Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka has gone on to praise the comics and Ian Flynn's writing, remarking that he understood the characters well and brought a great improvement to their emotions and dialogue. Likely as a result of this, he would hire him to write for the games beginning with Sonic Origins. They would become so well-regarded by Sonic Team that the IDW comics would be promoted from an Alternate Continuity to being in the same canon as the Sonic Team games in late 2022.
One of Sonic Team's designers, Eitaro Toyada, voiced his praise for the comic, complimenting a panel by Evan Stanley that made the giant Motobug seem like a tank. He also complimented the comic's Japanese translation.
In Scrapnik Island, an enraged Mecha Sonic shouts "I'LL CRUSH YOU!!!" at a group of Scrapniks, confirmed by writer Daniel Barnes to be a Shout-Out to the version of Mecha Sonic from Super Mario Bros. Z.
Bad Export for You: ...Well, "bad" is probably too strong a word. While it is undeniably great that the series has been getting translated and released in many more territories than its predecessor, all of these localisations focus almost exclusively on the main comic itself, without bothering to localise the various offshoots. The only localisations that do seem to cover the offshoots are the Russian versions.
Jennifer Hernandez, one of the many artists who worked in the series, doesn't hold her own work in IDW in high regard.
Ian Flynn is pretty openly frustrated with Sega's strict Executive Meddling in how he's allowed to write Shadow. While he has stated that he has nothing personal against the character himself, he'd rather just not deal with the headache of writing him so as long as Sega had enforced its interpretation of Shadow, intentionally keeping him Out of Focus after the conclusion of the Metal Virus Saga (Rise of Aether — BumbleKast Q&A for May 17th, 2021). This resulted in the character being absent from the series after Evan Stanley's Chao Races and Badnik Bases arc. It took until 2023's Urban Warfare arc for Shadow to appear again, where Sega has eased up on the guidelines according to Evan Stanley.
As a minor example, Scrapnik Island writer Daniel Barnes has agreed with some fans that Sonic's speech to Mecha Sonic from the second issue would be too lengthy or verbose for his character, and has promised to keep these criticisms in mind for the next time that he writes him. He's also approved of a fan discussion video that briefly criticizes this moment, further stating that he aims to improve for next time.
In a Q and A, co-editor Joe Hughes named Tails as his favourite character:
He's a young, brave kid with a really strong sense of right and wrong. He doesn't do what he does because he’s addicted to adventure, and he isn't motivated by tragedy. He just wants to help people. I admire that.
Writer Ian Flynn has stated in his website that newcomer Tangle the Lemur is his favorite character from the IDW property.
Artist Adam Bryce Thomas stated, in issue 37, that Metal Sonic is his favorite character.
Artist Jack Lawrence claims Mimic is his favorite character, according to Bad Guys #2. He loves how bad he is, and how cool he looks.
Creator's Pest: A non-character version. According to Evan Stanley, nobody on the art team of the comic likes drawing Tails' Miles Electric, noting it was very satisfying to destroy the device during the Urban Warfare arc.
Demand Overload: The first few issues sold out at least once and had to get second printings to keep up with the demand. In issue 1's case, it sold out twice and had to get a third printing. IDW announced a box set of the first four issues to keep up with the demand.
Tangle's design and powers were based on the original concept for Sonic that became Ristar, a rabbit who grabbed and threw things with his ears. Similarly, the Cyber Singer Mika statue that Cubot owns is based on the same rabbit design along with Hatsune Miku.
Street signs in Issue 17 shows the Chaotix's office is located at the intersection of Oshima Street and Naka Drive, named after Naoto Oshima and Yuji Naka, two of Sonic's creators.
Surge and Kit’s model sheets, as well as their Concept Art designs, can be seen among the notes in Starline’s lab in Issue #55.
A specific mandate that Sega told Flynn is that he cannot introduce game characters during the end of an arc. He was vetoed from introducing Marine during the end of the Metal Virus.
Ian Flynn was asked by the higher ups for Rough and Tumble, who are skunks, to not release any "vapors" because they are gross (BumbleKast Q&A for June 14th, 2021).
