Rumor: Archie To Drop Sonic the Hedgehog By End of Year.

[Frontier]

Wow I grew up on Sonic comic books, I started way back around #12 and continued until about #120 or so. I hope it's not cancelled because the comic has always been there as an excellent gateway into comics and for the last several years (hell maybe even the last decade) it has the only place to go if you wanted official Sonic stories that actually had some meat to the storytelling. To lose that would basically be the death knell of an era.

Not to mention the comics are the only piece of Sonic media that's really doing anything of significance with a lot of the extended SEGA cast rather then just having them be wallpaper (the newer games) or leaving them out entirely (Boom).

[Dark-Flux]

You guys are assuming that this is a decision on Archies part and not just a case of Sega being unwilling to renew the license.

[Harpsikord]

I doubt that this is Sega being unwilling to renew their licensing. Sonic is their biggest title without a doubt and it ultimately the reason that the company is still surviving, despite a few bad titles that were released. With a new game coming out on the Switch, Sega would likely want to expand their EP as much as they can and make Sonic and co. incredibly visible. As someone mentioned, this is basically what they did to Mega Man, so it isn't unprecedented. It's just incredibly disappointing, such as it was then.

If they go through with this then they're shooting themselves in both of their feet.

[Dark-Flux]

MegaMan is Capcom, not Sega.
And yeah, Sonic is their biggest IP, but that doesnt mean the licensed comics do much for them. They may be unwilling to renew their license to Archie in favor of leasing it to a different publisher.

That, or Archie simply cant afford the license fees anymore.

Either way, its probably down to Archie no longer having the license. They aint gonna pay out for it then purposely not use it.

[Cmbmool]

If this turns out to be true, then Archie Comics maybe in trouble. I mean they were able to survive before the license, but this series was the company's extra bread and butter and gave them acclaim and fame in the early 90's outside the Archie line-up. Even during the early years of Sabrina's live-action show did this series survived.

If I had my guess, I would say the lack of reprinting the previous issues in collections that did them in.

I don't know how Archie will survive this mess given the scheduling of the Archie Horror series and the Dark Circle line-up a mess.

If their Riverdale show is a flop, then it could kill the company a bit.

As for Ian Flynn and co., if they can convince Sega to take the series elsewhere to another comic book company, then they'll come out of this with a few bruises.

[GreenLanternRanger]

Another interesting thing to note is that there are literally Zero Archie books coming out next week. Not even A digest! Makes me wonder if Archie's suffering from a lack of funds (I blame Riverdale) and if all their books across the boaRd will suffer delays on & off throughout the year.

Seems putting all your eggs in one basket might not be such a good idea after all, eh Archie?

[Captain Craig]

I've never been a Sonic fan. I do however appreciate the longevity of the character and title. I've read a few over the years and as one who likes titles with large numbers found it amusing that Sega's figurehead character had one of the longest running books on the stand. Sitting right there with Spawn, Savage Dragon and The Walking Dead was Sonic!

Maybe someone will come in and save the company. Something has lead to bad financial dealings that's affecting their production. It may not be exactly parallel to Marvel circa '96/'97 Bankruptcy but if feels eerily similar. Marvel started cancelling books that had been doing decent like Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, Inc. Hulk and others and Archie is outs on Dark Circle and the Horror line, Mega Man is gone...now this with Sonic.

[GreenLanternRanger]

According to my LCS Sonic #291 & SU #95 releases for March 1st & Feb 22nd are legit. They also haven't heard anything about canceling any books.

So yea at the end of the day, the lack of subscriptions and delays for the Action & Dark Circle books may be down to Archie being in financial trouble and wanting to focus their resources on their main line. Which makes sense, though sad to think Action may join Afterlife & Dark Circle in the we will release the books when we feel like it/ can afford to department

[TotalSnorefest]

Dark-flux could be right though, maybe Sega has decided it would rather want to reboot/continue their Sonic comics at a more visible publisher? Something like Boom, IDW or even Dark Horse perhaps. If Sega wants to make that move, it makes sense to do so soon, to coincide with the release of Sonic Mania on the Switch. There's also the Sonic movie in the works right?

Could also be that Archie is slowly trying to move away from licensed comics to focus on their own brands instead? Not sure if that'd be the best move, but it's a possibility.

I'm not sure if the Riverdale series is really such a (financial) burden on the company though. It's been ordered by the CW, surely they're producing it and Aguirre-Sacasa is just there to oversee writing/characterisation. The chief creative officer being kept away from the comics by the TV side might explain things like further delays on Afterlife With Archie? But usually TV shows pay companies a license fee to use those characters; it'd be very strange to me if Archie is somehow in trouble because they're helping to develop a TV show.

[Digifiend]

They made massive losses a while ago, resorting to a Kickstarter to raise funds, which failed, and they'd already spent the money! They need Riverdale to recoup those losses. If it bombs and doesn't yield much income, they are toast.

[MajorHoy]

. . . So yea at the end of the day, the lack of subscriptions and delays for the Action & Dark Circle books may be down to Archie being in financial trouble and wanting to focus their resources on their main line.

Or, in the case of at least the Dark Circle line, it may not be worth the effort / $'s for the overall Archie comics bottom-line?

[GreenLanternRanger]

Archie Sonic Artist Tyson Hesse said there is indeed something going on behind the scenes, but he can't say anything until the issue is resolved.

So hopefully we will have some more info next week once Archie's April 2017 solicits are out.


My personal guess is they may be renegotiating contracts now that the books writer Ian Flynn is also working on the Sonic Boom cartoon & Project 17 video game.

[Frontier]

Archie Sonic Artist Tyson Hesse said there is indeed something going on behind the scenes, but he can't say anything until the issue is resolved.

So hopefully we will have some more info next week once Archie's April 2017 solicits are out.


My personal guess is they may be renegotiating contracts now that the books writer Ian Flynn is also working on the Sonic Boom cartoon & Project 17 video game.

I didn't know Ian was getting involved with the Boom cartoon and Project 17. That's something to look forward too .

[Digifiend]

When and where was that revealed?

[GreenLanternRanger]

I didn't know Ian was getting involved with the Boom cartoon and Project 17. That's something to look forward too .

Apparently he wrote a season 2 episode. And may or may not do the same for season 3.

When and where was that revealed?

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One of the new rumors is Archie somehow forgot to renew the license with SEGA and is now scrambling to do so. (Again I'm gonna blame this on Riverdale )

Edit: It's not that either. So back to square one. XD
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