Sonic Celebrates His Fifth IDW Anniversary

Sonic has been a star of American comics for almost as long as he’s been a star of video games. He first appeared in a comic in late 1992 and stayed with Archie Comics for over 20 years, until an incident with one of their ex-writers drove Sega to pull the license. Basically Archie was bad at holding onto contracts, Ken Penders found out and used the loophole to file ownership of characters he’d invented, breaking the continuity and eventually ending the series.

It was left to IDW to pick up the pieces from there, rebooting the comic with a storyline closer to the game’s world. The last writer to work on Archie Sonic, Ian Flynn, was re-hired to accomplish this. IDW Sonic has a long way to go before it can break Archie’s record, but they’re getting there — five unbroken years on the comics market is impressive for anyone these days. To celebrate his fifth year with IDW, a new reprint of issue #1 is on the way.

It won’t be JUST the first issue, though. The new Sonic #1 will contain new content like an all-new bonus short story entitled “Familiar Territory,” an exclusive look at how Sonic comics get made, an extensive cover gallery and more.

“I’m truly fortunate to be part of this project,” says Flynn. “I’ve been involved with the Sonic series for over fifteen years now, and it’s still as exciting and inspiring as it’s ever been. The Sonic fandom gets that, and their passion and creativity is part of the reason that the brand is so much fun! I look forward to enjoying Sonic, and contributing to that joy, for a long time to come.”

The Sonic The Hedgehog #1 Fifth Anniversary Edition will go on sale next April, sporting several variant covers by the likes of Tyson Hesse, Tracy Yardley, Matt Herms, Jennifer Hernandez, Adam Bryce Thomas, Evan Stanley and Jon Gray.