Issue 253 is the two hundred and fifty-third edition of Sonic the Comic and the 39th overall edition of Sonic the Comic Online. Released on the 11th January 2010, the issue contained four original stories, three of them new, as well as several features and 4 wallpapers. This isssue is the first to have three editors of equal status, with Stiv making his first appearance. Lead editor Charles Ellis delivered his final issue with Issue 253, but plans to remain on as a letterer.
Contents[]
- Control Zone
- Data Zone
- Sonic the Hedgehog - Ebony & Ivory: Part 2
- Miles "Tails" Prower - Tails & The Ultimax
- Tekno & Shorty - The Long Road
- House of the Dead - Charnel House: Part 1
- House of the Dead files
- Review Zone
- Encyclopedia Badnika
- Pin-up
- Back Issues
- Speedlines
- Next Issue
Strips[]
Sonic the Hedgehog[]
Ebony & Ivory is a 2-part story written and lettered by Mike Corker with art by Team Mobius. Sonic discovers the identity of Blaze the Cat and unlocks the "essence" held by Ebony the Cat. The two females become embroiled in a catfight while Sonic struggles with becoming Super Sonic once more. To make matters wose, The Order of Magick catch up to the scene and hold two of the three as prisoner!
Miles "Tails" Prower[]
Tails & The Ultimax is a complete story completely produced by Stephen Davis. After hacking police communications, the Kintobor Computer has led Tails to the scene of a disturbance; the grimy Green Gremlin is attacking the local forces but a call has been made for The Ultimax - a multi-national corporation and a trio of plucky warriors. Unfortunately, the newbies are useless at fighting so Tails saves the day. After the villain has been unmasked, Tails asks The Ultimax a little favour.
Tekno & Shorty[]
The Long Road is a complete story written by Corker, with art and letters by Pete Murphy. Two weeks since Tekno the Canary defeated Set, the Pyramid of Atum is being repaired by the former slaves. Even the Eternity Ring has been found, so Tekno and Shorty the Squirrel jet off to go back to Mobius. The squirrel questions Tekno's odd activity but the pair are distracted to discover that Set is still alive and has Shorty's armour!
House of the Dead[]
Charnel House is a mutli-part story set shortly after Resurrection Men. The story, written by Robert Frazer with art and letters by Lisa Lee, sees the party return to AMS headquarters only to discover things to be a lot worse now. Inside the Tower of London, Director Lindbergh explains that the Fear Foundry is building a deadly army to overrun the AMS' position. G realises that they're here to finish the job of flattening them all.
Features[]
This issue's Control Zone, hosted by Megadroid, welcomes Boomers to the strips and features appearing this issue. After somewhat apologising for the hectic last few months that haven't wielded a new issue, Megadroid also mentions that things will be happening to celebrate Sonic's 20th birthday as well as the fact that Megadroid can now be followed on Facebook and Twitter.
The Data Zone gives brief recaps of all the major characters, including Sonic, Tails, Shorty, Ebony, Set and Tekno (making things slightly out of order). There's even a whole section dedicated to House of the Dead, with biographies on Thomas, Sophie Rogan, Lisa Rogan and G. The overall story so far is that "Doctor Robotnik has returned, and Mobius is at war with his armies - with Tails as its greatest hero! But while many fight Robotnik, others have different agendas... The story so far for HOTD states that it's "Earth, 2018: fifteen years after manufactured armies of zombies swarmed the Earth, created to murder mankind! Survivors are at risk from both the undead hordes & their controllers and power-grabbing groups like the Resurrection Men… but in post-zombie London, humanity refuses to stay down!
The House of the Dead files are a collection of paperwork and news clippings leading up to the events of the current House of the Dead world, including the birth of the first monster, a report from Thomas Rogan, the sinking of Venice and more. A new edition of the Encyclopedia Badnika focuses on Cam and Bert, the Badnik Army Repair Functionaries! As well as giving a short profile on them, there's information on the Miracle Planet Badnik forces, The Seven Badniks and the Nicenik virus. As ever, the data was compiled by "Norris Wimple".
A new edition of the Review Zone sees three reviewers provide three entries; Iain Stewart awarded the 360 version of Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 79%, Seumidh MacDonald covered the iOS edition of the game (but didn't give it a score, instead commenting negatively), and Drew Middlemas gave Sonic Colours 77%.
The wallpapers section contains four posters corresponding to three of the issue's stories. The cover by Lisa Lee is provided, as are two scenes from the lead story (Elson Wong and Marcus Stockley). A group shot of Tails and The Ultimax by Adamis closes matters.
Speedlines, as usual, hosts a great number of emails answered by Megadroid and the droid also reveals he'll answer all messages, even ones not featured in the comic. Letters are from a friend of Matt Dittmer requesting to be an animator, an old reader remembering The Final Victory, an American fan asking about Sonic's birthday competition, someone else wanting a Power Stone adaptation, the virus of Issue 252, a request for online copies of Sonic the Comic and two readers wanting to become STC-O artists, one of whom went to the Summer of Sonic.
The Next Issue splash teases a clash between Sonic and Amy Rose, with Issue 254 set to come out in the spring of 2011.
Reception[]
After a couple of positively-received issues, Issue 253 was a bit of a decline in quality, according to the Message Zone. Although art was largely praised once again, the writing of the four stories was derided somewhat. The House of the Dead strip was considered to be unwelcome and the second part of the lead strip was quite inconsequential, despite being 11 pages long.
Staff[]
- Charles Ellis - editor
- Stiv - co-editor
- Michael Corker - co-editor and designer
Timeline[]
The previous issue of Sonic the Comic Online was Issue 252. The next issue was Issue 254.