Oh, getting the TMNT stuff past Archie was still a struggle, I can assure you of that.
In Sonic's case, it seems like getting stuff past SEGA is more troublesome than Archie. Nonetheless, I've seen them talk about how in the early days, it was slapstick and self-contained with only the loosest continuity because they expected the ax to fall at any moment. Once it became apparent they'd be around for awhile, they began to develop things further.