Characters from Sonic the Comic will not make an appearance, nor will characters made by previous writers for the Archie comic. Ian Flynn's Archie-original characters will also not returnnote with the exception of an Issue #8 cameo by E-107 Theta, a pre-Archie Issue #252 character who couldn't appear in the Archie reboot due to originally being namedropped in a Light Mobius storyline, as all Archie-exclusive characters, even post-reboot, are in limbo. In the case of the former, the last time characters from that book had made a cameo ended up causing some legal issues and they are just not able to be used.
Early in the book's run, characters exclusive to the classic era (e.g. Mighty, Ray, Nack/Fang, Bean, and Bark) were barred from showing up in the mainline comic, due to Takashi Ilzuka considering them as "classic" characters and not wanting them to show up in modern-era works. Around late-2022 and 2023, this was slowly overturned, where elements from the classic games, like Sonic Mania's Mirage Saloon Zone and Mecha Sonic from Sonic 3 made appearances in the "Modern" continuity as a location and a major character in the main book and Scrapnik Island mini-series. While TailsTube would confirm the classic characters are still active in the present day, the main book has yet to show modern interpretations of these classic characters.
Ian confirmed that he can't use characters that died in the games, such as Mephiles and Black Doom.
Ian confirmed on BumbleKast #83 that Sega asked him not to use Infinite. No reason was given.
Although not completely exiled, Marine is currently "benched" and is unable to be used, as a story featuring her was shot down by Sega, who told Ian she cannot show up at this time. Although this hasn’t stopped her from appearing on the cover for issue 24. She finally made her debut in the 2022 Annual, the logic behind her ban allegedly being "major characters can only make their debut at the BEGINNING of a story".
Characters and elements from Sonic Chronicles are also not allowed, most likely due to a combination of the game itself being non-canon, Sega being adamant that Knuckles remains the last echidna, and to avoid getting in trouble with Ken Penders, despite him not officially owning the characters.
That said, some Ferox Chao from the same game made an appearance in the Chao Races and Badnik Bases arc, likely since the Chao were a SEGA creation first.
According to Ian Flynn on the October 23, 2023 BumbleKast, the ghost trio from Sonic: Night of the Werehog (Uh, Su, and Lah) are stuck in a legal grey area since they're considered to be "Marza" characters instead of Sonic characters due to being created by Marza Animation Planet instead of Sonic Team (despite debuting in a Sonic short), which means IDW requires special permission from Marza to use them (even though Marza is a division of SEGA). He was able to get approval from Marza for their cameo in Issue 63, but according to him, anything more might require some serious negotiating, making further appearances unlikely.
In short, if they aren't core game cast and/or original characters, they are most likely banned from showing up. At least, for now.
Fandom Nod: In Scrapnik Island Issue #4, after the Scrapniks interfere with Mecha Sonic to stop the mind transfer between him and Sonic, Mecha Sonic screams, "I'LL CRUSH YOU!!!", which is a deliberate nod to one of his lines from the fanmade Mario/Sonic crossover, Super Mario Bros. Z.
Flip-Flop of God: Originally, the IDW comics were treated as non-canon to the games and were set in an alternate continuity like its Archie predecessor (despite taking place right after Sonic Forces). However, as of 2022, this stance has changed, as Sonic would namedrop Tangle in Sonic Frontiers, and on the November 14, 2022, episode of the BumbleKast podcast, Ian Flynn would go on to confirm that the IDW comics are now regarded to be canon to the games (albeit in a Loose Canon sense).
God Does Not Own This World: While Ian Flynn is the head writer for the comics, he makes it very clear on the BumbleKast that Sega and Sonic Team have the final say on things and that his personal opinions, wants, and ideas are just that, personal, and are not meant to be taken as official. At the end of the day, Sonic the Hedgehog is the property of Sega and Sonic Team, so their wants and desires for the comic overwrite anything that he and the rest of IDW's staff might want.
God Never Said That: It was originally believed due to miscommunication that Ian Flynn disliked Shadow the Hedgehog due to all the mandates he's associated with, and he avoids writing him as a result. Flynn made it clear that, while he has been frustrated with the characterization Shadow has in IDW, he's fine with the character and the statement was taken out of context. (BumbleKast Q&A for January 18th, 2021)
Ian Flynn: I'm sure at some point in BumbleKast I've said I've been frustrated with how I'm being told to write him, and that it might be easier to just avoid the issue until something shifts, but I have nothing against the character. I had a lot of fun with him in Sonic Universe. It's just I'm not particularly fond with how he's supposed to be characterized now and wish we could change that. But no, I have nothing against the character himself.
Mauro Fonseca, artist of Imposter Syndrome, took inspiration from the Klonoa series for the design of Kit the Fennec, hence explaining the character's resemblance to the Final Boss of Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil.
Very likely thanks to the success of the live-action film, the comic was finally translated to Latin American Spanish at 2020. It should be noted, however, the Spanish version of the comic is only available on Google Books in that region.
This also happened with the Brazilian Portuguese translation, since the first volume was released more than 3 years after the comics release. Unlike the Latin American translation, you can purchase it physically.
Issue #50 is celebrated as such with a special issue numbering and logo, along with being a Wham Episode.
In 2021, IDW published two comics set within the Classic Sonic timeline/past known as the Sonic the Hedgehog: 30th Anniversary Special, which was made to celebrate the blue blur's 30th anniversary. This included one big anthology issue and one for Free Comic Book Daynote both were bundled together in a singular trade paperback that released in the same year.
2022 saw the release of a Classic Tails focused one-shot known as Tails' 30th Anniversary Special, which celebrates the 30th anniversary of Tails' debut game, Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
Sonic's 900th Adventure marks it being the 900th English-language Sonic the Hedgehog comic (including reprints) ever released. As such, it features writers and artists from across the series' run, with writer Nigel Kitching and artist Richard Elson (who previously worked on Sonic the Comic) also being brought on-boardnote List of comics accounted for this total can be found here.
Much like the Tails-focused one-shot comic, Classic Amy Rose got her own special in 2023, Amy's 30th Anniversary Special, which celebrates her debut game's 30th anniversary.
Production Posse: Ian Flynn and Tracy Yardley, two people who worked on the Archie version of Sonic, came back for the new version. Tyson Hesse, who worked on the unfinished spin-off comic Sonic: Mega Drive, will moonlight on the book now and then. Evan Stanley, Jennifer Hernandez and Matt Herms were likewise confirmed to be returning as well.
900th Adventure sees the return of writer Nigel Kitching and artist Richard Elson from Sonic the Comic fame.
Evan Stanley, who wrote Ghosts of the Future, eventually became an artist and later head writer of the series.
Another artist, Reggie Graham, previously colored Ghosts of the Future and illustrated some issues of Sonic the Comic – Online!.
Gigi Dutreix, a fan best known for their fancomic The Murder of Me, eventually got the opportunity to work on the official IDW comics, specifically creating cover art, writing two Annual stories, and inking an Annual story.
Daniel Barnes is a big fan of the blue blur, and once wrote an extensive pitch for a cartoon series involving him. He would then get the chance in writing for the comic - the 2022 Annual story "Weapons", along with the Scrapnik Island miniseries that debuted the same year.
Prior to the start of the series, Ian Flynn indicated that at least some of his plans for Archie Sonic stories that for one reason or another went unused would maybe see the light of day in this series, albeit in a somewhat altered form. He would later confirm on his personal podcast that the Metal Virus storyline is one such case.
This series was hinting at the Deadly Six entering the comics, which they then made their grand appearance soon after. Archie Sonic itself was hinting at the Deadly Six's appearance prior to the book's sudden cancellation.
Mimic was originally created for Archie Sonic. It is also revealed in this video that Surge and Kit were conceptualised Pre-IDW, implying that they were meant for Archie Sonic as well.
After Issue #10, no issues came out on-schedule until Issue #47. Year 3 (due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which put the series on hiatus for three months) and the first half of Year 4 saw the comic get hit especially hard by delays.
Originally announced to release in October 2023, Amy Rose's Fortune Card Deck was pushed back to November 2023, then June 2024, until finally settling on a July 2024 release.
Any post-reboot Archie characters cannot appear due to legal issues. This is unusual, as the reason for that series' reboot in the first place and only the Ian Flynn-led Archie staff's original material being retained came down to contracts stipulating that everything made for the Archie comic immediately folds into Sega of America's ownership.
An indie video game company called Niv Entertainments Studios began going through an abusive DMCA takedown rampage on Twitter that had any artwork about Belle the Tinkerer, claiming that their character, Boing Kid, was plagiarized with the character's design (despite the two barely having any similarities whatsoever). The fandom believes issue #50's delay was caused by this.
