In early UK Sonic fandom, the two Sonic the Hedgehog Yearbooks were vital pieces of history. They showcased comic strip adventures of the world’s most famous hedgehog, which would serve to give Sega fans a peek into the world of Sonic’s video game adventures, while also utilising the Kintobor origin story laid out in other British Sonic media to help with brand synergy.
From late 1993 to early 1995, the Daily Express (or, rather, it’s Sunday edition, the Sunday Express) ran a newspaper strip based on Sonic the Hedgehog as part of its imaginatively titled Sunday magazine, specifically in the part of the magazine intended for younger readers. Barrie Tomlinson, editor of the UK Sonic the Hedgehog Yearbooks, penned the series, which places the strips firmly in the continuity of the Yearbooks. Art for the strips was provided by Sonic the Comic’s Richard Elson (sometimes aided on colouring duties by John M. Burns) and, later, Sandy James.
The Sonic of this continuity is cool to the point of comedy, frequently using lingo so “hip” he needs to be translated via caption boxes for the reader’s benefit. While the Yearbooks are obscure enough in wider Sonic fandom, most British Sonic fans from the early days are generally at least aware of their existence. The newspaper strips, however, have never been reprinted and are archived online largely thanks to the efforts of Lola Muir and Richard Elson himself.
Yearbook stories
The following are the stories included in the UK Sonic Yearbooks. Note that all stories listed here are comic strips except The Sonic Interview and Sonic’s Diary, which are prose stories.
| ENTRY | RELEASE DATE | KINTOBOR COMPUTER REVIEW RANK |
| Cartoon Concerto | 1993 | |
| The Sonic Interview | 1993 | |
| Speed Demonz | 1993 | |
| Double Sonic | 1993 | |
| Sticky Problems | 1994 | |
| Sonic’s Diary | 1994 | |
| Tails’ Tale | 1994 | |
| Space-Hedgehog | 1994 | |
| Big Trouble | 1994 |
Newspaper strips
Note that due to the nature of newspaper strips, the storylines have been grouped together for this site’s purposes as reviewing individual stories would be frivolous. Additionally, none of the storylines are presented as having a title, so they have been given titles here for ease of understanding.
| ENTRY | RELEASE DATE | KINTOBOR COMPUTER REVIEW RANK |
| Newspaper strip introductory storyline | 10/10/93 | |
| Newspaper strip weather machine storyline | 14/11/93 | |
| Newspaper strip rabbit robot storyline | 20/2/94 | |
| Newspaper strip Operation Shrink Sonic storyline | 10/4/94 | |
| Newspaper strip Superbadniks storyline | 17/7/94 | |
| Newspaper strip stolen energy rings storyline | 9/10/94 | |
| Newspaper strip amnesia storyline | 15/1/95 |
The Kintobor Computer 