INFO BURST

Format: Comic strip
Initial Release Date: 8/1/94
Feature character: Sonic the Hedgehog/Erin
Villain: Doctor Ivo Robotnik
Other Characters: Miles “Tails” Prower, Badniks (Buzzer)
Locations: Mobius, Earth
Items: Death Egg Robot, Brain Drain Machine
Continuity: Sonic the Comic
Synopsis: Sonic finds himself bound and about to be crushed underfoot by Robotnik’s Death Egg Robot, as Tails cries out for the heroic hedgehog to help him. Suddenly, Sonic jolts awake… but all is not as it seems. Spying himself in the mirror, Sonic sees he’s a fleshy, pink creature wearing strange clothes – a human. Sonic is called downstairs and finds he is a boy named Erin, at least according to the woman who calls her his mother. Erin’s mother tries to serve him a hard-boiled egg for breakfast but Erin resists, insisting he is Sonic the Hedgehog. Erin’s mother assures him Sonic is all in his imagination, probably inspired by the computer games he loves to play. Rather than eat the egg, Erin escapes the kitchen and finds the Emerald Hill Zone – or, rather, his back garden. He hears a familiar voice coming from his next door neighbour’s fence and meets the boy who loves next door, who has two ponytails which look strangely familiar. Erin tries to rescue “Tails” from his unseen attackers by hurling a Spin Attack at the fence, but only ends up cartwheeling into the fence and knocking himself out. Awakening in his bed, Erin finds he’s tucked in so tight he can’t move. His mother enters with an egg which she intends to feed to him, spewing disgusting green slime. Erin resists and leads his mother to snap at him and call him spikeball – confirming that he isn’t a boy who dreamt he was a hedgehog, but a hedgehog dreaming, snapping out of the dream and awakening as Sonic the Hedgehog! The entire ordeal was a mind game conjured up by Doctor Robotnik’s Brain Drain machine, designed to turn Sonic into a subservient slave. Robotnik retreats and Sonic frees Tails. The hedgehog ponders about what a weird world he dreamed about, telling Tails it’s too unbelievable to describe.

CREDITS

Writer and Artist: Ed Hillyer
Letterer: Ellie de Ville

Review

The cover to Sonic the Comic issue 17 describes Sonic the Human! as, “the strangest Sonic story ever told,” and there’s a pretty good chance that’s on the money even to this day. These days, plenty of artists imagine what Sonic might look like as a human but this was unique back in 1993 and it’s something an officially licensed part of the series still hasn’t returned to.

A Sonic story that’s without Sonic – at least as we know him – is a fun twist too. There are so many excellent visual touches that suggest elements of the series’ iconography: Erin’ room has toys hanging from the ceiling that resemble Badniks and the bi-plane; there’s an issue of Sonic the Comic on his chair and a Mega Drive on his desk which suggest maybe he really is imagining the whole thing; the kitchen floor tiles resemble the Green Hill Zone checkerboard pattern.

The visual look in general are a key part of the story and its effectiveness. The weird lighting in Erin’s house is unnerving and strange. The kitchen being baked in a warm, golden glow doesn’t seem unusual until later in the story when Erin’s mother enters his room, hued in blues and deep purples, and she’s still glowing in gold. Her face, as well, is a wonderful indicator that something just isn’t quite right. One panel has her face warping at a strange angle towards the corner of the picture as if we’re viewing the scene through a fish-eye lens, a really impressive trick to achieve in hand-drawn comic art. The rest of the story sees her facial expression change into something much more sinister until the climax where she wears the demented grimace Robotnik of Robotnik and the curtain is drawn back.

The story constantly leaves the reader second guessing. Of course, we want Sonic to be alright but we first have to be absolute certain that Erin really is a work of fiction. While no reader would seriously think Sonic would stop appearing in his own comic, there’s nothing to suggest Erin can’t exist independently of Sonic on our world, until the deception is fully revealed and we get full confirmation that he and Sonic are one and the same.

Erin’s design is a fantastic translation of Sonic’s into human form, as is the brilliant choice of name (after erinaceus europaeus, the Latin name for the western hedgehog). The slightly-too-small tanktop leaving his arms and stomach on display are a great way of depicting Sonic’s flesh-coloured arms and stomach fur. Erin’s silhouette is an interesting one that writer and artist Ed Hillyer plays around with to tremendous effect. To look at him, he doesn’t share the silhouette with Sonic, but in one panel, his pose is laid on the wall in literal silhouette and displays a perfectly clear image of Sonic, thanks to some genius placement of Erin’s ear to play the part of Sonic’s nose.

Admittedly, the part of the story with Tails seems a little rushed to get to the climactic scene of Erin unable to escape his own bed, but that honestly feels like a minor complaint. This is a surreal story that takes the world and characters of Sonic and does something completely unique with them.