INFO BURST

Format: Comic strip
Initial Release Date: December 1992
Feature character: Rotor Walrus
Other characters: Sid the Snail
Locations: None specifically mentioned, though we see the Mobian Congress building
Continuity: Archie Comics
Synopsis: Rotor notes that much has been made of Sonic’s speed but he’d like to focus on those who aren’t quite so quick, such as his friend Sid the Snail. Sid claims plenty of things are slower than him- like waiting for an important piece of mail. In turn, the mail man notes that at least he’s not as slow as an anti-pollution bill going through Congress, wherein a trio of stuffy politicians stare at the bill and gather dust and cobwebs.
Notes: The first Sonic story to not star Sonic.

CREDITS

Writer: Michael Gallagher
Artists: Scott Shaw, Bill White

Review

None of the western Sonic comics have ever focused solely on the title character. After all, when you have a cast of characters as popular as Sonic’s friends, you’d be foolish to not make use of that as a writer. This strip is notable as being the very first piece set in a world with Sonic the Hedgehog himself in which Sonic is not the star. Unfortunately, there’s not a great deal here to get your teeth into. It might have been fun to see Rotor concocting something in his lab, some sort of experiment which backfired noisily (bearing in mind he was still called Boomer at this point).

What we have here instead feels largely like it doesn’t belong in this world at all. Most of the jokes are the kind of “You think that’s bad?!” humour you might find in a tame newspaper strip or groansome greeting card. We also have a collection of characters who don’t particularly feel like they belong in Sonic’s world from a design standpoint, looking like they might belong more in a Disney cartoon or comic. That, at least, is a point we can forgive considering it was still early days for the Sonic franchise as a whole so a “house style” hadn’t particularly been established.

But all in all it just seems a bit bizarre. It doesn’t feel like Rotor really needs to host this strip at all. It could just as easily have had Sonic in the role, talking about how he’s the fastest thing alive but he wanted to find the slowest thing alive. The whole story hinges on the idea that Rotor is notably slower than Sonic- and there’s nothing we’ve seen to this point that suggests that’s the case, at least not more for Rotor than anyone else! It’s pretty dull stuff but at a page it’s over quickly… ironically.