Ken Penders had this to say about the future Knuckles and Sonic artists:
Although Manny's last full-issue is #25, he will continue working on the book as both the regular back-up story artist and the cover artist starting with KNUCKLES #26, so you're at least guaranteed 6-pages of story art plus a cover from Manny for the foreseeable future.
(As for Spaz, he will continue to do covers for both SONIC and SONIC SUPER SPECIALS, but now that he's going to be doing more freelance work - he's currently at work on some projects for Marvel - something had to give, so his last KNUCKLES cover for now will be issue #25. I'll still provide layouts and inks, but the baton now passes to Manny as far as pencilling covers goes.)
As for who's going to be drawing the main stories, the line-up goes like this:
Jim Valentino is pencilling the DARK ALLIANCE storyline in issues #22 through 24.
Chris Allen, who used to work on TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES when Archie published it, is handling the pencilling on THE FIRST DATE storyline scheduled for issues #26 through #28.
Art Mawhinney steps in for a one-issue story entitled MY SPECIAL FRIEND which will run in KNUCKLES #29.
And finally, let me welcome aboard Steven Butler as the new regular artist on KNUCKLES commencing with issue #30 and the KING OF THE HILL storyline.
Steven will conclude his run on SONIC with issue #75, after which new SONIC regular artist James Fry teams up with Karl Bollers to continue bringing the adventures of everyone's favorite hedgehog.
James Fry will work on Sonic? From what I see on the Pro-Art section done by him, he's not that good. And everyone, please hope that Spaziante will not completely leave the Sonic comic...for all I know, Archie isn't the best paying comic company out there. And other companies will do what ever it takes to get talents like Spaz.
From KP's Messageboard
Posted by: Ken Penders
"Return To Albion And Sonic #80...."
Ken Penders, the writer for Knuckles and Sonic comics, commented on Knuckles #33-35:
As a result, the tentatively titled KNUCKLES: RETURN TO
ALBION, is
now slated for issues #33 through #35, and will give Antoine the full
Knuckles
treatment, going into detail about (among other things) how Geoffrey and
Antoine really became rivals and the unique individual who trained both
of
them, explore Antoine and Bunnie's relationship, as well as having
Antoine
experience a family reunion he never expected. I'll also resolve
whatever
loose ends were left hanging at the end of THE MAP. (Honest admission
here:
even I have to go back and reread some of the previous stories,
especially
those I haven't written, as I'm too focused on what I'm doing now to
recall
everything previously established.) By the time this story is over, we
may
well have fans asking we give Antoine and Bunnie, not to mention
Geoffrey,
their own books.
Yeah right to the last part. As for Antoine's THE MAP conclusion, let's just say the event will probablybe another Knuckles/Sonic comic crossover. This should take place for the Sonic comic around #80-82.
From The Sonic Mailing List
Webmaster: Ron Baurle / Posted by: Ken Penders
"Sonic And Sally"
This question's been asked many many times before, will we ever see Sonic and Sally actually marry? Well, listen to Ken Penders:
I have tried to explain that however much I've wanted to explore the relationship between Sonic and Sally, that's an area Sega very much does not want us to. The readers can beg, plead, threaten to boycott, whatever, but in the end, our hands are tied to a certain extent in regards to certain matters. While we can get away with showing something in the future under the excuse that it's an alternate reality, you will never, ever see any wedding, engagements or even going out on a simple date between the two.
Then he goes on to say:
Sega has NO....ZIP...ZILCH...NADA... [ABSOLUTELY] ZERO...interest in showing a stable relationship between Sonic and Sally. You can only fight city hall so much before it becomes counter-productive.
