Art by Richard Elson
Prank was a resident of Shanazar and member of Death-Trap, a group of hired mercenaries. Prank's role in the trio was to summon a genie to do his bidding, suggesting he was a child chosen to visit the Mystic Mountain. He was killed when Medusa turned him to stone.
History[]
When Sonic the Hedgehog destroyed the tradition of sending children to become genie containers, a search began for the culprint. Sonic "refused" to comply, so Grand Vizier Doctor Robotnik hired Death-Trap (with Princess Kupacious' money) to find him.
Death-Trap's first part of the investigation took them to the capital city, with Totem Billy feeling Sonic's presence. The citizens in their immediate vicinity denied all knowledge of seeing Sonic, so Prank asked if he should interrogate them for further information. Prank was shot down by leader Kalus, preferring to use Totem Billy to find the outlaw. Sure enough, Sonic came down to fight and Kalus ordered Prank to take care of the speedy hedgehog. Prank summoned a red genie and ordered it to "kill" Sonic, despite Kalus' explicit orders to capture him. The genie used its eye beams to bring Sonic down, but Sonic simply sped away from town to avoid taking a further beating.
Later, once Totem Billy recovered from a cold, Death-Trap tracked down Sonic once more. Kalus told the other two to stop bickering about the delay, instead wishing to "enjoy the thrill of the hunt". However, when called upon to fight the monster Medusa, Prank was instantly turned to stone.
Original plans[]
Nigel Kitching revealed that he originally planned to have Death-Trap appear in more stories, chasing Sonic across Shanazar: this would allow him to have a running story arc that wouldn't impact on Lew Stringer (as Sonic would escape Death-Trap each time).
"[Prank] would have been the nastiest character I had ever written for Sonic. He actually likes inflicting pain on people and has no mercy at all. He would be capable of terrible things if he wasn't kept in check by the stone guy. Maybe there is some secret between the two that keeps the stone bloke in charge. I also think Robotnik has struck some secret deal with the genie guy... "
His plans were cut short when he was fired and Lew was eventually trusted with the task of tying up their loose ends.
The Ancient Relic Zone feature in Sonic the Poster Mag 2006 revealed that Ed Reynolds had further plans for the team in Sonic the Comic Online had Prank and the others not been killed off. He's turned up apparently alive and well in issue 263.