Sonic the comic anyone?

[Penguin God]

...wha-wha-WHAT? Where did all this suddenly come from?

And does this mean there's THREE accounts of what happened that day now? Oy, my head!

[Illustrious Q]

...wha-wha-WHAT? Where did all this suddenly come from?

And does this mean there's THREE accounts of what happened that day now? Oy, my head!

I know the feeling. And i think I'm beginning to understand SEGA's stance on crossovers between the two comics.

[Sonicmark]

oh yeah, I'm not a fan of a cross over.

But being a member of the STC forums, you saw the quote which said nigel didn't mind and just took it as a homage. Wheras evidently some fans must not have been impressed with the cameos and tried to complain to nigel, to which he replied that he didn't mind.

That's what my understanding of it is, I know someone complained but that it wasn't nigel.

as for what I would want to see isn't a cameo, but as someone said before, I would want to see Sonic archives but with Fleetway comics.
Because the thing's still going in the form of STC online and I like that, but I would like to read my old stories in a physical format instead of through scans

[Nigel Kitching]

If I had any sense I would probably just ignore this…

Samanfur said:

"He knew darned well he didn't own them and publicly admitted to me at the time (because I called him on it) that he knew this when signing his contract, because that's how UK copyright law works - he just seemed to think that so-called moral outrage gave him a case.”

Okay. Well I don’t recall this conversation or any conversation remotely like it. I don’t think it can have happened because of some of the factual inaccuracies in what I am supposed to have said.

It’s not possible that I would have talked about how I signed a contract and gave away my intellectual copyright. The reason for this is the fact that I (nor any other freelancers working on STC) were given a contract to sign. There were no contracts – why would I make up a story about signing a contract? Perhaps this whole conversation just never happened at all?

I have always said that, in the absence of a contract, copyright on characters I created along with Rich etc are owned by us – probably. The law regarding intellectual copyright is complicated and you’d be right if you said that I didn’t understand it in any great detail. However I have always held the belief (and I remain pretty sure it’s true) that a creator owns their work unless they specifically sign it away. If you create material whilst employed by a company then, I concede, the company owns it. But, once again, in the case of my time working for Fleetway I was not employed by them – I was a self-employed freelance writer and Fleetway were my publisher.

So anyway I reckon I own the characters I created (or co-created). It’s not some big burning issue with me and I do not get my knickers in a twist over it.

“The number of fans I've met who appreciated the cameos vastly outweighs the handful of frothers from the Nigel Kitching mailing list - unfortunately, the frothers were more organised and more vocal.”

There is, of course, no ‘Nigel Kitching mailing list’. But naturally I understand the insulting implication.

“The whole gist of his actions was "But think how you'd feel if..." - which not only had no legal weight, but simply negated the idea of not signing your freakin' rights away if you were going to be that precious about property that was no longer yours."

This is total invention. What actions am I supposed to have taken? I never said anything along the lines of the above. I didn’t sign my rights away (freakin’ or otherwise) and I never gave anyone the impression that I was ‘precious’ about any of this.

Thanks to G-Mel for posting what I actually said at the time in response to some people’s unhappiness with my characters appearing in Archie. I was called ‘defeatist’ because I wasn’t bothered by the way. Hopefully people will remember this and not all the rubbish that people claim I said. I mean somebody said I was going to sue? That is just nuts - Who comes up with this stuff?

This is the quote again:

“Tom, my dear boy...

Why should I be offended by somebody working for Archie including a couple of my characters in his script?

I would be offended if:

1. It was intended to mock
2. It was some other form of attack
3. If the writer and artist made money from my creations - as far as I am aware they were not paid a higher page rate for referencing my genius...

Also, it's kind of worth remembering that this is so mind-numbingly trivial and unimportant that it's hard to work up any particular emotional response to it. If I try really hard to examine my feelings what I find is that I'm vaguely flattered. If I had a copy of the comic in question I'd stick it with my set of STCs.

Defeatist? Not I sir.

Nigel”

So that’s my take on this and probably more than anyone wanted to hear.

If there are any questions you’d like to ask me about this I’ll do my best to answer.

And Sarah, were you really upset by the way I wrote Tails? Is that why you are angry with me and making up stories? I seem to remember you being annoyed with me in the past because I was doing things in my scripts that you considered to be inappropriate. If that wasn’t you I apologise.