While acting as a Continuity Reboot, the comic likewise acts as a continuation from Sonic Forces. Showcasing what happened after Eggman was defeated and the world recovering from his brief world domination.
The Metal Virus saga also works as a sequel to Sonic Lost World, showing what happened to the Deadly Six after their debut game; the game's Sequel Hook is followed up upon, something neither Forces nor Team Sonic Racing (which the series ignores) did.
Serendipity Writes the Plot: Some aspects of Whisper's backstory were incorporated due to some strokes of luck:
The concept of creating the Diamond Cutters as a Shout-Out to Metal Gear Solid mostly came about as an accident. According to Flynn, Whisper was created first as a standalone character and who was designed to be an antithesis to the game cast. Mimic was a character that Flynn wanted to introduce during the Archie run (as detailed under Refitted for Sequel), but never found a good opportunity until the team was creating the Tangle & Whisper miniseries. It then dawned on Flynn that they now had a "Sniper Wolf" and "Decoy Octopus," which led to the rest of the Diamond Cutters being created.
The inclusion of the Shadow Androids in Whisper's backstory came from a slight misinterpretation of an interaction between Shadow and the wolf. According to Flynn, the original intent behind her glare towards Shadow was because of his selfish stand-offish attitude and how he "was going to do his own thing". Readers however thought that there was something more being implied, which led to the Shadow Androids being added into her backstory, which was explored in the Tangle & Whisper miniseries and touched upon in the Urban Warfare arc of the main comic.
The Shelf of Movie Languishment: Year Seven's first issue, Issue 68, has "See you in 2024!" seen at the end of the issue, confirming that the issue was completed in 2023. This is evident with it's original publication date being December 27, 2023 before its delay into January, along with the interior publication date showing December 2023 instead of January 2024.
The writers and editorial staff's response if the Freedom Fighters from the Archie comic will appear at the current was a big "maybe" seeing as they're more creations for the SatAM cartoon, though they haven't counted them out just yet. For the time being they want to establish the comic's current world and character personalities plus gauge audience reactions before making any decisions to bring them in. Ian Flynn later made it clear that he wants to bring back the Freedom Fighters, but he's still working on getting approval to use them.
Ian Flynn doesn't know what Doctor Starline's age is. When asked about it, he declined to answer since the higher ups at Sega could change their minds about it. (BumbleKast Q&A for November 30th, 2020, minute 23:00)
When asked in BumbleKast (9 March 2021) if there will be a LGBT character in the comics, Ian Flynn said there could be if Sega approves of it.
Artist Adam Bryce Thomas made a prequel comic involving Shadow and Lanolin bonding over coffee as a follow-up to another comic made by pocketscibbs on Twitter. He notes it is "anti-canon" or just fan art however (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3).
Evan Stanley still continues working on her webcomic, Ghosts of the Future, alongside working on the comic. She also occassionally posts her own Sonic fan art on social media outside of the comic.
Ian Flynn mentioned that when IDW got the license, he had just as much of a shot of writing the book as anyone else, and largely got in due to fan demand. Had he not been chosen to be head writer at the start of the series, the comic itself would be different.
Ian wanted Shadow to take off his inhibitor rings in Issue 19, believing it would help fight the Metal Virus infection by burning it off, only to succumb to the virus anyway. Ultimately, it was decided that Chaos Shadow and the inhibitor rings shouldn't be introduced this early into the comic, leaving hubris as the only thing motivating Shadow's behaviour in the final issue. Flynn has gone on record saying he should have stepped back and tried to write something more satisfying in the time left.
When asked about character restrictions on his podcast, Ian Flynn stated that Sega tended to be against bug characters. One of the Diamond Cutters was supposed to be a bug until Sega vetoed the idea.
The Metal Virus saga was planned all the way back to old Archie comic in the early 10s, but was put on the back burner as Archie Comics didn't want competition with its own Afterlife with Archie. The storyline was then planned to happen shortly after the comic's 300th issue, but the cancellation of Archie Sonic led it be being reused at IDW.
Flynn originally intended for Zeena to kickCreamwhile she was down in Issue 27, but Sega thought that went a bit too far.
