“Yesterday’s” Comic> Sonic The Hedgehog #61

I’m sure there’s a rafting joke in here someplace, but nothing’s coming to me.

Sonic The Hedgehog #61

Archie Comic Publications (August, 1998)

LETTERER: Jeff Powell

EDITOR: J. Freddy Gabrie

“Outback Gut Check”

WRITER: Mike Gallagher

ARTIST: Harvo Mercadoocasio

COLORIST: Frank Gaguardo

“Total Turbulence”

WRITER: Karl Bollers

PENCILER:  Steven Butler

INKER: Jim Amash

COLORIST: Frank Gaguardo

Tales Of The Freedom Fighters: “On His Majesty’s Secret Service”

WRITER/INKER/COLORIST: Ken Penders

PENCILER: Art Mawhinney

In the first of two Sonic & Tails adventures, the pair end up in Downunda, and learn that Duck “Bill” Platypus is leading a revolt of the platypuses as the Downunda Freedom Fighters try to rebuild in the crater. It turns out that Crocbot planted a device on Bill that is controlling him and making him rebuild the villain. Sonic shuts the robot down per the king’s orders and our heroes return him to Mobotropolis.

This story is not that great. They set up tension between Sonic and Walt that goes nowhere, suggests that Barby Koala might have a thing for Tails (who does think she’s cute), but also suggests Walt might be jealous despite no signs of it in the story. The problem ends too quickly and the art is not very good. Barby almost looks like a human in a fursuit, and the others are different from the designs for the Downudas we’ve seen in previous visits here or what we see of Wombat Stu in the third story.

The second one looks even more like filler as a result. Our duo unknowingly find Ixis, hiding as a cloud, and his bit attempt to get rid of them is…blow the plane around a bit and hope they crash. The art is better but the story is unnecessary.

Our final tale is a rarity in that it stars Geoffrey St. John and I don’t hate it. Fleming retires after setting off another of Robotnik’s remaining death traps (that was the assignment, not a mistake). King Acorn tells him to select a team for a yet to be disclosed stealth mission. St. John recruits Espio’s friend who is not named here and I don’t recognize him. He also grabs Wombat Stu, who looks more like himself in this story (odd given how much taller Geoffrey looks), and back at base brings Hershey The Cat onto the team. He heads to bed wondering who will be the last member of his team. As I said, I didn’t hate this story, but there isn’t much to it. It’s just St. John assembling his new team. There is some narrative foreshadowing as he’s sure the choice for final member will “hit him like a bomb”, but I’ll save that for when we get there next issue.

Overall, that was the only story really worth it. The first and second have good ideas but the first doesn’t have time to really be good and both suffer from a rushed ending, while the third is mostly set-up for the back-up story arc. This is just not an impressive issue.