays to help him do some experiments, including some speed experiments including slick new shoes. Sonic being Sonic dosn't listen to any warnings and blows up the equipment with a sonic-boom, transforming him into the cobalt creature we see today. This dosn't really affect the freindship the two have though, after all, if Doc can tolerate Sonic being an ass, he can tolerate him being a blue ass.

But then, a lunchtime accident strikes! While trying to prepare a rotten egg for luch (The Doc forgot to go shopping) Kintobor falls into his ROCC. BOOM! Lab explosion take two, but this time...

This time...

Well, lets let him speak for himself shall we?

Yes, Robotnik is born! And that's where our story ends.

Or so it seems. The Omni-viewer suddenly panics, telling Sonic and his friends to flee, with good reason too as he lashes out at them with energy tentrils, sucking them into himself. It seems Robotnik, that dastardly man has managed to supress everybody in the special zone under his will, and now Sonic, Johnny, Porker and tails are stuck where they cannot stop him anymore.

To be continued...

Art: Richard Elson

It's Richard Elson, what more can I say? See the above image and do the math. I'm sure you'll find it's less than three.

Thoughts:

This is a very special issue for me, for StC as well, but definatly for me. It's where my character's entire backstory developed from. But enough on that...

This issue gives us StC's version of the origen's of Sonic and Robotnik, and both have large similarities. Both became what they are today in lab accident explosions (Or eggs-plosion in the case of Ivo), both caused by identifying traits of the person involved. Sonic his bull-headedness in not listening to Ovi, Ovi both his absent-mindedness and clumsiness. They are, in this two heads of the same coin, a twisted reflection of the other. But not that much.

Sonic in the past is just as jerky as Sonic today however, but he did honestly seem to want to help Kintobor with his experiments, not just sponge a place to hang around and steal food, so I guess he can be forgiven.

Onto Johnny and Porker. This is the first time we see them in true speaking parts identified as not just any other mobian (though at this point, they still look it) but as a member of Sonic's close friendship group. Already however we get glimpses at their personalities through what little they do say. Porker is nervous, easily scared. Johnny is impatent, ready to roll. Omni-viewer is a cool cat.

Whatever way you look at it though, it's the end of an era. StC with this issue has begun to find it's feet, it's decided what it wants to tell, and has begun to tell it. And tell it well. Era Zero: The footing era (issues 1- is over, and now it's time to begin a new one.

Bring on the First Era of StC!

Quote:

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StC with this issue has begun to find it's feet, it's decided what it wants to tell, and has begun to tell it.

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Then after #10 it stops telling them for a while as it deals with the massive backlog of Mark Millar scripts.