#Michael I. Silberkleit

[paulagnewart]

Sonic the Oz-Hog Act 9/12: Livin' on the Hedge!

Sonic the Hedgehog issue 3 AU Publication Date: 24th September 1993 Price: $2.25

There's something wrong with the world today, and it's not just like a case of deja vu. September 1993 was immensely important for the enduring success of everyone's favourite blue boy over in the Land of the Free, but how did Australia stack up by comparison?

The ongoing adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog were far from many a mind when the late Juan Antonio Samaranch infamously proclaimed "The winner is… Sydderny!". Thousands packed Circular Quay in celebration of securing the 2000 Olympics bid. Pre-dawn fireworks swept over Sydney Opera House for lucky locals, while the rest tuned in early on Channel Nine for overnight coverage, then Channel Seven's afternoon recap. Or at least when they weren't watching the premiere of 'Stay Tooned: The History of Tom and Jerry', a half-hour feature promoting their grand cinematic outing which opened a week prior.

For those with kids or simply being kids at heart, the morning was instead another romp on Agro's Cartoon Connection. Having gnashed his teeth in the late 1970's, everyone's favourite talking bathmat underwent an extensive rework come January 1990, now joined alongside youthful cohost Ann-Maree Biggar. This dynamic duo were by 1993 indomitable, winning the nation with their two and a half hours of animation, antics and a rambunctious live studio audience.

Not that it stopped other networks attempting to muscle in on their success. Launched on the week of Christmas 1992, Channel Ten attempted to fight back the timeslot with 'The Big Breakfast'. Hosted by equally youthful larrikin Tim Bailey, their prime directive focused on quantity over quality, airing upward seven different cartoons a week. For that day, sandwiching the penultimate episode of all-new 'Capitol Critters' were repeats of 'Bionic Six' episode 'Ready, Aim, Fired', and 'Speed Racer' episode 'The Desperate Desert Race: Part 2', the latter ironically stolen from their competitor.

Speaking of fight backs, the conservative branch of Australian politics were in shambles after their centerpiece policy failed to swing voters. At 650 pages, the highly contentious Fightback! manifesto offered among other things higher tax cuts for the wealthy and striking a proverbial axe to low income earners. Riding off the back of "A Recession that Australia Had to Have", the mainstream media months earlier declared the left-leaning Labor party's chance of retaining power an "unwinnable" prospect. But they did, and Prime Minister Paul Keating was on top of the world. Plus leaving his mark on the world, that month exchanging pleasantries with US counterpart Bill Clinton while pushing for Australia to officially sever constitutional ties from the UK.

Yet there was an even larger development which swept Aussies off their feet. More than Meat Loaf ruling an unopposed 8 weeks with his megahit "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)". Higher than Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg's adventure some 65 million years in the making which sent Harrison Ford tumbling off the proverbial box office dam. Enticing thousands more than the launch of Australia's first ever Toys R Us at Belconnen, complete with Sonic mascot greeting visitors at the door. And yes, arguably even more than The Dinky-Di's potential animated film and guaranteed tax write-off Mephisto's Web. All those and more paled in comparison to the rise of the Internet.

Once the experimental plaything of Melbourne university students back in June 1989, technology had become more widespread and affordable for the common layman. Internet Service Providers sprung up, ready to compete in the inevitable web wars while fans across the land stretched their fingers, ready to type away to complete strangers about all the important information of life, like commenting and speculating over whether or not a storehouse in Toronto housed a horde of missing Doctor Who episodes.

As for the Blue Blur, it's hard to gauge a consensus on this and numerous other early issues as the organized Archie Sonic fandom was by that point nonexistent. Granted the comic sold thousands of copies across multiple nations, but it would take more time for fans to escape the confines of playgrounds and mingle over his monthly adventures online. As far as then-Hedgehog enthusiasts were concerned, Archie Sonic was but a supplement for his new cartoons. And it's through the likes of early fan pioneers like Ron D. Bauerle, David DeSimone, Serinthia Kelberry, Lindsay Cibos and Dan Drazen the success (or lack thereof) of Sonic's formative years are measured.

"If you read the comic book put out by Archie Comics, the characters featured there also come out in the series." One early reviewer commented. "They have Princess Sally, Bunny Rabbot, Antoine, Tails and of course Sonic. Being an animation fan and having seen DIC's earlier derivative works(there are too many to name), I expected it to be a hodge-podge of scenes/situations lifted directly from the video games(As DIC did in "Captain N", a lame lift from Nintendo). Actually, this show introduces some new, interesting characters, allowing for more original stories. Instead of ripping off the game, this show expands on it. The voice characterization is good,too(cast includes voice veterans Jim Cummings and Charlie Adler). So if you're a Furry, a gamer, or just can't get a chance to see ANIMANIACS, give this one a try."

"I think it's one of the better NEW Saturday morning 'toons, and probably the best thing I've seen from DIC in years." More swiftly agreed. "Anyone who's seen the weekday versions of Sonic would probably agree with me that the weekday episodes have nothing on the Sat AM ones.", or how "I've seen the daily Sonic show (TAOFSTH)… and I can safely say it's poorly animated cartoon swill.". Yet a few treated it with trepidation. "While not great, it's better than the Bonkers dreck. I had decided to skip it, but saw the ABC preview last night and there were some cute-looking furries in it.".

