@Nobodyman:
Hey guys.
So I'm thinking about picking up the Archie Sonic comics. That is, starting pretty much from the beginning with the Sonic Archives books. I remember reading a few Sonic comics as a kid and I think I enjoyed them pretty well.
I dunno. Do you guys think it's worth the investment?
In short?
No.
Long answer?
You're not a kid anymore, and it won't be anywhere as good as you remember it being.
The first 30 or so issues were pretty gag oriented. They hit a stride in trying to be like the SatAM show for around issues 30-60 or so, and tried some things and had a few good stories… I'm not even sure how the series would work without also reading the Knuckles series and the various spinoffs (Princess Sally, Tails, etc.) There's a ton of stories just dictated by having to have a game tie in and very little of it is any good... (and Sega also passed down the edict that Sonic can't ever cry, or be married or have kids or basically have any sort of emotion, which means he and Sally forcibly break up every couple years to avoid the issue)
The Sonic Adventure tie in especially is weird because they weren't actually given a game script to follow, and had to base an entire crossover mega-arc around one of their artists playing a Japanese copy of the game, for instance.
Ultimately it all got caught up in being Ken Pender's personal pet soap opera project what with him being the head writer for about a solid decade including the entirety of the Knuckles comic, and when he finally left things were left in shambles. (Including multiple future timelines, continuity snarls)
I stopped reading at 134, and its at 250 or so now, so I only vaguely know what its been like since.
The current writer is supposed to be decent and cleaned up the mess eventually... but they just rebooted about a year ago after crossing over with Megaman... largely to clear out the baggage Ken Penders left and to avoid legal hassles with him... so a lot of stories will be permanently unresolved.
There's some good bits here and there but there is sooo much dumb and bad stuff its really not worth the long haul from the start, I can't imagine a lot of that material being good if you're over the age of 10. (And I bought it from issue 1 up through issue 134!! When I was the right age!) If you must try Sonic comic, the recent reboot is probably a good place to start... apparently the European book is great.
Tho mostly you get everything you need from season 2 of SatAM.