So I'm being deluged with rumors about Archie mothballing the Sonic franchise -- word has it circulation has plummeted over the last year or so. Do you all think there's any truth to this, or am I being snowed?
I have investigated this pretty extensively-
The answer is, the circulation is doing plenty fine (heck, it still supports two titles, you'd see it go down to one before a circulation-related cancellation, plus they did just do the big crossover not *that* long ago, so I can safely say this isn't the case),
but there is some behind-the-scenes legal issue they're currently wrestling with involving Sega. It's unknown what the result will be, they have completed issues they can't ship til it's done. Even the writers and artists don't know the details of what exactly is being hashed out and it's a pretty sure thing that's because they aren't allowed to.
Basically, if it goes one way, this will be an odd hiatus and we'll be back to normal and find out what the deal was. If it's not, then the last issues have already came out.
And, yea, some people are trying to say the comic's tanked or yadda yadda, but that comes mostly from 'the usual suspects' who hate the comic, and doesn't at all fit with how it just suddenly stopped. They'd do a finale in that case, minimum.
thesevenwielder said:
From what I understand, the restrictions include no character development unless pre-approved by Sega and the characters are not allowed to have families
It's not 'no character development,' there's restrictions that apply to only a few characters (the game ones) and it didn't stop them from doing stuff like the werehog arc about sonic losing and regaining control. No romance for the game character tho, yes. As for families, I think they didn't like how everyone had long-lost parents/uncles/etc. which truthfully didn't add much to the story. I think we're better off without Tail's parents for example.
Keep in mind, there's been about 50 issues since then (100 if one includes universe), so... yea, they can tell good stories like this.