So, not a chance except Super Sonic Special #9: Knuckles: Twenty Years Later where we'll see Sonic and Sally married with children in the future. But Ken brings up a point, the future could always be altered! Wonder what would Archie do if the Sonic Team of Sega of Japan makes a female character for Sonic that's somewhat to the extent of Julie-su of Knuckles or Mara Jade of Star Wars
From The Sonic Mailing List
Webmaster: Ron Baurle / Posted by: Ken Penders
"The Knuckles Five-Part Story"
"For the record, somewhere down the line I do have a 5-parter for KNUCKLES in mind, but I'm not sure yet if two of the parts would be a crossover with SONIC, or if I would be allowed to stretch the story over 2 issues of SONIC in addition to 5 issues of KNUCKLES, making for a 7-parter. Let's say editorial agrees to this, are readers up for an epic of this size? That's the big question, because too many series these days have seemingly endless stories, and if you get into that rut, it tends to drive down sales. You play fair with the customers, let them know the story is only so long, and they're willing to come along."
Interesting, indeed. You can bet on this becoming realility. Now just which part? The likeliest time for this would be the stories leading up to Knuckles #50....
From KP's Messageboard
Posted by: Ken Penders
"The Knuckles Future Line-Up And Bi-Monthly Super Specials"
The latter came straight from Ken Penders:
DARK ALLIANCE (#22-24)
CHILDHOOD'S END (#25)
THE FIRST DATE/Mighty 3-issue back-up story (#26-28)
MY SPECIAL FRIEND (#29 - guest starring Princess Sally)
KING OF THE HILL/Espio 3-issue back-up story (#30-32)
RETURN TO ALBION/Julie-Su or Vector 3-issue back-up(#33-35)
Mr. Penders also mentioned at the possibility that Sonic Super Specials will go bi-monthly starting somewhere in 1999, Possibly March. So where does this leave the upcoming "Chosen One" miniseries that focuses on Tails? Probably sometime after "Return to Albion"....
From The Sonic Mailing List
Webmaster: Ron Baurle / Posted by: Ken Penders
"Tales Of the Great War"
"I believe the back-up story in
SONIC #71 will inject quite a bit of discussion in regards to how Mobius came
to be. Indeed, it kicks off the TALES OF THE GREAT WAR series, and we're going
to learn a lot about what life on Mobius was like prior to the Freedom Fighters."
Tales Of The Great War will begin running from Sonic 70 or 71 to probably issue 74
From The Sonic Mailing List
Webmaster: Ron Baurle / Posted by: Ron Baurle
"Sonic Underground In The Comics And The Return Of - Sonic Kids !!!!"
This post is based off of Ron Baurle's visit to Archie Comics
"Justin showed me the "series bible" for Sonic Underground - character pics included Sonic's sister and brother (the former looking a bit like an older Amy Rose from what I remember). Sat. AM Robotnik was in there, along with some other somewhat lame characters, including one named "Dingo" - IMHO a
poor version of General Buzzcutt, er. Stryker, but apparently not based on him. They said the backgrounds were originally done for the Sat. AM series...
Justin and Paul both said they were fighting any attempts to merge
Underground into the comics continuity, though there will be a one-shot comic dealing with it (my advice, treat it as a alternate universe/Comics Interstate story...) We all worried that maybe the worst thing that could happen would be for Underground to become a hit, in which case the pressure to modify the comic might become too much to resist, but they said that if that happened they'd spin off a separate Underground comic (it'd be ironic if that failed but the original comic kept going strong :^) ).
Other areas in the office included an area to make corrections to comics between when they came in from the artists and when they went out to the printer. A drawer here contained stuff for Super Specials 8 and 9, the latter being another Sonic Kids issue, the former being a sort of "catch all" issue (i.e., they have an inventory of completed stories that don't quite fit into the current continuity (at least one of which was a parody of a certain show - Namely Sailor Moon)"
Knuckles The Echidna #29
Ken Penders(W)
"Espio's Future?"
Ken Penders was recently questioned about Espio's future,
and the reply was given that the chaotix chameleon will
have a small solo story in Knuckles#29....
From the Sonic The Hedgehog Bulletin Board:
Ken Penders
Well, we've seen SonicQuest, and KnucklesQuest, how 'bout
AntoineQuest or RotorQuest? Some people forgot Sally's Quest way back when ( Sonic IYF Special ), so those other story ideas aren't as far-fetched as some may think. I'm currently jotting down
a number of story ideas that'll play out over the coming two years.
One of 'em involves a story of Julie-Su's history, and if I finish
that one up soon, I may be able to get Spaz to draw it.
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