Mimic was originally going to be a teenager like most of the cast, but presumably Takeshi Iizuka when looking at his design thought he looked too old, thus, Flynn changed Mimic to be in his 30s. (BumbleKast Q&A for November 30th, 2020, minute 23:00)
Flynn suggested using Chaos for the finale of season 1 during the fight with Metal Sonic, but it was rejected. For the moment, Chaos's inclusion in the comic is a "not now, maybe tomorrow" case scenario. (BumbleKast Q&A for April 26th, 2021 - Whisper vs. Nack: Carnival Sniper Battle, minute 52:50). Evan Stanley would later clarify that he and Tikal are strictly only to be used in the context of a Godzilla Threshold.
Concept art sheets from Evan Stanley reveals that Belle originally didn't have a hinged jaw, which was added at the request of Sega to make her look more puppet-like. There was also a separate design in case her puppet look didn't fly, which made her more animal-like and resembled a mouse.
According to Ian Flynn (BumbleKast Q&A October 25, 2021 13:41), there would have been a Modern Sonic 2021 annual that tied to the main comic, but it was replaced by the 30th anniversary special in the Classic Sonic universe. It is also where Belle's origin would have been explored.
Surge and Kit were among the first original characters Ian Flynn made for the series, with the intention of them debuting alongside Starline during the Metal Virus Saga as the "glitch" villain trio. He later decided against it however due to concerns of over-cluttering the story, leading to them only debuting well after the saga had concluded in Imposter Syndrome.
Surge went through a large number of potential designs with it ultimately coming down to a choice between what would be her official design and one where her quills were pointed upward in a hairstyle similar to Sonic's but reversed. The creative team couldn't choose between the two so they had Sega pick the design for them.
Tangle was originally pitched to be a rabbit of sorts, with Ian Flynn describing her as having been "Tangle the Hare". Fitting given one of her inspirations was a rendition of Sonic that was a rabbit as well with stretchy powers.
A pitch attempt to make a Sonic crossover with Godzilla was made by Flynn, but higher ups thought it sounded too outlandish to work and it was shot down.
Ian Flynn has confirmed on his Twitter that other humans besides Eggman exist in the IDW Sonic universe; they just haven't had a story-relevant reason to show up yet.
Ian Flynn claims that the Warp Topaz isn't completely gone yet.
While he's unsure of it since it depends on Sega decisions, Ian imagines Chip's ring is saved in one of Tails' homes. (BumbleKast Q&A for March 29th, 2021, minute 34:00)
Ian Flynn is unaware if Gemerl has the memories of Emerl, or if they are the same character. He personally sees Gemerl as another character entirely. (BumbleKast Q&A for August 2nd, 2021, minute 1:08:00)
Other Zeti DO exist on the Lost Hex, and Sega has even encouraged Ian Flynn to create his own Zeti characters for the comic. However, he's reluctant to do so because of the Deadly Six's status as Scrappies among the fandom and their wrap-up arc in the comic being met with general apathy. (BumbleKast Q&A for December 22nd, 2021, minute 15:07)
Ian Flynn stated that the events of Team Sonic Racing happened off screen at some point just before the Zeti Hunt arc. (BumbleKast for May 18th, 2022, minute 23:30)
During the fortune telling scene in Issue #45 during the Trial By Fire arc, the reader never sees what card Amy pulled for Belle before it was burned away. According to Evan Stanley, it was the “falling island”, which is an omen of great peril, which foreshadows the trials the heroines would face throughout the arc.
According to Ian on the BumbleKast Discord, Starline was indeed Killed Off for Real at the end of Issue 50 due to his storyline coming to an end, though he can possibly be brought Back from the Dead if there is fan demand. Thus, the comic itself was intentionally written to be ambiguous to leave room for a potential return.
Other trivia:
Ever since his debut in 2004's Sonic Advance 3 for the Game Boy Advance, Gemerl has been ignored in the franchise, only appearing in this specific title. It wasn't until after his debut in issue 18 (2019) of IDW Sonic where he started to appear in official artwork alongside Cream the Rabbit in the franchise's social media and Sonic Channel.
, complimenting a panel by Evan Stanley that made the giant Motobug seem like a tank. He also complimented the comic's Japanese translation.