BumbleKing Comics

[Toug]

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

Maybe he was inspired by Nel Yomtov?

--LBD "Nytetrayn"
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[Tracy Yardley!]

I will admit there are times when I wish Ray used a uniform color fill on background characters a bit less frequently than he has. That being said, I can overlook it because I know firsthand how demanding it can be to do this work for a living. The unfortunate truth is we don't always have the time to make each and every panel as perfect a work of art as we'd like. God knows I cut MANY a corner in order to get the work done in a reasonable amount of time. I don't know Ray very well, but if he's anything like me, he's got a family or other life outside of his work to deal with as well. Aside from the purple people thing, I for one, greatly appreciate Ray's colors and I think he has done a fantastic job with my work overall.

Tracy!

[nuckles87]

It wasn't so much the purple that bothered me personally. I just never really liked the shades of the colors he used. It's hard for me to explain, but they seemed a little....off. Too light or something.

I'm not quite sure how Herms is managing these colors, though. I can't recall the comic having color like this before.
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[Mr Saxon]

From the evidence of this, me thinks Eggman is going the same way as Robotnik in the UK Fleetway comic, ever so slightly loopy in the head.

[Radz the Hedgehog]

Well, it's about time frankly. Eggman has always tried the same thing over and over again and yet he seems to have maintained his sanity. I believe I once heard that insanity was trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results...that's pretty much Eggman since the beginning. As with him actually acting crazy, the crazy plotlines can still make some sense.

Like the whole Metal Sonic and Shadow thing. Under normal circumstances, the whole traveling to other dimensions like that would be nothing more than a plot device, but since Eggman's mental faculties are in decline, it doesn't seem quite so forced.
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[2tailed]

Oh shoot, I wrote an essay again. Only read this if you want a juicy examination of Eggman's character!

Robotnik seems to be developing an Ahab-like monomania, focusing on finishing Sonic once and for all. But he can't actually go so far as to have that be the only thing he thinks about, because conquering the world has also always been his goal--that's why he hates Sonic so much, because he's the big threat that stands in his way. Thus, in AoStH, he created the 5-S Squad, to get rid of Sonic while he went about his destructive, egotistical plans. And when they were foiled, the first thing on his lips was always, "I hate that hedgehog!"

We all know, as Bunnie said in issue #13, that "Robotnik really loves himself! [That's why] everything he builds looks like him!" I think he's got a big enough ego to focus on Sonic when our boy in blue gets his goat enough to seriously bruise his pride. And to a large part, Sonic and the global Freedom Fighter groups represent the extent to which he hasn't yet conquered the world--they're symbolic of his failure to achieve that goal.

So in issue #175, Robo demonstrated his superiority to the Knothole Freedom Fighters by capturing them all and razing Knothole to the ground, and beating the crap out of Sonic. Then, just to show his superiority, he let Sonic live, mistakenly thinking he'd taken the fight out of the hedgehog. But then Sonic and Nicole took both of those victories away by refusing to give up and by creating/modifying making use of a new area to stand as a testament to the weakness of Eggman's power.
After that, Eggman was seen in #180 raging against New Mobotropolis because of the stinging wound that Nicole had dealt to his pride, and he was specifically trying to deal her a fatal blow. When Enerjak came along, he saw an opportunity to further his plans to conquer the world, so he took it. But when Enerjak crippled his city, there wasn't much he could do (besides enslave some echidnas to use as disposable resources to keep operations running).

