There have been a lot of anniversaries and celebratory days in the video game world this year, with Nintendo’s MAR10 day,Commander Keenday for the DOS gamers, and the 35th anniversary ofThe Legend of Zeldaseries. Not to be outdone, Sega has been prepping forSonic the Hedgehog’s 30th anniversary on June 23 and has announced a new comic book to celebrate the blue blur’s special occasion.
Of course, this is far fromSonic the Hedgehog’s first time gracing the pages of a comic book. Sega’s blue mascot originally appeared in an episodic series of issues from Archie Comics that ran from 1993 to 2016. In 2018 IDW Publishing took up the mantle and began publishing its own unique stories featuring the hedgehog and his friends.
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Now, forSonic’s 30th anniversary, IDW is planning a special release. As avid readers will surely know,Ian Flynn wrote most of the earlySoniccomicsfor IDW, and the author is back with a brand new story for the anniversary book. Joining Flynn with their own exclusive tales are Gale Galligan and the McElroy Brothers, bringing the grand total of stories in the book to three.
The comic book is scheduled to be released in June, however an expanded hardcover edition will be released in October and will include an additional story by Galligan as well as bonus “making of” content. While no additional content from Ian Flynn will be included in the expanded edition, this is likely due to the fact that the writer is also busy working on theSonic the Hedgehog30th Anniversary Encyclopedia.
Indeed, Sega has promised fans a lot of new content for the blue blur’s big milestone and are so far delivering. In addition to the comic book and encyclopedia, there is currently a specialSonic30th anniversary figure from JAKKS Pacificin the works, pins and energy drinks, and surely many more items still to be announced. Unfortunately, Sega hasn’t said much about when the nextSonicvideo game might come, but it is known that a game has been in development since at least 2019.
Fans with a few bucks to spare will at least have a plethora ofSonicmerchandise to tide them over until the hedgehog’s new game does eventually come out. Even the 30th anniversary comic book will be available with four collectable cover variants. Further, it has been revealed that theSonic2 movie will be released in 2022, so even if the nextSonicgame is a few years away, plenty will still be happening for the blue blur in 2021 and beyond.
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