But as the weeks progressed, a divide slowly formed between cartoon and comic counterparts. "It is true that the television show derives from the Archie Comic, but from what I've seen in SEGA VISIONS, the cartoon's artistry and storyline is MUCH better than the comic. Besides, the Furries ARE neat, and the voice characterization is well done". Future long-running debates were born including "The editor of the letter column in Issue #5 of the Sonic comic says she's a squirrel, but I don't believe him - not with a short tail like that. I still favor chipmunk myself.".

It drew new fans like "Sonic's superspeed is interesting (but then, I liked "The Flash"). Jaleel White does an adequate job of voicing him, Kath Souci does the princess, and Christine Cavanaugh (Gosalyn from Darkwing Duck, I believe) does the bunny. Does anybody have a better explanation of the basis of the show? How about the video game? (About which I know nothing.) I'll keep watching for the furries, if nothing else…". Praise was short lived however, and by the conclusion of its first season, "These stories are really going downhill. Where did all the light come from in that underground world? And sorry, but I can't believe in any magic fertilizer water that makes trees grow instantly. I'd rather have seen a continuing story than all of these disjointed lame ones. E.g., are we ever going to find out what happened to Sally's father? Probably not, with only three more to go.".

Sonic the Hedgehog fans. Fawning over the female cast, criticizing plots and bashing the Archie series since 1993.

Time changes, and yet some things never change.

[thecomicsnexus]

The (Upcoming) Forever War

This arc was promised at the end of the Moon Eyes saga, but it never happened, and this is why:

“I had just finished work on ‘The Moon Eyes Saga’ story arc (TMNTA #67-70), wherein Raphael travels to Alaska seeking the love of his life, Ninjara, only to romantically lose her to another. It was heavy stuff for a kid’s book – at least by the standards of the day – and I was once again at odds with the two bigwigs at Archie Comics: editor in chief Victor Gorelick and publisher Michael Silberkleit, both of whom thought we were ‘going too far’ in terms of adult themes. Both men, as well as their distribution guy, Fred Mauser, had been on my ass about this several times before, most heatedly when we put out the first ‘future Turtles’ story arc, wherein Chris and I developed the character of Hitler’s brain (but that’s another story).”

“Victor and Michael wanted to know where the book was going with issue 71, and when I told them we would be revisiting the future (the Greenhouse Earth future, another notion which freaked them out) for a 5-issue story arc featuring the return of the Shredder – a totalitarian Shredder (not the buffoon of the cartoon) – they popped their toupees. And said they wanted me off the book.”

“A few months earlier Mirage began the second volume of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series, deciding, in an inverted Sisyphian logic, that the greatly added expense of printing in color would boost the sagging sales and increasing losses of the first volume series. This, of course, was new ground, a territory previously ‘owned’ by the TMNT Adventures title, but more so by Archie Comics, who had the exclusive right to print in color for newsstand distribution.”

“Not that Mirage was going newsstand with volume two. But it was entering the direct-sales market with a color title. The big enchiladas at Archie Comics didn’t like this, as they too had their eyes on the direct-sales market since they were going through an across the board decline in newsstand sales as the number of children reading comics plummeted with the increased competition from video games. They were secretly making plans for a more direct-sales oriented TMNTA comic. Plans that did not involve me or anybody else at Mirage.”

It was later revealed that the script, pencils and rough lettering for TMNT Adventures #71 (“The Forever War, part 1”) had been completed, while rough scripting and pencils had been completed for TMNT Adventures #72 (“The Forever War, part 2”) before Victor Gorelick terminated the storyline and Murphy’s and Allan’s employment.

In the letters page of Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #7 (published January, 2005), Steve Murphy suggested that fans get ready, because "The Forever War" would be out by the end of the year.  2005 became 2006 and still no "Forever War".

Then, in the letters page of Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #16 (October, 2005), Murphy changed the projected date to "sometime in 2007".  2007 rolled around and still no "Forever War".

But the fans’ patience were eventually rewarded in 2009, when Mirage officially announced that Murphy and Allan had been signed to complete “The Forever War” in a five-issue miniseries as part of the “25th Anniversary Shell-ibration”.

“The current plan is to release it as a monthly black and white story arc under the original Archie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures title. The first issue would come out in May 2009… it will have many elements of the original storyline, while at the same time cutting the cast down a bit… the scenes depicted on the five covers will not necessarily be occurring in the revamped story line.”

In the end, the culprit responsible for the second demise of “The Forever War” was Peter Laird-himself. His sale of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise to the Viacom Corporation in December of 2009 pulled the rug out from under “The Forever War” project, as the deal did not grant Mirage license to publish any stories not taking place within the Mirage universe (though Laird retained the right to publish up to 18 Mirage TMNT stories a year). In addition to “The Forever War”, other projects such as “The Mirage Universe Sourcebook” were unceremoniously cancelled after solicitations had been made and much of the work had been completed.

But now...

Sure, it says “Approx”, but the fact that we have colored and lettered pages now makes me think this time is for real.

But good luck finding it when it comes out!

Source: TMNT ENTITY