Every Wednesday we take turns to delve into our trusty longboxes, pluck out a dusty back issue, and give you our thoughts. We’ll also try and place it in the context of the time it was originally published.

As you may have gathered, James, Seb and I share fond memories of “the UK’s official Sega comic“. Not to be confused with the US series published by Archie, STC was a fortnightly anthology book, published from 1993 to 2002. The title was closely modelled on 2000A.D., with which it shared an editor. Each issue was built around a seven-page Sonic strip, supported by three or so other stories based on Sonic’s supporting cast or other Sega franchises. But what made the title so endearing?

With global franchises so tightly controlled by their owners, it comes as something of a shock to reflect on the situation a mere fifteen years ago. Sega Enterprises were caught on the hop by the success of Yuji Naka’s creation, allowing their global subsidiaries to handle the character as they saw fit. This divergence, with the company’s three main territories each devising their own conceptualisation and tone for the franchise, resulted in some surprisingly different interpretations. Although striving to be consistent with the other UK holders of the Sonic licence, Fleetway had authority to portray the character as they saw fit, giving their creatives a surprisingly large amount of freedom. Although a number of writers contributed to the title, Nigel Kitching and Lew Stringer were the book’s mainstays. Their differing approaches complimented each other well, with Stringer’s self-contained episodic tales punctuating Kitching’s more in-depth epics. The artistic side was more varied, but Richard Elson’s clean and energetic style deservedly secured him priority for the lead strip, which he drew for most of the book’s life.

For a title with a bi-monthly publishing schedule, reaching the fiftieth issue mark is less of an achievement than might be initially supposed. Regardless, some sort of celebration was in order, and Nigel Kitching structured his ongoing “Day of the Death Egg” main-strip saga accordingly. He and Elson here serve up a showdown between Sonic, Knuckles and fan-favourite enemy Metallix. Although the writer has expressed pride at the emotional content he was sometimes able to introduce into the series, with one character experiencing a remarkably convincing nervous breakdown, the focus here is very much on action, with most of the instalment a straight fight sequence between Super Sonic and his robotic counterpart. In an example of the surprisingly loose control which Sega displayed over the property, the book portrayed the hedgehog’s alter ego as a bloodthirsty psychopath, who here decapitates his opponent before attacking Knuckles. Kitching first played this bold stroke in the early in the book’s life, and retained the concept’s power by carefully rationing Super Sonic’s appearances. The other strips in this issue are something of a mixed bag. While the short-lived Shinobi series adds some unexpected variety to the book, the team was never really able to find a way to make Tails an interesting character in his own right, and the fox’s strip here is distinctly weak. The high point of the trio of back-up strips is the Captain Plunder series, rounding out a comedy character first introduced in the main Sonic story several issues before. The writer’s affection for his own creations is obvious, and Plunder and his crew made several appearances throughout the book’s life.

After the book had reached the five-year lifespan which Fleetway’s management had always envisaged for it, they began winding the title down, replacing back-up strips with reprints and eventually axing new content altogether. For dead licensed comic, however, it’s enjoyed a surprisingly active afterlife, and most of its creators still work in the industry today. The one exception to this, however, is Kitching. The book’s lead writer sadly never found another home for his scripting talents, and these days works mainly as an illustrator in the children’s book market.

With hindsight, the key to the book’s success lies in its ability to treat the characters as its own. Normally only licensed comics with direct input from the franchises’ original creators have the confidence to up-end concepts without descending into fan-fiction. However, Kitching and Stinger’s effective ownership of the European iteration of Mobius, together with a near-instinctive feel for the tone of the series, still leaves a warm glow in many of their readers’ minds.

Every Wednesday we take turns to delve into our trusty longboxes, pluck out a dusty back issue at random, and give you our thoughts. We’ll also try and place it in the context of the time it was originally published.

A step into the slightly more recent past for this one – but hey, there’s only so often you can look at early ‘90s DC crossover madness, and I couldn’t quite bring myself to face Armageddon 2001 #2 this week (soon, though – you have been warned). So instead, let’s hop over to a tiny, struggling independent publisher called 88mph Studios (a name which, if you’re any kind of geek, should tell you everything you need to know about their intentions), and the first issue of a rather excellent little miniseries from four years ago – Ghostbusters : Legion.

The series puts something of a twist on the continuity of the movies – it’s designed as a continuation of the first film (ignoring the second in Superman Returns-esque fashion), taking place six months afterwards – but as if that film had happened in 2004 rather than 1984. It takes a little getting used to the fact that the characters who’ve only recently battled Gozer are now living in a world of mobile phones and internet, but once you get over that hurdle, it works rather well, and avoids any awkward anachronisms.

Where it really succeeds – surprisingly, perhaps, for a comic – is in maintaining the comedic tone of the films, rather than slipping into the more straightforward and earnest sci-fi of the cartoon series. There are genuinely funny gags, and the broad strokes of character as established in the film – Peter the slick charmer, Ray the earnest do-gooder, Egon living in his own bonkers world – are present and correct. It picks up on various subplot elements, too - Janine growing ever-more-desperate in her attempts to catch Egon’s attention (even down to a specific reference to his one-time fungi-collecting hobby), and Louis Tully still obsessing over Dana. Tully, in fact, represents perhaps the biggest departure from the original movie, in that he’s made the most of the fame brought upon by his involvement with the Ghostbusters, and become an overnight “geek superstar”. I’m not convinced it entirely works - it doesn’t square at all with his portrayal in the film - but it at least makes for a good visual gag with the “Keymaster Cologne” advertising hoardings.

Just as assured as Andrew Dabb’s writing is the art, by Steve Kurth. It’s a quite vibrant, slightly cartoony style - fairly reminiscent of Todd Nauck, as it happens, although it is a little loose and sketchy in places. Presumably for licensing reasons, there are no recognisable actor likenesses (except for on the variant covers by Dan Brereton) - but this actually works quite well, placing them somewhere between the Real Ghostbusters versions (there’s actually a nod to that in issue #2) and their film counterparts; although of all of them, it’s Ray whose redesign convinces the least, looking perhaps a bit too much like Matt LeBlanc as opposed to a character that could ever have been played by Dan Aykroyd.

It’s a shame that crippling delays and financial troubles put paid to anything further than the initial four-issue run (since we try not to do “industry drama” in our reviews, we won’t go into the story of what happened to 88mph, not least because there are conflicting reports and accusations flying around), as there’s definite potential here for a proper and worthy new entry into the franchise’s canon. Just like the movie, it’s a well-judged balance of action and character humour, and it pays due respect to all previous incarnations (well, except for Ghostbusters II, I suppose). It’s not earth-shatteringly brilliant work, but it’s an entertaining read, and if you’re a fan of the films, you should certainly enjoy it. The individual issues can still be found kicking around, and there was a simple trade collection put out by Titan here in the UK - it’s definitely worth a look.