#stc issue 102

[samobservessonic]

Kitching was absolutely the right choice to do the art for this story. I love this first page so much, the visuals really stuck with me for a long time. He also wrote the script for this one, so Kitching really did take the wheel for the Super Sonic stuff

Even with only one issue since we last saw him, I’m sure the question “Whatever happened to Super Sonic?” was the topic of many letters to StC. So, let’s find out the answer in a story with that exact question as the title

It’s Madge! You remember Madge, right? The kindly old lady who took Super Sonic in

Unfortunately, Madge has an awful husband called Arthur. He literally only appears in this story, even though I thought I remembered him appearing more than that. He’s evidently not paid too much attention to the amnesiac teenager that his wife has taken in, since he can’t tell him apart from the guy who’s on the cover of his newspaper

They’re so much like my grandparents that it’s scary. Just more well-observed British background characters in StC

Madge’s mother was right Regardless, Super Sonic has to go. I’m sure on his part that it is at least a bit to keep the peace between these two, even if he’s not saying as much, but he’s right that he’ll never find out the truth here. Even if it’s a truth he might not want to find. Also, he needs to meet Ebony and Pyjamas, which will never happen if he stays here

Years ago, I once saw an American fan misunderstand this page and think that Super Sonic was an alcoholic because Madge “gave him money to get beer”. So I just want to be very clear that Madge was giving him money that Arthur intended to spend on beer, so that Super Sonic might survive for a little while out there on his own. Super isn’t going to go get sloshed

Also, Amy and Johnny are looking for him!

I love this whole page, so I’m just gonna post it as it is. This is a nice way to get a recap of the situation. The question of whatever happened to Super Sonic has now been answered, but leaves us no further forward in knowing his fate, since at this point he’s wandering the streets. At least with the power on hindsight we can say that better things are coming in his future, for a while, anyway

Next time we return to Captain Plunder, for what I believe is his final adventure in StC. But before that, we’ve got the Veg Heads story in this issue to check out

[samobservessonic]

The main story today is another Stringer oneshot, but this time with art from Elson. It opens with Sonic reenacting my average 5:30am drive to work during spring…

The weather rapidly changes, leaving me wondering if we’re going to get a global warming story in the 90s (spoilers: We don't, but maybe if the same story was written nowadays?)

Come on, Sonic, no one’s at their best while they’re being washed away by flood water

I know they’ve established that there’s a lot of rabbit Mobians out there, but I choose to believe that it’s Johnny chilling out on that other boat. He’s earned it

Just like that, we get two new recurring StC characters appearing on the same page as each other. Though he isn’t named in this issue, the guy with the magazine wearing the X Flies t-shirt is Norris Wimple - he’s basically going to fill the role of a generic nerd character and be a nuisance for the heroes on more than one occasion. Though obviously he’s not evil, just sometimes ill-intentioned

And then on the screen we’ve got Windy Wallis. A lot of the more anthro StC characters don’t seem to get assigned an animal species, but she’s a gerbil. And like many of these characters, she’s based on an actual British celebrity of the day:

Now, Windy Wallis is based on Wincey Willis, who was a TV weather presenter from 1983 to 1987. You can look that information up on the wiki the normal way or you can do what I did last year and sit watching some quiz show (probably The Chase) with your family and see a question along the lines of “Which of these was a TV weather presenter between 1983 and 1987?” with one of the answers being Wincey Willis, at which point you know without a doubt that this is the correct answer because you’re hit with the realisation that Windy Wallis from Sonic the Comic was probably based on this person. Also, you then can’t explain to your parents how you confidently know the name of a TV weather presenter who stopped being on TV before you were born. Like, even I wasn’t alive back then

…But I knew that at some point I’d be able to recount that story on this blog, so there you go

Sonic has a few more suspicions about a weather presenter who’s always correct than the guy who thinks it’s the curse of Robotnik, so he heads off to find this Windy Wallis

Hey, she has Mina Mongoose hair before Mina Mongoose did :0

Like Tekno, it turns out that Wallis was an engineer working for Robotnik. But unlike Tekno, it turns out that Wallis stuck with Robotnik to the end and doesn’t want to live without him being in charge. Because yes, there sure were a lot of Mobians working with Robotnik in StC who’ve surely now been displaced by his loss and we'll be seeing some of them in this new era of the comic (That does include the Marxio Bros., I’m sorry to say…)

The battle against her is pretty short, with Sonic taking out her machine and then said machine causing a tornado

Windy Wallis does return, but there’s something incredibly funny about Sonic going, “Actually, I think you’re going to die”

We end with a pun and another appearance from Norris Wimple. I honestly forgot that both of these characters debuted in the same issue as each other. They’re both on the fence for characters I’m not sure if I’ll do a Post-Mortem about or not, but at the very least, when I started putting stuff together for this blog, they were two of the recurring background characters who I remembered. Along with Fabian Vane, who I assume we’re not far off meeting now that Norris has shown up

[samobservessonic]

I just want to say, while I don’t think this story needed to be more than a oneshot, I do really like Andy Pritchett’s colouring a lot. I meant to bring that up during those stories about the Mobians fighting back against Grimer. If I was an artist, this is definitely a style I’d want to learn for myself

Sonic doesn’t struggle against these guys. After everything he’s been through, they’re small potatoes (I’ll show myself out)

“Close off that pipe, Harry! Something tells me farm boy’s in trouble again!” is my new favourite out-of-context StC line

So it turns out that while the Chemical Plant Zone might be out of action, it hasn’t finished causing problems just yet, being the source of the mutant vegetables

Come on, Sonic. With that selection of vegetables you’d be better of making a stew than a salad. Especially at this time of year

Killing intelligent life is just wrong. Thank you to the kids’ comic with talking vegetables for teaching us stuff your average politician may not grasp

Farmer Nige is a real one. With that, we can end this story with the knowledge that vegetable people exist on Sonic’s world

[samobservessonic]

Dipping into the well of things that are eternally cool: Dinosaurs!

I love how many of these are kids drawing dinosaurs and then putting Sonic characters’ heads on them. You can really feel that childhood urge to just combine the things you love together. But heck, I still do that now by giving every character in anything ever a Pokemon team

[samobservessonic]

I love this adorable Sonic fanart they included with the guide they’ve made about writing letters to StC in the Control Zone

Also in the Control Zone, we get the Saturn version of Sonic 3D that the comic reviewed last issue making its debut at number 2 on the game charts

[samobservessonic]

My first thoughts on seeing this cover again after so many years were, “Is this the issue where Windy Wallis first appears?” and it turns out I was right. Not only her, but another… uhh… I guess I can’t really say fan fave, but another recurring StC background character at the very least appears in the same story