Issue 17

Issue 17 is the seventeenth edition of Sonic the Comic, the UK's official SEGA comic. Released on the 8th of January 1994 (although the release was delayed in some areas due to the Christmas period), the issue contained four original stories (one of them new) as well as several features and winners of a competition from Issue 6.

Contents[]

Control Zone
Sonic the Hedgehog - Sonic the Human!
Review Zone
Ecco the Dolphin - Ecco the Dolphin: Part 5
News Zone
Next Issue
The Legend of the Golden Axe - Plague of Serpents: Part 5
Q Zone
Miles "Tails" Prower - The Nameless Zone: Part 2
Speedlines

Strips[]

Sonic the Hedgehog[]

Sonic the Human! is a complete story written and drawn by Ed Hillyer with lettering from Ellie de Ville. It looks all over for Sonic and Tails, until "Sonic" wakes up from a bad dream. Unfortunately, he now seems to be human boy Erin and has no idea where he is. Escaping his breakfast of a rotten egg, Erin dashes outside and thinks he sees Tails in the next garden but is unable to reach him. A bump on the head sends him waking back up in bed and forced to eat the egg again, until Sonic realises he is under an illusion from Doctor Robotnik and breaks free.

Ecco the Dolphin[]

Ecco the Dolphin is a 6-part story by Woodrow Phoenix, Steve White and Tom Frame. Ecco has finally made it to the sunken city of Atlantis where he learns from the glyphs what he must to do next. Using their combined powers, Ecco has now gained several new abilities as well as knowing who he's dealing with - The Vortex!

The Legend of the Golden Axe[]

Plague of Serpents is a 6-part story written by Mark Eyles, drawn by Mike White and lettered by Ellie de Ville. Gilius-Thunderhead has arrived from his near-death experience to rescue Yuki-Plantcharmer from Cobraxis and rescue Queen Silpantia-Dragontamer from the Cage of Snakes. The snakes around Cobraxis' neck are summoned into great warriors to fight the dwarves but are easily destroyed by magic. Viprax joins the enemy attack but Silpantia stops them by summoning dragons to help her. The wizard priests are skeptical until the roof starts to cave in...

Tails[]

The Nameless Zone is a 2-part Tails story by Nigel Kitching, with art from Dave Windett and lettering by Fell. Decked out in his Magic Armour, Tails is shown what he must do to save his homeland - fight Trogg and stop him from invading the Nameless Zone. Tails tries to explain to everyone but nobody will listen. The young fox is hopeless with a sword but a stray strike accidentally cuts the rope on the Dimension Bridge, allowing Tails to fly and corner his opponent. Returning home, Tails acts as if nothing has happened.

Features[]

The Control Zone, hosted by Megadroid, welcomes Boomers back after the New Year and invites them to send in letters about their Christmas presents. A teaser is given for new strip Eternal Champions, there's a strange Sonic strip inside and a new Tails story will begin next issue. A final thought is for Megadroid to ask people how long he'll keep his New Year's resolution of being nice to the Humes. STC were also at the Future Entertainment Show along with Sega and the Sega Buses, a giant Sonic inflatable upstaging everyone. The Sega Charts see new entry Sewer Shark take over top spot for the Mega-CD, while Streetfighter 2 Championship Edition and Mortal Kombat still head the Mega Drive and Master System/Game Gear charts respectively.

Vincent Low is the sole reviewer in this issue's Review Zone, awarding Eternal Champions 85%, Mean Bean Machine (both MD) 80%, Joe Montana's NFL Football just 65% and Wonderdog (both MCD) 80%. Part of the Zone is set aside for The Winning Post!, announcing the winners of several Bubsy the Bobcat goodies from a competition in Issue 6. A shorter than usual News Zone spends most of a page talking about Segasonic the Hedgehog, while (possibly) Richard Elson gives artist impressions of several Mutant League Hockey characters and there is a list of new games coming out that month.

Q Zone returns to two pages with a Q&A Special, David Gibbon answering letters on The Revenge of Shinobi (MCD), Wonder Boy 3, Asterix (both MS), Greendog, James Pond 3, Ex-Mutants (all MD), Spider-Man and Sonic 2 (both GG). Finally, Speedlines has more letters about Sega's high prices, STC being unique, the definition of "Pixel Brain" and a broken Game Gear. All Speedlines entrants won a Tomy Sonic the Hedgehog Water Fun Game.