One of my favorite sitcoms from the 90's was "Boy Meets World." Granted, I didn't see the show until around 1996 or 1997, but when I discovered it I feel in love with it. I caught it in syndication, at 2:30am, on channel 31, which just goes to show that I didn't have much of a life back then either. There was one particular episode though, that I am identifying with more today then I did back then. I don't know the name of the episode, but in the particular episode things were changing. From friends, to moving to a new school, even "Chubby's" (a restaurant the kids hung out at) gets bought out and becomes a pirate theme restaurant. In this episode, Cory resists the change, because he doesn't really understand why things have to change all at. I find myself feeling the same way tonight. For example, I've watching "7th Heaven" since it's premier in 1996. I've watched almost every episode, every week, since the premier. Now the show is ending, in about eleven or so weeks. A show that I've been watching for ten YEARS is going away! That's scary. I also remember when I used to look forward to reading the newspaper funnies everyday. Now I only read the funnies to keep up-to-date with "For Better or For Worse," and instead find myself waking up to read "PVP," "Penny Arcade," and "Real Life Comics" instead...online.

Don't even get me started on how I used to watch TV on an actual TELEVISION, but now watch most of my TV via DVD (that's where all the good stuff is these days anyway)! In case you haven't figured out by now, I'm a VEEERRRYYYYY nostalgic person! While I do look toward to what the future holds, I do tend to cling onto the past a little too much sometimes. Recently, quite a shake up has occurred with one of my childhood memories. My favorite American comic is "Sonic The Hedgehog." I've been reading Sonic since it first came out in 1991, and I've loved it ever since. There are even some "rules" that come with reading this particular comic for so many years. The rules included:

You were involved with Sonic fandom to a certain extent.

You kept up your subscription.

You read Sonic comic reviews from Daniel J. Drazen.

Ken Penders, Karl Bollars, and Spaz Harvo were common names in your everyday speech.

There are more rules of course, but you get the jist of the idea. Basically, this series has had certain people attached to the comics history since it first was published, and those names have (for the most part) stuck with the comic through thick and thin. However within the last two months Karl Bollars quit, Ken Penders got laid off, and Dan Drazen decided that he simply didn't want to review the comic book anymore. Since Ken and Karl didn't really start writing for the comic until 1994 and Dan didn't start reviewing the comic until 1993, I'm going to consider 1993 for when the "Sonic Comic Cult" was formed (as I'm nicknaming it, whether it makes sense or not). That means I've known these men for about twelve to thirteen years. And within two months, they are all no longer part of my life. I know I don't know these guys personally, but man, this sure feels weird. Too much change too fast, as Cory Mathews complained about in the episode I described above. Yes, I'm nostalgic. The Sonic comic always did well with me because of the lack of change. Sure I may enjoy the characters and storyline, but the writers, artists, and all that jazz were consistent from issue to issue. Now I have to be honest and admit that, apart from a story here and there, the writing from all three of these men hasn't been NEARLY as good as it used to be!

Karl and Ken had great story ideas, but in the past few years almost all of them fell apart when it came time to turn them into stories. Dan meanwhile still wrote lengthy, thought provoking reviews, except that for the past year he's been so disgusted with the comic, that his reviews seemed to be going through the motions, and his reviews haven't been all that entertaining as they once were. But again, whether the writing was excellent or not, these guys were consistent, and they were there. The fact that they all left around the same time probably means that change was indeed necessary. So why do I feel so down then? The Sonic comic will continue, and I will most likely continue to buy it (until it gets canceled...which is looking more like a possibility these days), but I need to face the music: Come March, when the new writers are writing for Sonic and Dan Drazen is no longer reviewing the series, I will truly be reading the comic in a totally new way. Does this scare me? Heck yeah it does. I know it shouldn't, seeing as how this IS just a comic, but it goes deeper then that! The Sonic comic is something I've been reading for years. It's been in my life since I was five, and all these writers have been there since I was seven. Now I'm going to be reading the same comic I've been reading for all these years without the history attached to it.

Does this editorial have a point. Hmm...not really. To be honest, aside from being nostalgic I love having a soapbox to stand on. This website is my soapbox in a way, so in the end, this is probably just me rambling about changes that I never wanted to see happen. When this comic gets canceled, chances are I'll cry like a baby (kind of like how I cried when "Home Improvement" came to an end), and every now and then I'll look at my back issues and remember my childhood. But hey, life goes on right? If the worst thing I do with my mid-life crisis is miss some comic book I used to read as a kid, then I guess I just need to deal with it. Thankfully, I have a website that I pay for to host my opinions, so that I can at least let go in a very public way. So this is my way of letting go to the Sonic comic I used to know, and (potentially) going on in life without it. Ken, Karl, and Dan, thanks for being a part of my childhood and giving me your great writing that I enjoyed so very much. You will be missed, by me if by no one else.

P.S. Just for the record though, Spaz is still cranking out some of the greatest covers for the comic book. Nice to know there are a couple of things not changing.