View CommentsIDW: Rough And Tumble Introduced

Rough and Tumble are the first of a whole host of new characters planned for the new series. Associate editor David Mariotte, speaking to Kotaku about the new characters, said, “They’re independent agents, and more bullies than masterminds, but they’re tough enough to maybe become someone’s henchmen down the line.”

Adding new characters to the Sonic comic book universe involved a bit of back-and-forth between IDW and Sega.

“Ian’s pretty much able to come up with folks on the fly and any major characters we run by Sega for approval,” said Mariotte of the creation process. “There are a few stages, from Ian’s initial paragraph or two description of the character, to getting someone like the talented Tyson Hesse to draw up designs and turnarounds for Sega to see the character, to having a final design and solidifying their personality in the script.”

Rough and Tumble’s final approved designs are quite a bit different from the initial sketches IDW showed me. While I can’t share them here, I can say the eyes are more defined, there’s less clothing, and Tumble looks a lot less rabid.