Yardley to “Step Aside” on Sonic Comics due to Family Emergencies

1 July, 2019 28 December, 2024

You will not be seeing the work of Tracy Yardley, a 14-year veteran of the Sonic comics across both the Archie and IDW iterations, in that series for a little while.

On Friday, Yardley took to Twitter to explain his current and continuing absence from the comic, citing two family-related emergencies that required his immediate attention. Yardley cited a request from current IDW Sonic editor David Mariotte to, in Mariotte’s alleged words, “step aside” while the matters evolved, and Yardley complied.

we had her aunt move in with us. She's 70 and has a lot of health problems and lots of doctors appointments and needs some help around the house. But overall, she's not a real problem and even helps out in a lot of ways. But it did take a month or two to get her moved/settled /2

— Tracy Yardley! (@yardleyart) June 28, 2019

They had reached the end of their rope with the authorities and their kids would have been taken by DFCS and put in the foster system. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, however, our 3 local counties are vastly underfunded and there are nowhere near enough foster homes /4

— Tracy Yardley! (@yardleyart) June 28, 2019

And its also very very unlikely the kids would ever be reunited if they were split up. Because, its very unlikely the parents will ever finish the plans set out for them by CPS/DFCS. We took in the kids after the latest in a series of violent episodes by their father /6

— Tracy Yardley! (@yardleyart) June 28, 2019

As we already have 2 kids and my wife's aunt, this has made work and life in general much more complicated. Its frankly been more than I can handle. I tried my best, but time really just got away from me and David Mariotte has very correctly asked me to step aside on Sonic. /8

— Tracy Yardley! (@yardleyart) June 28, 2019

I do not air all this to seek sympathy or to lay blame on anyone for my situation. I could have said no and turned my back on these children. But, as anyone who's familiar with my twitter, I talk a good game about being a proper Christian and doing what's right. /10

— Tracy Yardley! (@yardleyart) June 28, 2019

No timetable was given on a possible return to IDW Sonic, but given the immense planning ahead that goes into a single issue, it will likely be a bit before we see Yardley’s talent in the series again. In the meantime, he has asked those who have commissioned him for work “to be patient.”