Announced early this morning via USA Today, Archie Comics has released two pieces of art in support of its upcoming 12-issue crossover featuring the first meeting of video game legends Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man.

The story, written by Ian Flynn, the current writer for both character's regular ongoing titles, celebrates in part Archie's upcoming 20th year producing Sonic comics. "I'm already living the dream by writing the 'Sonic' titles," Flynn told USA Today "Then I got to live the other dream of writing for 'Mega Man.' With that many dreams being handed to me, I figured it was only a matter of time.

"Going in, I want this to be the story fans wanted to read -- not just our regular comic fans, but fans of both franchises -- so we're holding nothing back," the writer added. "Who knows when the stars will align and we'll get another chance to do something like this again, so I'm making sure this is the end-all, be-all crossover."

Official Press Release

Archie Comics, the leading children's comic book publisher in the world and the home to some of the most recognizable pop culture characters, including Archie, Betty and Veronica, Jughead, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Josie and the Pussycats, announced today in conjunction with SEGA and Capcom® plans for a Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man® comic book crossover, starting next year.

The comic book event marks the first time the two legendary video game characters have crossed over, making it a landmark meeting for comic book and gaming fans around the world. The story will be written by best-selling and longtime SONIC THE HEDGEHOG and MEGA MAN writer Ian Flynn and will feature cover art by superstar artist Patrick "Spaz" Spaziante, who illustrated the hit SONIC: GENESIS storyline and the highly-successful MEGA MAN comic book launch.

"This is a historic moment for not only Sonic and Mega Man, but for Archie," said Archie Comics Co-CEO Jon Goldwater. "We've had a long, fruitful history with Sonic and are enjoying great success with Mega Man in all our markets. Bringing these characters together was something we've been hoping for since we got both licenses, so this is very much a dream come true for the company."

The crossover, spearheaded by Archie's Executive Director of Editorial Paul Kaminski, will be a universe-spanning tale that involves not only the legendary characters, but their expansive and diverse supporting casts and villains for a tale that's certain to go down as one of the most acclaimed and best-selling comic crossovers ever.

The 12-part storyline will run through the ongoing SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, MEGA MAN and SONIC UNIVERSE titles and be available in print and digitally.

"We've been gearing up for this for years," said Kaminski. "From the moment we had Mega Man at Archie, we knew we wanted to bring Sonic and the Blue Bomber together. It's a big budget movie featuring two of the most storied video game franchises. This has never happened before. We're making history here, and it's going to knock people for a loop. This is what comics are all about - drama, fun, action and tons of surprises. Fans will not be disappointed."