8-bit theater, Bob & George, and a handful of other sprite comics - that was it. It's hard to imagine a time when sprite comics were so few and far in-between. Growing up as a Sonic fan, I found it very weird there weren't any sonic sprite comics. So, in May of 2001, I decided to rip my own Sonic sprites and start my very own and, to the best of my knowledge, very first Sonic sprite comic in existence.

Without any real guidance, I just kind of dove head first into what I was doing. I didn't have a very popular page and just started posting comics. These first hundred or so comics are just as you'd expect someone who hasn't really used photoshop and has never made a comic in their life to look like - shit.

If you're braving the old archives, starting from the very beginning, you're going down a path of experimentation - in not only actually making the comic but writing it as well. It does get better comic by comic - but it's a bit of a long path. You're a braver man that I for even thinking about starting here.

It's hard to remember, but I think I got bored not really knowing what I was getting into each day. For a time, "TMS!" was a daily comic, and I guess I just got bored not knowing what the hell was going to come out of my computer. I would literally sit down, open up photoshop, and praise god if there was a punch line at all that wasn't some silly graphical image or just something random.

Around this time I started actually trying to "make fun of" the sonic stages. But, of course, that got boring too, so I established a main villain, Megaman. Looking back I don't know why I didn't just make it Eggman. I also start this very "interesting" phase where I would take photos and slap sprites on them. Because, y'know, that makes perfect sense.

About as much sense as making a green sonic re-color and calling him "your character".

I just got bored of this comic. I wanted my own original thing and was sick of whoring out a character I didn't even own. These few comics I actually "hired" someone else to make the comic for me.

I just wanted to end the damn thing, but the demand for the comics was so high I figured anybody could come in and slap some sprites together and make ass-pinching jokes or something about penises, or dicks, or cocks, or buttsex, or gay jokes, or magic-kool aid, or violent aggravated homosexual assault, or WHATEVER!

About 4 comics later and a pile of hate mail I decided that I was wrong. Oh so very wrong. One of my friends at the time pulled me aside and compared my style to this person's style - and said if I wanted to continue it - that I should just do it. I eventually bit the bullet, asked the person who was making it to leave, and start it myself again. If there's going to be a comic about Sonic and penis-jokes, by heaven and earth, it's going to be made by me god fucking dammit.

So, I tried my hand at it myself for a little while. I tried to make it interesting by doing that weird thing where I take photos and slap sprites on them (even at my current art college at the time).

But, doing something just because people were telling me to do it eventually got boring. That's when I decided to end it and try my hand at something else.

It's about a year later. My current project totally flopped and I was looking to do something - so why not whore out good ol' "TMS!"? During these comics I tried to make it more of like a sitcom.

Sonic had neighbors - lived in a house - Eggman had Amy as a wife. Yeah. Eventually though, my enthusiasm would die out, and I would get bored again.

I went through this weird phase (also see: fucked up) where I thought drawing a comic was the _only_ was a comic would be accepted. I had stopped before because so many people were getting on my case for having a sprite comic, that I went ahead and started drawing it. Problem is, my art skills were no where good enough.

There are a few comics in here where I'm rather proud of the actual writing. I also decided "TMS!" would end for good (for the 5th time lol) and gave it a "proper" ending.

With credits and everything.

So, 3 years later - I have been doing everything under the sun to try and find a comic I like doing. I had several sprite comics that never got anywhere. I had some drawing projects. "TMS!" would come back as "TMS2" and even "TMS3" at one point - always trying to "hide" this comic from the publics unforgiving eye.

I was trying to find something to do with my time - a hobby to really focus on. And, I just thought it was weird that I had been hiding from my past for so long - and with the skills I got from my other comics as well as having professional experience writing scripts - I thought maybe now would be a good time to return back to my very first sprite comic.

So here we are. The VERY first comic started a couple weeks before the release of Sonic Adventure 2 (wow back when Sonic Adventure was the newest Sonic game. Holy shit, you remember what THAT was like?).

All I can hope for is that you give this comic an honest chance and maybe enjoy the wild adventures I put Sega's world-famous hedgehog through. Sonic has been through the ringer by the people that actually created him. So I figure, what's a little harmless fun on an unofficial sprite comic? It can't be worse than what Sega's doing to him right now? Can it?

Yes.

Yes it can.