Best

Nigel

[Ian Flynn]

I for one appreciate the insight from the source, especially since this all happened before my time.

I'll let the discussion continue on so long as everyone remains civil.

[Walrus]

Wow, that was neat!

I haven't read a whole bunch STC (I have read the ones with the Chaotix and the Metallix, the Doctor Zachary story, and the Sonic Adventure story) but they are unique, and bring about very different sides to the characters and their world that some may not have thought about. They all seem to hate Charmy though...
I thought it was really cool to see some characters from STC, though a little more obscure, in the American comic; and I really wasn't expecting it. I saw it as more of a homage as well. It kind of makes us one big Sonic fanbase family, right?
Mayhaps we should avoid the infighting and misunderstandings and just rally under the symbol that we all seem to have in common, ne?

[theJcfreak]

Wow, that was neat!

I haven't read a whole bunch STC (I have read the ones with the Chaotix and the Metallix, the Doctor Zachary story, and the Sonic Adventure story) but they are unique, and bring about very different sides to the characters and their world that some may not have thought about. They all seem to hate Charmy though...
I thought it was really cool to see some characters from STC, though a little more obscure, in the American comic; and I really wasn't expecting it. I saw it as more of a homage as well. It kind of makes us one big Sonic fanbase family, right?
Mayhaps we should avoid the infighting and misunderstandings and just rally under the symbol that we all seem to have in common, ne?

Dude, awesome. I agree, there's too much fighting, over the weirdest things too! I don't know anything about this cameo/homage thing, but don't all comics do this sort of thing? Way back, when Sonic first entered the Cosmic Highway, we see the Yellow Submarine. Did any of the Beatles sue over that? Do fans go into raging debates over that?

I've only read the earliest comics, I never read the SA adaption. I do remember the Metallix and Dr. Zachary, who looks alot like Dr. Finitevus. Was Zach a model for the future Finny I wonder?

[Doc Eggman]

I don't know much about Fleetway- I still need to look into more. I do know that Robotnik likes sappy romance novels and hot cocoa though, so that's already a very promising sign, despite his infamously ruthless characterization.

Yeah, moments like these are probably rare in this comic, but they do make fans like me happy. I should look into reading this series sometime, honestly.

[Nigel Kitching]

I don't know much about Fleetway- I still need to look into more. I do know that Robotnik likes sappy romance novels and hot cocoa though, so that's already a very promising sign, despite his infamously ruthless characterization.

Yeah, moments like these are probably rare in this comic, but they do make fans like me happy. I should look into reading this series sometime, honestly.

I've just got to say that when I wrote Robotnik he was never anything like that...

Nigel

[Stiv]

I don't know much about Fleetway- I still need to look into more. I do know that Robotnik likes sappy romance novels and hot cocoa though, so that's already a very promising sign, despite his infamously ruthless characterization.
Yeah, moments like these are probably rare in this comic, but they do make fans like me happy. I should look into reading this series sometime, honestly.

I'm sure I read that exact post somewhere else recently .

And yeah, that was a one-off story and had no impact at all on his character in any other story.

[Doc Eggman]

I've just got to say that when I wrote Robotnik he was never anything like that...

Aww, I like his sensitive side. Ah well.

I'm sure I'll like your take on the character too, once I eventually get to reading it in the comic- There's rarely a Robotnik I don't at least somewhat like, after all...

Though I suppose Fleetway Robotnik could be considered a constantly sympathetic character despite his actions, with his origins as a kindly and good scientist. So that'll be an interesting aspect to read too.

[Stiv]

His slow spiral into madness is fun to observe.

[bsonic10]

OK, thanks for informing us Nigel. Very interesting and informative post. I apologize for saying something false (which I believed to be true at the time).

[Penguin God]

Alright! FINALLY, WE GET A TRUE ACCOUNT. Thank you, Nigel! It's good to know this wasn't the massive debacle it was so rumored to be. I do somewhat enjoy Fleetway, although to be honest the art design on the comic usually turns me away.

[Kaosu Reido]

Or ARE you Nigel?

I DEMAND PROOF! DO SOMETHING... NIGEL...ISH!

It's nice to see another author here.