Sonic the Hedgehog fans mourn Ben Hurst
This morning, user "Quexinos" (formerly known as Sonique) reported to Saturday Morning Sonic that Ben Hurst – Chief Writer and Director of ABC's Sonic the Hedgehog (1993-1995) – died several weeks ago after fainting and falling into a diabetic coma.
Ben has a page on Facebook, which will probably be made into a memorial.
The news is sure to hit Archie and SatAM Sonic fans very hard, as Ben was instrumental in moulding the cartoon (and by extension, the comic that had been inspired from it) into what it was.
Even after Sonic the Hedgehog was not renewed by the American Broadcasting Company in 1995, Ben remained very active within the fandom, responding to questions from fans at SAGExpo, keeping in touch, and generally going above and beyond what most staff of a show would do. In the last few years of his life, he worked at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC, setting up and managing exhibits and displays.
Ben, wherever you are now, we hope you're at peace. We'll miss ya. Thanks for all quality entertainment you've brought over the years.
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Ringtailed Fox — read stories — contact (login required)a freelance editor & writer and Fox-raccoon hybrid from Windsor, Ontario, Canada, interested in bicycle riding, reading and video games
Comments
I'm at a loss of words, usually I'd come up with something snarky to say, something about his death being announced on a forum being some allegory of his life in general. The true artist who made and did something awesome yet only the very few knew the name and the face behind it, so few that when the end came only a whimper on a webpage truly marked the event.
As a fanfiction writer who based many of his earlier works on the SATAM series. I was honored to use the character he had truely fleshed out and extended their personality far beyond the pixalated counterparts in ways that were often imitated. For the writers who loved Sonic, SATAM was the template of chose, there were round characters, and flat characters. Unlike the SOJ which mostly contained flat characters, including, sadly, Sonic himself.
I think I'll wait before believing this though the source seems somewhat legitament, I never beleve anything I read on a forum until I have further proof of such an event.
But as I said, Ben never really took the spotlight that his character partook in, so maybe the announcement won't get much bigger then fansite announcements.
I wrote SatAM fic too, back in the day. Lots of it. That series was one of the big things that brought me towards furriness.
The saddest part is, I haven't touched FF.net in years, it still looks the same, and my C2 community is still number one on the subscriber count of all Sonic C2s.
I'd say people love me, but they heart Tails more.
don't feed the trolls, sonious...
~ The Legendary RingtailedFox
Nothing feeds them more then using that term, which is why I don't use it.
I wish those who dont have anything good to say would not say anything at all. If you liked his work or you didnt like his work is your right to have that opinion but he was a good man and had a lot of friends that are sad he is gone so please dont offend them by saying negative shi*
He always says negative things. Everywhere he goes. He's like a giant shiticane...
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