I haven't had time to follow this forum lately, but I've been told that there's some kind of confusion about whether STC Online is official or unofficial, a procomic or a fancomic, and what this means. Without going looking through all the posts lately, I suspect this is another version of the old question of whether it's "just a fancomic" or if it's the "second coming". These generally lead to people making assertions one way or another that aren't always entirely true.
I think it's time to get the facts straight.
Fact 1: Sonic the Comic is no longer in print. There is no official continuation, and it is extremely unlikely that there ever will be.
Fact 2: STC Online was (and is) conceived, created and produced by a group of fans. The staff, past and present, numbers sixteen extremely dedicated and hardworking people who do this for free, solely for your enjoyment.
Fact 3: Occasionally STC Online is influenced by ideas conceived for the original comic by the original creators. These ideas are in the public domain.
Fact 4: As far as I'm aware, STC Online is presently unique in considering these ideas. But that doesn't stop anyone else from using them.
Fact 5: STC Online aims to emulate as closely as possible the style and tone of the comic. As I've often repeated, our goal is to allow the reader to believe that he or she is reading the genuine comic.
Fact 6: At present, STC Online is unique in its attempts to emulate the original comic.
Fact 7: STC Online is frequently the only place besides the STC Mailing List where fans can regularly hear from the creators and find out about their new projects.
Fact 8: STC Online has received the attention, encouragement and support of a large number of the original creators, more so than any other STC project by fans as far as I'm aware.
Fact 9: Some ideas from the original creators were intended for STC Online specifically, not STC. This is not true of any other current fancomic and these ideas were not in the public domain until STC Online released them.
Fact 10: One former creator did say that he imagined that just about any STC fan would accept it as an authentic continuation of the original.
Whether you agree with that conclusion or not is the individual choice of every reader, and each reader has the right to make their own decisions.
STC Online is not an official publication because it is not officially licensed by Sega. It is made by fans, but it is markedly distinct from any other fancomic. I personally think the least questionable term would be "unofficial" since that most accurately sums the situation up, but I realise that some people are going to go for the less accurate "virtually official" or "fan-only comic" or what have you in any event.
Any questions?
*hand goes up*
yes, I have a question:
Isn't the look of the comic - like the front cover style - or anything about the mag, copywrited? If so, how did you get around that?
Good question.
I've no idea if the design itself is copyrighted, although ours is revised. But Sonic himself is copyrighted, so technically I guess there's already a rule broken there. I doubt Egmont cares: they've moved out of making comics already. And the same issue with Sega is true of just about any Sonic site on the net, including this one.
The comic isn't making any money and we aren't being paid. No profits are being made or impuned at all. If we were told to stop, we'd obviously stop. I don't anticipate that happening, though.
*stickies*
And yes,that design <b>would</b> be copyrighted under law, as a distinctive product of someone's time and effort.
(I'm not using the exact legal terms there, but you get the idea?)
However, as Ed said - Egmont're unconcerned and if Sega were prissy about copyright, ever Sonoc site on the 'net'd be in trouble.
i was just wondering if you get no money or profits out of it then how much money does it cost for each issue
as far as i'm aware, john the only costs involved are those for paying for a webhost and their domain name. apart from that, there are no costs, becuase the comic is not being printed.
Surely if fangames are leagal, then surely the comic will be?
ed is talking about copywright infringment on the characters themselves. IF that's the case, then fangames will also be illegal. however, i doubt that sega or sonic team would take legal action against a fan comic/game team.
Sarah: Yep, that sounds about right. Thanks for the sticky.
Joe: The editors pay for the cost of the site, and there are obviously costs for the artists in terms of materials and suchlike.
This probably saves both of us a few discussions in the long run. 🙂
And in short, folks, StC-O is making no profit whatsoever.
Thats quite a shame actually, no money at all. Bearing that in mind ed, how long do you think that you will be able to keep the online site going
Well, I think the site is paid up until May, and we've now got even more space with it so we shouldn't have the old problems of bandwidth error messages cropping up in the last week of every month. I think we should be okay to keep going.
We're actually looking into a couple of different ways of presenting the comic as well as the present website but as with all these things they take extra time so we'll have to wait and see what happens there.
well, i'd known or'd guessed all the obove already.. but thanks for putting that up for confused fans. ^^
i did wonder aobut the bandwidth however, hows it holding up?
Well, oddly, the badnwidth usage for the back issues section has gone up drastically this month, with almost 100mb used already, and each issue is only 2-3mb in size! Though every issue we get a whole slew of e-mails from people who have just found the comic.
I'm planning on converting past issues to PDF format so people will only need to download them once rather than over and over, which seems to be happening.
Should be alright unless people start re-reading them every few days or something 
Mike
www.stconline.co.uk
I'd suggest a zip file option for people who hate PDF.
ed, how come you cut down on storyies it used to be 3 and know it is 2.
C'mon give the poor bloke a chance! He said that he and the others do this in their free time. The fact that they do it at all and continuously is a miracle in itself!
Agreed. Think how this is not a job for the artists, it is a pasttime that they can only allocate their free time to. If you consider it, releasing once every 7 weeks is still quite an accomplishment... Think, the average Sonic story is 7 pages long. Than means that the artist has to produce one page every week to keep to this deadline. A whole page, drawn, coloured, and with the speech bubbles inserted, a page that is 100% complete. Since the artist in question probably has a job Mon-Fri, the majority of this work must be done during the Weekend. 2 Days to make one page totally complete and ready for the site, on top of having a life. Think about it like that, and you might just realise that STC-O is no small undertaking.
Sonic HQ: Good point. We liked the idea of people being able to print the comics easily using .pdfs but having .zips as well would be good. Thanks.
Joe: The plan was always to run two stories an issue, with three on special occasions. Plus, the #224 Amy story had been ready for over 2 years (so had the other Amy story actually) and we wanted to get it out there. Actually, now I think about it, we expected to have a Knuckles/Chaotix story in #225-6 too, but this fell through at the last minute. I rewrote the script as a Sonic story, and a new artist is working on it. With a bit of luck, it may be ready for #231.
At the moment, I'm not very interested in doing more stories per issue but I am interested in doing more issues per year. I sometimes think it would be more exciting (as a writer) to simply have a seven page Sonic story more frequently and no back-ups but this kind of thing would be an absolute nightmare to schedule artists for and would mean more of the stuff I hate, like putting together up the additional material for the site.
If only we could find some people interested in doing non-Sonic strips. I'd love to find someone to do a "Shenmue" strip, personally...
MrCuddleBunny: You're right. Where possible, the artists are given the scripts a year in advance. It seems like a page a month is the general pace of things. The lettering is done separately, usually in the week before release. Mike and I go through each page and discuss the dialogue, to see what works and what doesn't work with the art... and sometimes what just never worked in the first place.
I'm in awe of all our artists. They're amazing.
i could possibly attempt a billy hatcher comic sometime in the future, the characters aren't that had to draw in my style.
and i asked aobut the bandwidth as a freind's comic once got so popular that the bandwidth ran out every day and he had to stop making the comic becuase he couldn't afford to keep it running any more.
the downside to fame. ox; bleh.
well, i only visit the site when i've heard in here that its been updated. if i like a comic alot i tend to just save it on my computer instead of visiting the site each time i want to re-read it.
Sounds great, Chibi. Actually, I think we got a mail about someone interested in scripting Hatcher a while ago, although I suspect you'll want to script it yourself. Anyway, do drop us a line if you have any more thoughts on it in the future (submissions@stconline.co.uk). Thanks. 
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
(This post is missing and can not be restored)