After a while, with so many of his resources and so much of his formidable robot army obliterated, there wasn't much he could do in terms of world-conquering, so when he got bored, he used Metal to spoil for a fight with Sonic. Or Scourge, another "uppity hedgehog". Since the two hedgehogs destroyed the two Metals (along with help from the SS, whom Robotnik seemed not to realize were key to the defeat [just as the FFs were key to his defeat in #177]), he has apparently become crazed with rage and a craving for vengeance, and without a fleet of fish-ships or an army of Egg Pawns, maybe the only thing he thinks he can do is lash out with constantly-upgraded Metal Sonics. Which are at least ironic enough in that they look like Sonic himself, and if it was possible for only one of them to beat the hedgehog (and it is: see the 2007 FCBD issue, StH #87-88 although Eggman wouldn't necessarily have known that story, and the way the battle was turning with Metals Sonic and Scourge before the SS stepped in), then that makes for even more irony to rub in Sonic's face. Ideally Metal is harder, better, faster, and stronger than Sonic (see the Sonic OVA, where Metal's only line is: "There is only one Sonic," Sonic Heroes [the game now, not its instructions], where Metal sees his own existence as incompatible with Sonic's, and #87-88 where Metal is indeed better than Sonic, and Sonic is even forced to admit it). If Metal is greater than Sonic, then by proxy Eggman is too, since he built the bot (again see FDBD '07: Eggman confuses Metal's victory with his). In the cases where Metal develops sentience, he seems to forget the fact that as a creature, he owes everything to his creator (which Eggman has NEVER forgotten with regards to his robots).

In #51, Robotnik's virtual-reality counterpart asked Sonic, "How does it feel to have egg on your face?"* As it was a tailor-made VR for Sonic, the thought that Eggman had rubbed Sonic's defeat in his face was apparently something Sonic was not supposed to find pleasant. Since it is supposed that Robo-Robotnik was actually the one who created that VR device, he at least thought that maximizing Sonic's powerless state would be seen as important by Sonic. When he came to Mobius Prime in #75 (to take over the world), he made a great deal about his and Sonic's necessity to be enemies ("Your world needed a Robotnik. I needed a Sonic." or something like that), and made sure to rub his victory in Sonic's face by showing the roboticized Hedgehog family and Muttski under his control once again.

Maybe it really is more about ego for Eggman when it comes to his relationship with Sonic...some game booklets (like the one for Sonic Heroes, I think) have said that he thinks of Sonic as a rival. Which I wouldn't say is the only thing he thinks of him as. But in any case, Snively's story in issue #194 makes it look like Eggman's working on something bigger now than just hedgehogs anyway. Maybe he's got a two-track mind, that switches back and forth at various times, in response to various things: The man wants to conquer the world, but he hates that hedgehog.

*which Sonic noted was a bad pun even before the "Eggman" nickname had been used much in the comics AT ALL--only instance that comes to mind is the Triple Trouble special's reference to "Fried Eggman"! Check it out in the first volume of Sonic Select! (shameless plug #1)
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Sonic on the Nintendo GameBoy?? Check out my Green Hills remix at 8bitcollective!
More 8-bit music at www.sloopygoop.com

[2tailed]

Got my issue today! That's the good part of having a subscription. Sometimes they come significantly later.
Herms does a fine job in his coloring debut. My only qualm is that a lot of the pages seem to have this overall greenish hue to them, which may actually just be a result of the printing this time around.
There's a really nice splash page mid-story which, re-worked a little bit, would have made a better cover, I think. There are a lot of fun drawings courtesy of Tracy, and some nice comedy moments courtesy of Ian. But:

[Orion101]

[Ian Flynn]

[Para]

I'm also jumping on board the "Yay! Bernie looks purple again!" celebration train. Bernie needs some color distinction. Otherwise she has the unfortunate tendency to look like Sonic in drag.

Anyone else think Sniv's email buddy is Hope?

[G-Mel]

[kryptyk]

Why not?

First off, Snively is wondering if SHE emailed him back yet.

Secondly: DKA-RF could mean DRAGON KINGDOM AREA- ROBOTNIK FEMALE. Or perhaps it could mean DRAGON KINGDOM AREA- ROBOTNIK FAMILY.

I say Dragon Kingdom because it was the area Sonic and Tails visited on their world tour which was controlled by the Iron King and Queen and was also mentioned by Knuckles' grandfather Thunderhawk, the first time the Brotherhood was introduced.

[Fairfieldfinder]

[2tailed]

Also, why would Hope be one of Egman's sub-bosses? (Unless it was the whole Internet-identity thing.)
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Sonic on the Nintendo GameBoy?? Check out my Green Hills remix at 8bitcollective!
More 8-bit music at www.sloopygoop.com