Archie Sonic Artists Spotlight (Pre-SGW)
One of the most infamous prejudices about Archie Sonic, it’s about his art. I pretty sure that anyone who read this has listened to some of the typical deceptive comments about the art in these comics at least one time, saying that ‘it’s looks horrible’ ‘it don’t look like Sonic in all’ and of course, the classical misunderstanding where the people think that Ken Penders was a big contributor to the art style and for that, he was the only responsible for the terrible art style in some issues because he has always been a terrible artist, etc..
To be honest, this is a very extent topic, as well one that is more complex that it’s look like at first, between the extremely hectic schedules, the low salaries and the complited situation that the comic industry (not only Archie Comics) had been passed since the 90', and probably I would talk detaily about it some day but for now, I decided to make a new version of my old posts about the different Artist in Archie Sonic, where I show that from the very beginning these comics had a lot of talent artists, reviewing the ones who I considered the best of the best and some of the most underrated from my perspective.
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog Miniseries #0
Last Work: Sonic Super Special #6
This guy don’t only has the honor to being the first artist of the comic, but also being a classic artist extremely renowned in the american comic industry in general, have been working in series from other well-known IP like The Simpsons, Looney Toons, Shrek, Teen Titans, Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, etc.
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog Miniseries #3
Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #167
Overall Contributions: 95
The second oldest artist in the series whose art style, cartoonist and reckless, actually worked pretty well for the first issues, mainly focusing on the childish comedy, and the off-panels strips.
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #10
Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #156
Overall Contributions: 74
Originally, Art worked as a storyboarding artist for the original Sonic The Hedgehog Animation series/Sonic SATAM, so it’s not surprising that his art style was identical from the original cartoon series. Very good for the first age of the comics when they were still being pretty related to the series.
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #21
Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #293 (CANCELLED)
Overall Contributions: 318
The legend, the greatest, the well-known Archie Artist who made possible the comic adaptation of Sonic Adventure and has the merit of being the artist with more contributions in Archie Sonic and in the franchise in general, who also worked in other series like Archie Nights, Archie Megaman, Transformers, TMNT and ATLA comics . Nowadays, he is still working in the saga but with less consistency.
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #38
Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #81
Overall Contributions: 48
Manny primarily worked in the Knuckles stories and If I had to define his art style in less words, probably would be ‘Similar to Art Mawhinney but with the most serious and action touch that unfortunately Art never could achievement’
Frank Strom & Nelson Ortega
I decide to put them together since they debuted almost in the same period and had the exact number of contributions.
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #54
Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #56
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #61
Overall Contributions: 92
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #76
Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #272
Overall Contributions: 31
First Work: Sonic Super Special #13
Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #159
Overall Contributions: 39
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #101
Last Work: Sonic Universe #57
Overall Contributions: 18
As a fun fact, she contributed to the Sonic The Comic Online project with a panel for their summary section ‘New in Sonic The Comic?’
And she also commented on my original post to thank me for mentioning her.
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #108
Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #167
Overall Contributions: 37
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #134
Last Work: Sonic Universe #75
Overall Contributions: 56
Just like Dawn, he contributed to the STC Fan continuity with a panel to NtSTC?. A very funny coincide since in his debut issue had several cameos of Sonic The comic's characters, like Tekno the Canary or Ebony.
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #160
Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #294 (CANCELLED)
Overall Contributions: 134
This guy has the honor of being the third artist with more contributions in a single Sonic comic, being surpassed by Patrick Spaziante and Richard Elson from Sonic The Comic, with 150 adds. And coincidentally, Tracy add a panel to the NtSTC? section too.
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #185
Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #291 (CANCELLED)
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #198
Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #207
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #202
Last Work: Sonic Universe #97 (CANCELLED)
Overall Contributions: 43
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #213
Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #275
Overall Contributions: 39
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #231
Last Work: Sonic Universe #96 (CANCELLED)
Overall Contributions: 30
For the last, I would like to make a special mentions to other minor artist that, despite not being very outstanding like the previous ones, they still has a interesting and very good art style in my opinion or at least, a decent one.
First Work: Sonic Super Special #1
Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #87
Overall Contributions: 12
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #151
Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #172
- Diamond Rose Studies (group of student interns)
First and Only Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #85
- David Hutchison (artist exclusive from Archie Sonic X series)
- Greg Horn (cover artist)
First Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #239
Last Work: Sonic The Hedgehog #241
Ken Penders (Classic Era)
Overall Contributions: 19
Hey! @an0n0 & @apontearts