Sonic HQ Wants to Save Knuckles

On Ken Penders’s message board, John Gray (WB) had a word of positivity to say about the Knuckles comic. Here is the entire transcript of WB’s message (FIRST @ TSSZ), and his response:

After hearing all this stuff about Knuckles and a possible production delay/cancellation, I got to thinking. While working working on the comics page revamp for Sonic HQ, I was talking with a friend at HQ tonight who suggested a net “procott” for Knuckles.

It actually sounded like a good idea and one I’d like to present by you guys and Mr. Penders to see his thoughts. The thing was this: What if I could get Sonic HQ to start a “procott” of sort? Anyone familiar with Sailor Moon will know what I’m talking about.

Last year Sailor Moon – a Japanese Anime – was brought to the states where it met a warm reception and made animation history. For anyone that doesn’t know – Cartoon Syndication usually has a 65 episode limit and if the show is popular enough it gets renewed for a “second season”. This is harder to do unless you have a huge company backing you up like say, Pokemon – another POPULAR anime does with Nintendo and Warner Brothers. Anyway Sailor Moon has several “seasons” in Japan but none of them were total to 65 episodes per se. The seasons included:

– The Queen Beryl and The Negaforce storyline that took the majority of the episodes
– The Doom Tree series which lasted around the range of 14 episodes, and the final series released in America
– Crystal Tokyo and The Dark Moon Family which lasted about 38 episodes.

Sailor Moon had become HUGELY POPULAR by the time the Crystal Tokyo saga started and JUST AS IT STARTED TO CLIMAX, Sailor moon reached its 65 episode syndication limit and stopped. No more episodes were to be shown. Needless to say fans were BOMBED – no more episodes of Sailor Moon. So these guys on the internet S.O.S. (Save Our Sailors) started a campaign to bring the 17 remaining episodes back to the states because they cared so much for the character. To do this they began a “procott” and letter writing campaign to DIC Animation and Irwin toys – Sailor Moon’s previous sponsor.

Needless to say – it took them almost 1 and a half years. But the 17 episodes were brought BACK to the states and because the campaign generated SO MUCH POPULARITY for Sailor Moon and realising JUST HOW MUCH of a cash cow it was, S.O.S. is trying to convince D.I.C. to bring back Sailormoon S – The next generation of Sailormoon cartoons that showed in Japan. And it may be working as well.

So what does this have to do with Sonic and Knuckles?

Everything. Sonic is already set with SA coming along and everything else unless SEGA makes a monumental screw up – but lets not start that discussion now. Sonic Adventure is already coming out so that will push sales up more. BUT – What if Sonic HQ started a page encouraging people to “Save Knuckles”. In other words encouraging a “procott” and letter writing campaign. Procott meaning like what Mr. Penders suggested – encouraging people to buy MORE Knuckles and Sonic comics and encouraging thier friends to do the same. And at the same time – generating a MASS LATTER WRITING campaign to Wal Mart to put comic books back on the shelf – particularly Archie Comics because of their “wholesomeness and family comics” – and not punish everyone thanks to the mindlessness of one whiny woman.

I think its a good idea that could work if done properly. Sonic fans couldn’t save the SatAM Sonic cartoon unfortunately – but an organized campaign by one of the larger websites and maybe any others if they were willing to help – to make SURE Sonic and Knuckles stay on the shelf – might help. Get MORE PEOPLE to learn about Sonic and Knuckles comics and at the same time – keep the rest of the comics from going extinct. It would also generate more popularity for the “funny animal” comic, if we could do this right. Sonic has a lot of respect in that area anyway among comic books. Cause if Knuckles goes, how long before Sonic falls also?

Also – we could get other guys to back us – like writing to the Comic Book Defense Fund, and blueribbon.com (a KNOWN Free Speech candidate – Free Speech being the right for Wal mart to not ban EVERYTHING thanks to one person). If we hold MASS letter writing campaigns to guys like that AND Wal mart and at the same time hold a large “procott” to buy more books for those that can afford it, we think we could rectify the situation of having Knuckles drop on the cancellation bucket.

So what do you guys think? You too Mr. Penders. A lot of guys at HQ are willing to do it with some advice and asked me to type this letter out to pass it by you all – Mr. P. in particular. >:P It’d take a while to get set up, but we have a few plans. And BTW, all rabid Archie haters can stay out of this. We’re trying to do this _as a SONIC FANDOM_ – not a separate entity. Thats where we failed in SatAM Sonic. Either you’re for it, or not.

What do you think Mr. Penders?

Ken Penders:

Without going into a lot of details, within the past 24 hours, any effort on behalf of saving KNUCKLES the comic could also have a profound effect as well on the possibility of other outlets for the characters in video games, toys, film, TV, etc. I’m not allowed to say more at this time, but I ask people to trust me on this one, as I’ve been approached by other Powers That Be expressing interest in everyone’s favorite echidna. Talk about timing. I couldn’t believe it myself.

In regards to doing whatever you can, if anyone can afford to buy an extra copy, please don’t just stash it away. Give it to a friend or relative who doesn’t read the book. Share the fun with kids on your street. For those who can’t afford an extra copy, but do buy KNUCKLES on a regular basis, let the retailer know you’re interested in buying the book if you don’t see it on their shelves. If they need more than just your order, round up a couple of friends. Whatever you do, be positive, and more importantly, be polite. If anyone has other suggestions, share them with your friends.

All of you can make a difference, even if you’re not doing something on a daily basis, or think anything you do won’t achieve the desired results. I won’t be posting on a daily or even weekly basis regarding this as even I don’t get the information except on a sporadic basis. However, I do know that if I just sit around and do nothing, or worse yet — think negative, then it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy and the books will indeed go by the way of the dinosaur.

The Suits will pay attention if you give them a reason to. This is Sonic fandom’s chance to show everyone that they really do matter.

Pay attention to this story, because I will be. Yesterday, I was talking about a possible “Crisis”. But today, I may be able to call this story a saving grace. Stay tuned.

This post was originally written for TSSZ News.