Welcome to Speedlines! In order to have some letters ready for this edition (as well as some invaluable last-minute external advice) we gave a couple of lucky fans - and a few creators - a sneak peek at this issue. Excerpts from their letters back follow!

Send all your e-mail messages to: megadroid@stconline.co.uk

Dear Megadroid,
I really enjoyed reading the work so far. It's incredibly strong material, particularly in page layout/story-telling and panel composition...I am staggered at the quality of the artwork. "Amy Vs Tekno" suffered from being coloured in pencil; not that it was bad as such, but it compared poorly to the digital colouring of the other two strips. Digital colour is not as straightforward as many people think, and whoever handled colour chores on the first two strips demonstrated the sort of subtlety and confidence I'd associate with a pro. The underwater scenes in "Drowned", and the use of blurs to create depth and isolate the key elements in "Just Like Old Crimes" were very effective.

The writing is a step or two behind the art. I felt like I'd arrived in the middle of of a story in "Drowned", and although it was possible to follow what was happening, I could have handled a slower pace and more dialogue. The characterisation was as good as one might expect from a group of longtime committed fans, but it was matched by good solid backgrounds and accomplished background action. Again, it's just top stuff; better than many popular webcomics I've seen.

So, two thumbs up :) Whoever is responsible for this work should be very proud of their achievements, and I hope (knowing how hard it is to maintain any kind of work rate on a hobby basis) that you can keep it going.

Best,

Bob Corona

Dear Megadroid,
Congratulations on restarting a fantastic comic. It must have been difficult, but this webcomic keeps most of the charm of the paper version. It's also great to see a decent webcomic to follow the legacy of the original STC. I'm hopeful the comic can go from strength to strength.

In the Control Zone you mention that Knuckles may appear in the future. Are there plans for any other characters to return in STC soon? Maybe a poll so readers can ask for who they'd hope to see in the future? Or maybe even the re-introduction of non-Sonic Team characters in their own unique stories (for example, like Sparkster)?

Anyway, great site so far and long may this excellence continue.

Dean Rivers

Dear Megadroid,
It's probably no surprise to anyone that I'm most interested in the first story. Don't get me wrong the other two are very nice too but I feel the closest to 'Drowned' as it's a straight continuation of the stuff that Rich and I were doing. And there was one brilliant idea in this story, the moment when Sonic was in danger of changing and realised that instead of a feeling of hatred and anger he felt a kind of peacefulness. That's a fantastic idea and I really wish that I'd thought of it. I could write you a story now about a whole bunch of issues that could come out of this.

But I guess I'm just going to have to wait and see what you come up with. However if I don't see Big pretty soon I'm going to be very disappointed.

Nigel Kitching

Dear Megadroid,
What can I say ? STC online. From the cover to the last page, it's great. I think that your many months of hard work have resulted in a site that you can be justifiably proud of. The organisation and dedication that goes into achieving something like this is quite extraordinary and few people would be able to get a project of this magnitude to a state of completion, without a serious amount of funds. You deserve serious praise for what you have achieved.

I think that you pretty much retain the spirit of the original comic, though with a leaning toward the more elongated designs that the characters take on in the later games. I found the whole thing thoroughly entertaining.

For those of us who worked on the original comic it is a humbling experience to realise that something we were involved in helped to inspire others to produce work of this quality.

Good luck for all of the future issues. And thanks for all of your efforts so far. Can't wait for issue 225.

All the best,

Richard Elson