Sonic the Comic Con 2023

It's 30 years since Egmont Fleetway launched Sonic the Comic way back in 1993. I came on board as a writer with issue 30 and had many happy years scripting the adventures of Tails, Amy, and sometimes Sonic himself plus my own creations Shortfise the Cybernik, Tekno, Commander Brutus and more. Last week Sonic the Comic Con celebrated the anniversary of the title with an event in York. I was a guest along with writer/artist Nigel Kitching, artists Richard Elson, Carl Flint, Ferran Rodriguez and editor Richard Burton.

The event was very well attended with an enthusuastic audience that were a pleasure to meet. The show was very busy throughout the day and I did lots of sketches plus sold out the comics and prints I'd taken along. 

It was clear that Sonic the Comic meant a lot to the readers and their ongoing passion for the stories and characters means a lot to us as creators too. I think under different editors, STC would have just been a standard licenced comic that wouldn't have lasted long, but editors Richard Burton and Deborah Tate turned it into something unique for the time. Comics that have their own identity, and a creative team that care about the product, tend to resonate more with the readers and that was true of STC. Thirty years later, the enthusuasm of those fans is still burning bright and it was a pleasure to be in their company. One of the great strengths of the comic is that didn't only appeal to one gender like most adventure comics of the time and that diversity was still represented by the attendance at the show.

 

My thanks to Michael Stiv Stephenson, Lola Muir, and the team for making us welcome and putting on a great event, and to all the attendees for coming along and making the day special. Such a great crowd! Thanks also for the special coin that was given to us to mark the comic's anniversary. A nice momento of a happy weekend.

You can see lots of photos from the event at this link coutesy of Oni Media...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/oni_photography/sets/72177720308607997/ 

Thanks to Zoe Davis for giving me this excellent drawing she did of my character Shortfuse the Cybernik! A really nice gift and much appreciated. See more of Zoe's art on her Twitter page https://twitter.com/MeanerHarker

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