I was a different person when I was twenty.

[Lynchenberg]

Sonic was something that was always kind of "there" when you were a kid. Back in the 90s he was a classic cartoon icon, like Mickey Mouse. My first exposure to him was through Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, which I absolutely hated as a kid. Oddly, I actually don't mind AoStH now that I'm adult. It's not my cup of tea, but I think it's a perfectly good kid's show. It's weird how I hated it when I was more-or-less a toddler, and now that I'm 20 I have no problem with it. I also saw one or two episodes of SatAM. At that time, I didn't really think much about them either way. I was so young that they seemed like one show to me. I just remember seeing Sonic, Bunnie, and Sally running around and hiding in Robotropolis. I just remember thinking, “Not this show, I hate Sonic.” Later on, I remember watching an episode where Sonic was trapped in a pinball machine, it must have been Game Guy. I remember enjoying the episode, but at that point, I still wasn't what you'd call a Sonic fan.

I didn’t really get into Sonic until a few years later, when I was around seven or eight. My dad was a self-employed piano teacher. Either he would drive to his students’ homes, or they would come to our house for lessons. He couldn’t always afford a babysitter, so he would often take us along with him. At one house, I met a kid named Adrian. I went down to the basement and watched cartoons with him for a little while. We talked, and he asked me if I liked Sonic. I didn’t really, but I didn’t want to kill the conversation, so I told him I liked Sonic anyway. Excitedly, he took out a bunch of the Archie comics and showed them to me. It was love at first sight; later, I went to the drug store and looked for Sonic comics. They only had issues of Knuckles at that time, so I bought those instead. I was pleasantly surprised that they were even better than the Sonic comics. I began regularly buying Sonic and Knuckles comics, as well as playing the Genesis games, and collecting Sonic merchandise such as the SatAM storybooks. For my birthday, my mother bought me two episodes of SatAM on video, which were my only exposure to the show for years until it was released on DVD.

Nevertheless, the Archie comics were what made me a Sonic fan. I’m not sure exactly where the issues I read fit into the comic’s timeline, but they were from the comic's peak. It was the time between SatAM’s cancellation and Sonic Adventure’s release and the Sonic comics were doing their own thing. They didn’t have a cartoon or game series to conform to; they took the foundation laid by SatAM, added on elements and characters from the video games, and then they ran with it. I remember the issues having many of the strengths of SatAM and few of the weaknesses. The book didn’t talk down to readers because it starred cartoon animals, and it didn’t pretend to be more adult than it was. With no other media coming out, it wasn’t simply a commercial for the video games or cartoons. They weren’t afraid to kill off Sally (at least for a little while) or even Robotnik. These deaths were almost symbolic of how the comic book had become its own entity. Sally was dead (for a few issues anyway,) so it wasn’t SatAM. Robotnik was dead, so it wasn’t the games either. It was a serious superhero comic that just tried to tell good stories. It’s unfortunate that it began to go downhill around issue 80 and never really recovered. Most people blame Penders. While there probably is truth in that, I feel being forced to incorporate the new games was what hurt the book the most. The book was at it’s best when it just did its own thing.

Now that I’m older, my favourite form of Sonic is SatAM. For all its flaws, it had the heart that the other versions of Sonic lack. When you watch the show, you can tell a lot of love and passion went into it. It wasn’t just a toy commercial like most video game-based shows. For me, that more than makes up for its shortcomings. On a technical level, I suppose Fleetway and the best issues of Archie were superior to SatAM. But they lacked the warmth SatAM has. I personally believe that warmth is the most important aspect of any piece of art. I’d rather experience a work of art that I found moving than one that is technically perfect.

[PorpoiseMuffins]

In what ways have you changed?

[Lynchenberg]

Now I get my poems ruined by admins.

[PorpoiseMuffins]

Snap.

[Lynchenberg]

I think I feel another loneliness-breakdown coming on.

[Lynchenberg]

Snap.

I tried to ''like''' your post, and all I got was a ''fatal error'' message. Well, that and this stupid t-shirt. Seriously though, it read ''fatal error,'' and stuff.