References to Sonic in print

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Due to Sonic the Hedgehog's popularity, his series is often featured or parodied within a large amount of books, comics, and magazines.

Books

Book	Date	Author	Description	Image
The New Doctor Who Adventures: Conundrum	1994-01-20	Steve Lyons	A character named Mel Joseph plays Sonic the Hedgehog on the computer in order to complete the Scrap Brain Zone.
The New Doctor Who Adventures: All-Consuming Fire	1994-06-16	Andy Lane	Ace makes a joke with Dr John Watson that the Rakshassi would not worship Sonic, whatever else they would.
Perfect Ban Mario Character Daijiten	1994	Shogakukan	An official 1994 Nintendo-licensed Mario compendium portrays the Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 enemy Harisu with a distinctly Sonic-like facial appearance.
Incredible Inventions: So Real It's Unreal	1996	Nick Griffiths	The book extensively features Sonic the Hedgehog in its chapter on video game history.
Doctor Who: Winner Takes All	2005-05-19	Jacqueline Rayner	Mickey Smith has a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog, along with Grand Theft Auto and Gran Turismo, on his Xbox or PlayStation.
Encyclopedia Horrifica: Terrifying Truth About Vampires, Ghosts, Monsters, and More	2007-08-01	Joshua Gee	The book uses a screenshot of Silver the Hedgehog from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) to illustrate the concept of telekinesis.
Doctor Who: Forever Autumn	2007-09-06	Mark Morris	Martha Jones comments that the Tenth Doctor's hair is "very Sonic the Hedgehog" but the Doctor himself says he wants it more like Sid Vicious.
Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race	2010-09	Jon Stewart	The book's section on video games describes them as "interactive, graphically rich worlds where we could act out our dreams of being professional athletes, Italian plumbers, mutant hedgehogs, and psychopaths who beat hookers to death".
Level Up	2011-06-07	Gene Luen Yang	When comparing video games to real life, Dennis Ouyang mentions Sonic the Hedgehog's goal of eventually defeating Dr. Robotnik.
My Life as a Gamer	2015-04-07	Janet Tashjian	At one point, Derek's tutor, Hannah, is described wearing a Sonic the Hedgehog T-shirt.
Press Start! #1: Game Over, Super Rabbit Boy!	2016-12-27	Thomas Flintham	In this video-game-themed book, one of the inhabitants of Animal Town is Simon the Hedgehog, who is blue and fast, making him an obvious parody of Sonic the Hedgehog. King Viking, the main antagonist who is fat and uses robots to attack Super Rabbit Boy, may be a reference to Dr. Eggman. Simon the Hedgehog and King Viking are recurring characters in the later Press Start! books.
Ready Player Two	2020-11-24	Ernest Cline	An OASIS virtual reality world modelled after Mobius is created by Kira Morrow, containing recreations of Sonic the Hedgehog-series stages and settings. Additionally, the creepypasta story "Sonic.exe" is also mentioned.

Comics and manga

Title	Date	Description	Image
Jazz Jackrabbit manual	1994	The manual for the original 1994 release of the IBM PC version contains a small Jazz Jackrabbit comic, in which Sonic the Hedgehog appears and threatens to call his lawyer over the game's similarities to Sega's flagship franchise.
The One I Love	1995	Sonic appears as a plush toy in SCENE 6 – Together (pages 59-65). Scanlations of the full story can be found here.
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo	2001-07-09	The character Don Patch is an allusion to Sonic the Hedgehog in both design and attitude, even featuring the ability to enter a Super Sonic mode.
Scott Pilgrim	2007-11-14	Volume 4 contains a title page inspired by the title screen of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Additionally, when Roxy dies, a bunch of small animals pop out of her, a reference to Prison Egg capsules. Scott and Kim's band is called "Sonic and Knuckles", and later Scott asks Stephan if he still knows any cheats for Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight	2013-01-09	In issue #4, a case involving the Riddler leads Batman to an abandoned casino. The casino's entrance is based on the entrance to Casinopolis from Sonic Adventure.
Off the Mark	2018-05-27	In one strip, Sonic the Hedgehog appears among various popular cartoon characters in a drug rehabilitation clinic, with his addiction being labeled as "too much speed."
Mameshiba		In one comic, a landscape is designed as an homage to Green Hill Zone.

Magazines

Publication	Issue	Release date	Description	Scans
Sega Visions	Issue 7	1991	An advertisement for James Pond II: Codename RoboCod appeared in issue #7 of Sega Visions, featuring a distressed Sonic the Hedgehog fleeing the scene after James Pond boasts about his new robotic abilities.	File:SegaVisions US 07.pdf
Animation Magazine	Volume 6, Issue 2	1992	An advertisement for DIC Enterprises features Sonic the Hedgehog alongside a number of contemporary Western cartoon and video game characters - including Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach.